The present study employed a functional approach to assess the motivations of tutors volunteering at a non-profit tutoring program. Based on the work of Clary et al. (1998), the "Volunteer Functions Inventory" (VFI) was used to differentiate between six different functions or motivations; values, understanding, social, career, protective and…

The rise in the enrollment of persons with disabilities in post-secondary institutions has introduced a need for the identification of services and/or pre-entry variables that assist in the elevation of retention rates. There is a growing substantiation that connects support service usage with a successful academic experience. However, there is…

Success for All (SFA)[R] is a whole-school reform model that includes a reading, writing, and oral language development program for students in prekindergarten through eighth grade. Classroom reading instruction is delivered in daily 90-minute blocks to students grouped by reading ability. Immediate intervention with tutors who are certified…

"Math is language, too," Phyllis and David Whitin (2000) remind everyone in their informative book about reading and writing in the mathematics classroom. This means that students in elementary school math classes are learning two distinct, yet related languages--one of numbers, the other of words. These languages of numbers and words…

The author, writing on behalf of Hoover's Koret task Force on K-12 Education, presents a convincing case that, despite the controversy it has ignited, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law is making a positive difference and should be renewed. He outlines ten specific lessons and recommendations that identify the strengths and weaknesses of NCLB and…

This paper tested the deep-level reasoning questions effect in the domains of computer literacy between eighth and tenth graders and Newtonian physics for ninth and eleventh graders. This effect claims that learning is facilitated when the materials are organized around questions that invite deep-reasoning. The literature indicates that vicarious…

This case study describes the use of a synchronous communication application (MSN Messenger) in a large academic computing environment. It draws on data from interviews, questionnaires and student marks to examine the link between use of the application and success measured through module marks. The relationship is not simple. Total abstainers and…

"Reading Recovery"[R] is a short-term tutoring intervention designed to serve the lowest-achieving (bottom 20%) first-grade students. The goals of "Reading Recovery"[R] include: promoting literacy skills; reducing the number of first-grade students who are struggling to read; and preventing long-term reading difficulties. The…

The limited language capability of CAI systems has made it difficult to personalize problem-solving instruction. The intelligent tutoring system, ALBERT, is a problem-solving monitor and coach that has been used with high school and college level physics students for several years; it uses a natural language system to understand kinematics…

The Help-a-Child Tutoring Project was designed to provide college students with practical tutor/teaching experience while also providing local school children with academic tutors. This project description has six subdivisions, which present brief descriptions of: (1) the project's recent history; (2) the organization and sequence of the program;…

Intelligent computer assisted instruction (CAI) systems are exemplified by several tutorial systems including Tutor-SCHOLAR, Map-SCHOLAR, NLS-SCHOLAR and SOPHIE. The original SCHOLAR program structure made it possible to model the way human tutors interact with students. Further analyses of tutoring and teaching strategies led to the development…

Presents an architecture of an intelligent system to support learning that is able to address the issues that arise from constructivist theories of learning in a way that, rather than opposing to the standard intelligent tutoring system architecture, characterizes a broader view in all its components which can be appropriately attuned to address…

We annotated transcripts of human tutoring dialogue for the purpose of constructing a dialogue-based intelligent tutoring system, CIRCSIM-Tutor. The tutors were professors of physiology who were also expert tutors. The students were 1st year medical students who communicated with the tutors using typed communication from separate rooms. The tutors…

All public schools in the United States have been caught up in educational reform. This has especially been true since the 1980's. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 was a major component in how schools have changed the process of educating students. In response to reform efforts, many schools have relied on their own knowledge to achieve higher…

Broadly, the current study contributes to the growing body of evidence supporting the positive effects of PA (phonological awareness) interventions for preschoolers, demonstrating that PA instruction need not be postponed until kindergarten. Specifically, the current study addresses the paucity of research on PA training in preschool by testing…