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)

Describes some recent studies which establish that meaningful learning can be promoted by a certain type of questioning activity, called elaborative interrogation, that leads students to activate prior knowledge and tie it to the new information. (SR)

Describes a brainstorming/conceptualization activity suitable for adult, secondary, and college levels which serves as a preliminary exercise to test students' prior knowledge and to activate a schema for deeper immersion into a text. Describes how students use the activities to construct a sentence which defines the purpose of their textbook. (RS)

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…

Summarizes good reading research published in journals during 1986, focusing on studies that deal with reading comprehension, prior learning, and word recognition. (SRT)

Discusses the unique approaches, well-put notions, fine-tuned procedures, or insightful conclusions in 10 dissertations nominated for the 1989 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the International Reading Association. (RS)

Discusses important considerations for teachers as they plan and implement content area instruction with linguistically diverse students. Reviews promising strategies for content area instruction that are appropriate and appealing for mixed groups of native and nonnative speakers. (SR)