Using schema theory as a contextual framework, three studies were conducted to examine the effects of two triggering mechanisms on transfer of learning across two noncontiguous passages: similar terminology for shared concepts and a brief review of the first passage read immediately before the second passage. The first two studies served to pilot…

Intended as a resource to help mathematics teachers better understand how reading difficulties can affect student math performance, this annotated bibliography contains approximately 75 entries. The entries are arranged into the following categories: (1) reading skills needed in mathematics, (2) mathematical vocabulary and symbols, (3)…

One area explored in the second (in-depth) phase of the Learning in Science Project was "children's science," defined as views of the world and the meanings for words that children have and bring with them to science lessons. The inquiry reported focuses on problems/difficulties of learning about the concept of "force" through…

One area explored in the second (in-depth) phase of the Learning in Science Project was "children's science," defined as views of the world and the meanings for words that children have and bring with them to science lessons. The investigation reported focuses on primary, intermediate, and secondary students' (N=41) ideas about selected…

Three suggestions are offered to the teacher of reading: permit the students to read, encourage students to guess or predict, and focus the students' attention on meaning. (JH)

To meet the needs of industry a variety of communications courses have been designed to improve the speaking and writing skills of pre-professional students. Unfortunately, such courses stress the quality of message production in the business setting while neglecting to emphasize properly the equivalent need for strong reception and comprehension…

A study of the relationship of request comprehension with context and experience with the language is reported. Sixty-two East Asian non-native English speaking students from China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan were presented with seemingly spontaneous indirect requests during a taped interview. Their ability to respond appropriately to the…

A study examined good and poor readers' inferencing strategies as they read unambiguous texts. Subjects, 42 fifth-grade students from 11 classrooms in a Boston metropolitan area urban school district, read 2 well-constructed mystery stories divided into 6 episodes--each episode ended with the introduction of a new clue related to solving the case.…

History and the social sciences can be defined as recorded narratives or stories about the past or present that describe change and continuity over time and seek to explain this change and continuity through a series of cause and effect propositions based on evidence and shaped by the scholar's social frame of reference. In social studies there…

The definitions of and literature on test speededness are reviewed, and factors and areas in which the tests reveal their strengths and limitations are discussed. The focus of this article is on speeded reading comprehension tests used for entry or re-entry placement in postsecondary institutions. Speeded tests were prompted by the accelerating…

The 1987-88 Compensatory Language Experiences and Reading-Recovery (CLEAR-RR) Program of the Columbus, Ohio Public Schools was implemented to provide early intervention to 393 underachieving first-grade pupils in Columbus, Ohio schools who appeared unlikely to learn to read successfully without intensive instruction. The program's two major goals…

Intended to help teachers, researchers, curriculum developers, and administrators develop improved policy in reading instruction and research, this book challenges several widespread assumptions about effective reading instruction and concludes with 20 policy guidelines which can be used to evaluate existing reading programs and redesign them to…

To assess the reading achievement of American school children, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) surveyed nationally representative samples of approximately 13,000 students at grades 4, 8, and 12 attending public and private schools across the nation. Students read a variety of literary and informative passages and then…

Four commercial test preparation programs were evaluated for their effectiveness in increasing scores of elementary school student on standardized multiple-choice tests. Focus was on determining whether: formal training increases students' test-taking skills, students can generalize the test wiseness strategies to improve their scores on…