In order to effectively engage and be an advocate during the special education process, parents must be equipped with knowledge of the special education process as well as their rights. This article reports the results of a synthesis of published studies that explored, reported, or estimated parents' knowledge and understanding of the special…

Education is central to promoting healthy, active lifestyles, but most educational materials may be less than suitable for public dissemination. Related kinesiology studies have mainly focused on the reading grade level of print materials. Suitability encompasses more qualities than that and also concerns digital media. This study had two…

We compared high school students' performance in a traditional comprehension assessment requiring them to identify key information and draw inferences from single texts, and a scenario-based assessment (SBA) requiring them to integrate, evaluate and apply information across multiple sources. Both assessments focused on a non-academic topic.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate bridging inferences and learning when students with low topic knowledge read multiple complementary biology texts. Using a think-aloud protocol, we assessed students' (n = 74) cognitive processes while they read one text about principles of natural selection and three texts about examples of natural…

Background knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension, yet little is known about how different types of background knowledge affect comprehension. The study investigated the impacts of both domain and topic-specific background knowledge on students' ability to comprehend and learn from science texts. High school students (n = 3,650)…

Background knowledge is a strong predictor of reading comprehension; yet little is known about how different types of background knowledge affect comprehension. The study investigated the impacts of both domain and topic-specific background knowledge on students' ability to comprehend and learn from science texts. High school students (n = 3650)…

Purpose: The readability and comprehensibility of Learner's Permit Knowledge Test practice questions and the relationship with test failure rates across states and the District of Columbia were examined. Method: Failure rates were obtained from department representatives. Practice test questions were extracted from drivers' manuals and department…

In this research, a mixed-method approach was employed to conduct large-scale eye-tracking measurements, traditionally associated with high costs and extensive time commitments. Utilizing consumer-grade webcams in conjunction with open-source software, data was collected from an expansive cohort of students, thereby demonstrating the scalability…

The need for High-Interest Low-Readability books (Hi-Lo) has been acknowledged by reading specialists and teachers alike since the 1900s, yet there is a research gap regarding teacher knowledge of and access to these books. This study sought to understand teacher awareness of Hi-Lo books, access to them, and usage within classrooms in the United…

The main purpose of this dissertation is to examine the (in)effectiveness of the Usage-based grammar approach through explicit instruction of adverbials in the US educational context. One area that can complicate the question of native speakers' grammar knowledge is their awareness of grammatical terms and their functions. Along with exploring…

The increase in the cost of college textbooks together with the proliferation of digital content and devices has inspired the development of open textbooks, open educational resources that are free, openly licensed, and often peer-reviewed. Although several published studies have investigated the impact of open textbook adoption on educational…

This study assessed prospective first-generation college students' knowledge of federal student aid. The research team surveyed 752 prospective first-generation college students to assess what financial aid jargon terms were unfamiliar. Students often reported "FAFSA," "master promissory note," "entrance counseling,"…

This study demonstrates the generalization of previous laboratory results showing the benefits of self-explanation reading training (SERT) to college students' course exam performance. The participants were 265 students enrolled in an Introductory Biology course, 59 of whom were provided with SERT training. The results showed that SERT benefited…

Reading is an indispensable skill for learners who desire success throughout their academic lives, and vocabulary knowledge is a sine qua non companion of reading comprehension. Despite being inextricably related entities, very little has been written about the necessary vocabulary coverage to understand an expository text and its equivalent in…

Recent research has shown that for some topics, messages to refute and revise misconceptions may backfire. The current research offers one possible account for this backfire effect (i.e., the ironic strengthening of belief in erroneous information after an attempted refutation) from an educational psychology perspective and examines whether…