This paper describes a four-step approach to constructing a diagnostic test that provides precise but practical information on students' problems and needs for additional instruction or remediation. The approach is based on analyzing the structure of the domain to determine which skills within the domain need to be assessed to diagnose students'…

This paper describes a community-based treatment model for people who are psychiatrically disabled and living outside an institutional setting. The background of the Community Rehabilitation Approach (CRA) is described including Training in Community Living (TCL) which involves: (1) assertively bringing treatment to the client directly in the…

This paper describes cost models designed to aid schools in effective cost planning through analysis of the relative costs and benefits of individualized, computer-based instruction. The models are then applied to the Individualized Study by Technology (IST) program of the Alaska Department of Education (DOE) using data obtained in a pilot study…

If one assumes that the purpose of education is to change student behavior as a result of some definite course of instruction, then an objective of educational research should be to determine what procedures or techniques best produce the desired behavioral changes. If a course has been effective, then there could be a large number of components…

Although technological innovations have the capability to significantly change how scientific investigations are done and greatly enhance the teaching and learning of science, its use is no more effective than any other resource or innovation when researched-based effective teaching practices are not followed. This paper reviews established…

History and the social sciences can be defined as recorded narratives or stories about the past or present that describe change and continuity over time and seek to explain this change and continuity through a series of cause and effect propositions based on evidence and shaped by the scholar's social frame of reference. In social studies there…

The institutional assessment model described in this report is used by Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) to collect current information needed to update the goals of service and instructional units, identify opportunities for improvement and growth, and assess the resources of the college. The first sections of the paper explain the…

This paper proposes examining cooperative learning from an anthropological perspective and presents a theoretical framework for doing so. The paper first briefly reviews the psychological theory and research underlying cooperative learning. The paper uses data from a pilot ethnographic study of cooperative learning in a fourth-grade classroom to…

This study examined children's application of ecological concepts under conditions that were similar to or different from the conditions under which they first applied the concepts while playing a microcomputer-based ecosystems game. Two task dimensions were studied: (1) the form in which the information was presented (iconic or symbolic); and (2)…

A study was conceived to develop, implement, and evaluate the Structural-Response Instructional Model for increasing reading/thinking skills through written responses to a text's macrostructure. The study sought to determine: (1) if writing activities increased students' reading comprehension, (2) if the model effectively increased reading…

Expanding on the original "Miscue Inventory," this book examines various miscue analysis procedures and discusses how they provide teachers with effective methods for understanding and measuring students' reading processes. The chapters are divided into three parts, focusing on miscue analysis and the reading process, miscue analysis…

Perspectives on concept mapping and its benefits to students in the learning of scientific concepts are presented in this paper. A concept map is defined as a two-dimensional heirarchical representation of concepts which indicates the relationship between the selected concepts. Aspects of concept mapping addressed in this review include: (1) its…

A theoretical linguistic model is insufficient to deal with the problems of language teaching because of the complexity of the phenomena concerned and the dynamic nature of language acquisition and communication. Most linguistic models neglect the fact that, in communicative situations, language users construct the prerequisites of communicative…

J. D. Bransford's tetrahedral model of learning considers four variables: (1) learning activities, (2) characteristics of the learner, (3) criterial tasks, and (4) the nature of the materials. Bransford's model provides a research-based theoretical framework that can be used to teach, model, and have students apply a variety of study strategies to…

While individualized learning strategies typically provide large amounts of instructional support, they also reply heavily on learner judgement to determine the amount of support required to achieve an objective. Frequently, these strategies result in high achievers selecting too much support and low achievers selecting too little. Interest in…