Decodable books based on previous classroom instruction are the most frequently used texts for 1st grade reading instruction in public schools, yet no empirical studies exist demonstrating their efficacy or their benefits for beginning readers. This study attempts to address this gap in the research literature by analyzing the reading behaviors of…

The purpose of this research is to study how second language (L2) learners' metacognitive knowledge on first and second language reading and writing would differ according to L2 language proficiency levels. Extending the study conducted by Carrell (1991) and Victori (1999), this research draws on interview data collected from Japanese learners of…

Poems are usually expressed with elaborate rhetoric techniques, which make them hard to be understood. In this study, a cross-text annotation sharing mechanism is proposed to help students comprehend poetry by creating and sharing individual annotations. Furthermore, relevant annotations among various texts can be retrieved to stimulate and help…

The present study aims to determine the biological topics that students have difficulties learning, the reasons why secondary school students have difficulties in learning biology, and ways to improve the effectiveness of students' biology learning. For these purposes, a self-administered questionnaire including three open-ended questions was…

Vocabulary is an essential component of language. It is central to reading ability, writing ability and listening ability, and the most important aspect of second-language (L2) knowledge for academic achievement. The aim of this paper is to investigate quantitatively some of the factors that make some L2 words more difficult to learn and retain…

There is much debate on the merits and pitfalls of standardized tests for college admission, with questions regarding the format (multiple-choice vs. constructed response), cognitive complexity, and content of these assessments (achievement vs. aptitude) at the forefront of the discussion. This study addressed these questions by investigating the…

Virtual worlds could offer inexpensive and safe three-dimensional environments in which medical trainees can learn to identify home safety hazards. Our aim was to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and acceptability of virtual worlds for geriatric home safety assessments and to correlate performance efficiency in hazard identification with…

Game technology has been widely used for educational applications, however, despite the common use of background music in games, its effect on learning has been largely unexplored. This paper discusses how music played in the background of a computer-animated history lesson affected participants' memory for facts. A virtual history lesson was…

Previous research has suggested that perceived distances are scaled by the action capabilities of the body. The present studies showed that when "reachability" is constrained due to a difficult grasp required to pick up an object, perceived distance to the object increases. Participants estimated the distances to tools with handle…

It is a good practice to try to understand matters at hand by first stepping back and adopting an historical perspective, which I will begin this review by doing. Next, I will take up the challenges that each of the authors in the articles in this volume has presented for the study of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) in second language…

The concept of tournament validity was explored in three studies. In the first study, measures of tournament validity, difficulty, and discrimination were introduced. These measures were illustrated with data from the 2003 Professional Golf Association (PGA) Tour. In the second study, the relationship between difficulty and discrimination was…

This paper is the result of a language analysis research project focused on the Russian Language. The study included a diverse literature review that included published materials as well as online sources in addition to an interview with a native Russian speaker residing in the United States. Areas of study include the origin and history of the…

The authors examined the effects of captions on deaf students' content comprehension, cognitive load, and motivation in online learning. The participants in the study were 62 deaf adult students who had limited reading comprehension skills and used sign language as a first language. Participants were randomly assigned to either the control group…

We describe courses designed to help future teachers reflect on and discuss both physics content and student knowledge thereof. We use three kinds of activities: reading and discussing the literature, experiencing research-based curricular materials, and learning to use the basic research methods of physics education research. We present a general…

Federal policy on alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) inspired this research. Specifically, an experimental study was conducted to determine whether tests composed of modified items would have the same level of reliability as tests composed of original items, and whether these modified items helped reduce…