This book focuses on successful classroom practices which used oral communication to develop student confidence in a variety of speaking situations and to expand student understanding of literature through both analysis and performance. The book contains the following essays, listed here with their authors: (1) "Follow the Bouncing Ball"…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a laboratory-centered inquiry program on laboratory skills, science process skills, and knowledge/understanding. The inquiry approach used in the Foundational Approaches in Science Teaching (FAST) program and a traditional science textbook approach were compared in terms of the three…

This paper presents some observations on cooperative learning gathered from research in social and educational literature. Issues of educational reform are also addressed within the context of minority academic achievement. Studies comparing cooperation or greater competition in the classroom appear to be in agreement that cooperative modes of…

Structures that schools can change to produce more positive effects on student learning and development are referred to in this report as TARGET (Tasks, Rewards, Grouping, Evaluation, and Time) structures. The first of two chapters, "Effective Schools or Effective Students: Dealing with Diversity", stresses the need for including in the current…

Research has shown that students and teachers can benefit from structured in-school helping relationships in which peers assume formal roles as tutors. For the student in need of academic help, peer tutoring programs provide an opportunity to learn in a more nonthreatening environment than the classroom. Immediate feedback and clarification of…

One teacher's experience with changes in writing skills and attitudes while teaching writing led to studies of the experiences of three female graduate student writing tutors with widely varying backgrounds working in a university tutorial service. One was a student from a blue collar family who had entered college as a mature student; one had…

This collection of essays focuses on the "strategic teaching" model of cognitive instruction, a model which makes clear the complex thinking process that teaching is, highlights the importance of the teaching/learning connection, and aims at enabling all types of students to become successful learners. The papers consider the varied levels at…

This paper reviews several studies on aptitude treatment interaction, the interaction between the learners' individual differences and methods of instruction. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between previous knowledge, including previously held misconceptions, and instructional methods. It is suggested that significant interactions…

The Learning Development and Evaluation Center (LDEC) at Florida A&M University offers students with specific learning disabilities the opportunity to succeed in postsecondary education. LDEC provides psychoeducational assessments upon which an individualized educational plan is based. Guidelines encompass initial screening procedures, ongoing…

A study investigated the effect of properties of words and texts on the incidental learning of word meanings during normal reading. Subjects--352 students in third, fifth, and seventh grades--read either expository or narrative passages selected from grade-level textbooks, and after six days were tested on their knowledge of difficult words from…

Parents of children in elementary and secondary school foreign language programs want to know what outcomes they can expect from the programs and how they can support and encourage their children's language study. Learning outcomes vary with program goals. Program types include immersion, partial immersion, foreign language in elementary schools…

A set of materials for independent study of Arabic is designed for Peace Corps volunteers working in Oman and Yemen who have had Arabic language training but need additional skills. It establishes guidelines for independent study and working with a tutor, helps check language performance, and provides grammatical information for reference. The…

Designed to help students develop efficient and effective study skills, the first of five sections in this booklet discusses the student role, including the overall purpose of a course of study, the student's obligations and responsibilities, ways in which a student is expected to develop, and the importance of organization. The second section…

Two content-independent learning strategies were evaluated to determine their effectiveness in facilitating learning on two types of information-processing tasks, spatial learning and concept learning. The network strategy used imagery with a peg-mnemonic and a hierarchical retrieval system, while the rote strategy elicited a stimulus-response…

The consistency of verbal and/or visual learning strategy and the effects of such strategies on the recall of concrete and abstract prose by third and fourth grade students were investigated. Using a learning strategy screening procedure, students were classified as demonstrating high, medium, or low dominance of verbal or visual learning…