Describes a study of the background knowledge of college students from remedial English, regular composition, and English-as-a-second-language classrooms, indicating that remedial students often do not have the background information network necessary to cope with materials. (HTH)

Reports on a study that examined whether students' comprehension and recall of an expository passage would improve if they were given information about the organization of the passage before they read it. (HOD)

Examines the effect of refutation text structure (text that contrasts correct ideas with incorrect ones) on students' misconceptions of Newtonian mechanics, noting that refutation text is efffective in getting students to change their prior misconceptions. Also suggests two ways to help students abandon misconceptions that are not refuted in a…