Teacher scaffolding, in which teachers support students adaptively or "contingently," is assumed to be effective. Yet, hardly any evidence from classroom studies exists. With the current experimental classroom study we investigated whether scaffolding affects students' achievement, task effort, and appreciation of teacher support, when…

It is well established that girls and boys perform differently in traditional examinations in most countries. This study looks at a sample of 754 school students in Kuwait (aged about 13) and explores how boys and girls differ in the performance in a range of tests related to learner characteristics. The fundamental question is how boys and girls…

In 2 previous studies (O'Brien, Rizzella, Albrecht, & Halleran, 1998; Zwaan & Madden, 2004), researchers have provided conflicting accounts about whether outdated information continues to influence the comprehension of subsequent text. The current set of experiments was designed to explore further the impact of outdated information on…

The effects of relaxation exercises on orthography performance in language arts education of fifth to seventh graders were experimentally tested. Participants were 399 basic secondary school students and their language arts teachers from the Hauptschule, a German type of secondary education covering grades five to nine that leads to a basic…

Two separate subject matter areas were selected for investigation which were felt to represent two distinct types of learning situations. One was a kind of logico-mathematical procedure; the other was a visual form discrimination task. Two separate courses were developed for each subject matter area. One reflected an inductive instructional…

An instructional design based on task analysis procedures was used to develop two experimental lessons to accelerate attainment of a subject-matter concept by fourth grade students. A variation of the Solomon Four-Group design was employed to determine the effects of the pretest. Performance of 118 randomly assigned subjects on a measure assessing…

An experimental procedure to increase children's rate of hand-raising is reported. The procedure was tired with 240 grade school children and is held to be effective. (DM)

TWO EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO ANALYZE THE SPECIFIC EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE MOST SIGNIFICANTLY TO STUDENT LEARNING. THE THREE HYPOTHESES TESTED WERE--(1) LEARNING IS INCREASED WHEN AN EXPERIMENTER ACTIVELY AUGMENTS THE PROGRAM BY REPHRASING PROGRAM STATEMENTS AND BY BRANCHING THE STUDENT TO DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE PROGRAM WHEN THE…

The relative effectiveness of alternative reward structures in strengthening group performance on a cooperative math task was investigated by operationalizing four reward structure treatments--one non-contingent pay treatment and three differential pay allocation treatments including two levels of inter-group competition and a group piece-rate pay…

THE INFLUENCE OF PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS VERBALLY EXPRESSED BY AN AUTHORITY FIGURE AND THE MANIFEST ANXIETY OF THE SUBJECT ON SIMPLE AND COMPLEX LEARNING TASKS WAS STUDIED IN RELATION TO MENTALLY RETARDED CHILDREN. THE HYPOTHESES TESTED WERE THAT THERE WILL BE NO DIFFERENCE IN PERFORMANCE ON THE EXPERIMENTAL TASKS AS A FUNCTION OF THE (1) VERBAL…

The relationship between expectancy and performance in a self-paced computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program is explored in this study. The hypotheses developed were that the subjects with high expectancy would perform better and require less instruction, set higher performance criteria for themselves, and have higher expectancy on a transfer…

THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY WAS TO DETERMINE THE EFFECTS OF DIFFERENT SCHEDULES OF MENTAL AND PHYSICAL PRACTICE ON THE LEARNING AND RETENTION OF THREE MOTOR TASKS--USING THE PURSUIT ROTOR AND LEARNING THE SOCCER KICK, AND JUMP SHOT. THREE SEPARATE EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED IN THREE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS USING 80, 72, AND 60 SEVENTH GRADE BOYS AS…

The performance of two groups of adult students on the General Educational Development (GED) test was compared to determine whether there was a relationship between the level of student performance on a timed versus non-timed GED test. Each group consisted of the first three hundred students who took the test at twenty-six different testing…

Reports on a laboratory experiment where students measured their heart rate, blood pressure, mood, alertness, and cognitive performance. Measures showed significant circadian heart rhythm variations. They were strongly correlated and peaked at different times. Discusses the implications of this and students' reactions to the experiment. (MJP)