The main purpose of this study was to examine the classroom, teacher and student factors distinguishing grade three classes performing at higher levels than expected, in relation to socioeconomic status (SES) and language factors, from classes performing below their potential with regard to the same factors. Data from a standardized reading…

This study evaluated the impact of a comprehensive reading program enhanced with sign language on the literacy and language skills of three elementary school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Students received individual and small group comprehensive reading instruction for approximately 55 minutes per session. Reading…

Numerous studies have identified isolated elements for successfully teaching early reading. However, very few studies have examined the effect of early reading programs that use a combination of multiple research-based practices. A 4-year longitudinal study starting with 243 students was conducted to determine the effects of the "Reading in…

The New York State Education Department (NYSED), in partnership with the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), was granted funding as part of the "Striving Readers Project" to address the literacy needs of adolescent struggling readers early in middle school. The goal of the project was to implement and examine the impact of a…

This study outlines the current and recent "state of play" in Israeli and Palestinian schools concerning the education of students about "the Other". This is seen to be far from satisfactory. An examination of the complexities involved in learning about "the Other" and of education programmes in other countries that…

In the present study, we explored why interspersing quantitative details through a multimedia lesson detracts from learners' qualitative understanding. Three experimental conditions were created. In each, participants had to study a qualitative text on the formation, propagation, and dispersion of ocean waves. In the concise condition no…

The author has worked for three days on a range of mathematical tasks in order to gain a deeper understanding of the role of notation in mathematics education. The general conclusions were that while mathematical notation can be powerful it can also be obstructive. In this article, the author explores the importance on notation in supporting…

This paper reports findings from a study of young children's views about electric circuits. Twenty-eight children aged 5 and 6 years were interviewed. They were shown examples of circuits and asked to predict whether they would work and explain why. They were then invited to try out some of the circuit examples or make circuits of their own…

The article describes qualitative variation in micro processes of learning, focusing the dynamic interplay between conceptions, expressions and meanings of expressions in students' learning in higher education. The intentional-expressive approach employed is an alternative approach to the function of language use in learning processes. In the…

Participants read a series of passages containing an action that required the use of an instrument. In Experiment 1, a naming task failed to detect activation of a target instrument when that instrument was supported in the preceding text. In Experiment 2, reading times were slow on a target sentence that contradicted the inferential information,…

In this study we propose a theoretical construct (called "rhetorical competence") that represents the ability of readers to detect, understand, and use the "linguistic cues" or "discourse markers" that texts contain. We measure one of the three postulated components of rhetorical competence (knowledge of textual integration markers), assessing…

How long does it take the human mind to grasp the idea when hearing or reading a sentence? Neurophysiological methods looking directly at the time course of brain activity indexes of comprehension are critical for finding the answer to this question. As the dominant cognitive approaches, models of serial/cascaded and parallel processing, make…

Learning protocols are a self-guided way of writing that allows for elaboration and reflection on learning content. In an experimental study (N = 103), we supported protocol writing with prompts to elicit important strategies as postulated by a cyclical model of self-regulated learning. Students received either (a) no prompts, (b) cognitive…

Purpose: This study examined differences in voiced consonant-vowel (CV) perception in older listeners with normal hearing and in 2 groups of older listeners with matched hearing losses: those with good and those with poor word recognition scores. Method: Thirty-six participants identified CVs from an 8-item display from the natural voiced initial…

Two tasks were administered to 40 children aged from 16 to 20 months (mean age = 18;1), to evaluate children's understanding of declarative and informative intention [Behne, T., Carpenter, M., & Tomasello, M. (2005). One-year-olds comprehend the communicative intentions behind gestures in a hiding game. "Developmental Science", 8, 492-499;…