Informational video blogs are a popular method of communication among students that may be fruitful educational tools, but their potential benefits and risks remain unclear. Streaming videos created by "YouTubers" are often consumed for entertainment, which may lead students to develop habits that hinder in-depth information processing.…

This paper discusses the nature of learner engagement with science content during small group discussions in which learners use their home languages. We observed that learners reverted to their home languages in small group discussions, yet very little is known about the dynamics of learner engagement when they use their home languages in…

This study investigated students' and instructors' approaches and preferences to audio and written comments in an online undergraduate composition class. A mixed-method design was employed utilizing both a survey instrument and interviews for data collection. Forty-nine students and five instructors participated. Students gave more positive…

We investigated the effects of instructions to "stay on task" on preschoolers' attention and cognitive performance in the face of either incomprehensible or comprehensible distraction. Three- and 4-year-olds completed problem-solving tasks while a distracting event played continuously in the background under conditions of (a) no…

Mobile handheld devices are spreading rapidly in education. iPads, especially, are increasingly being adopted by different educational sectors, but there is currently little empirical evidence on whether, or how, they facilitate student learning. This paper reports on how iPads contributed to pre-service teachers' learning, including their…

This research tests whether comprehenders use their knowledge of typical events in real time to process verbal arguments. In self-paced reading and event-related brain potential (ERP) experiments, we used materials in which the likelihood of a specific patient noun ("brakes" or "spelling") depended on the combination of an agent and verb…

Interpreting a verb-phrase ellipsis (VP ellipsis) requires accessing an antecedent in memory, and then integrating a representation of this antecedent into the local context. We investigated the online interpretation of VP ellipsis in an eye-tracking experiment and four speed-accuracy tradeoff experiments. To investigate whether the antecedent for…

This exploratory study uses quantitative and qualitative data to explore (1) whether educational blogging is associated with gains in student comprehension, (2) the relationship between writing medium (online or hard copy) and student time on task, and (3) student perceptions of blogging in the classroom. College students (n=52) completed a series…

An experimental lesson plan on sewing machine tension was developed for blind and sighted students in an attempt to teach this concept more effectively. Tactile/verbal aids were used in the experimental lesson to increase the potential for student comprehension. The experimental lesson produced better results for both groups of students even…

This study investigated the impact of prior knowledge, writing task, and hypertext format on university students' comprehension of multisource hypertext. Fifty-two students categorized as having high or low prior knowledge studied hypertext consisting of seven component texts on the topic of social influence. Some students were given a summary…

The effect of instructional analogy training on the level of immediate, as well as 14-day delay, comprehension of tangible and intangible physiological concepts was investigated. Ninety-four college-aged subjects were given training either with or without instructional analogies over five tangible and five intangible advanced physiological…

This study was designed to determine whether systematically designed text augmented with compressed speech could increase the number of objectives achieved and reduce the amount of learning time needed for mastery of the objectives. Subjects were 78 students from 5 Florida schools with vocational education programs. Their reading levels ranged…

Explored factors underlying elementary children's incorrect task responses in physical education. Data from class observations and student and teacher interviews indicated that children participated in the instructional setting at their own developmental level of understanding and competency, comprehension did not necessarily reflect…

This study examined differences in time needed for learning for three types of learning tasks from Bloom's taxonomy: knowledge, comprehension, and application. Seventh and eighth graders (N=88) were given five repeated trials to master three simulated classroom tasks. Large differences were found between tasks in mastery rates, information…

Describes a study of 80 undergraduate foreign language learners that compared the use of a hyper-reference source incorporating an electronic dictionary and a conventional paper dictionary. Measures of consultation frequency, study time, efficiency, and comprehension are examined; bilingual and monolingual dictionary use is compared; and further…