To examine the influence of friends on school achievement motivation, each of 118 eighth graders was paired with a close friend to discuss dilemmas concerning achievement motivation or an unrelated topic. Friends' decisions on motivational dilemmas were more similar after discussion than before. Discussions did not cause more extreme decisions.…

The role of elaborative interrogation in children's learning of facts was investigated in 2 experiments involving 211 female and 185 male Canadian fourth through eighth graders. When compared to the facts alone, precise elaborations given by the experimenter, or learner-constructed imagery, elaborative interrogation produced better learning in…

This commentary on EC 605 442, which indicated long-term gains for children with autism who experienced intensive behavioral intervention as preschoolers, questions the magnitude of the student changes and their significance, because of concerns about the representativeness and comparability of the sample group and the failure to measure skills…

Studied the relationship between the ease with which children use orthographic analogies and their reading skills. Results of an experiment using a reading age match design showed that poor readers performed as well as normal readers on orally presented measures of onset/rhyme sensitivity, but less well on visually/orally presented rhyme tasks.…

Criticizes the research design in "The Small ICF/MR program: Dimensions of Quality and Cost" (Conroy), that found small Intermediate Care Facilities (ICF) for individuals with mental retardation are inferior to other community programs. Discusses the problem in selecting a control group on the basis of pretest matching. (CR)

This study fills a gap in the current HRD [human resource development] literature of return on investment (ROI) analysis of technology-based learning interventions. Using a Type IV control group method as defined by Wang (2002), the study empirically analyzed and measured the learning effectiveness and the business impact of an e-learning system…

There is a body of literature suggesting that involving parents in their children's education is an effective strategy for children at risk of reading failure. In a pre-test/post-test control group design, parents in an experimental group received reading materials and were trained on techniques to stimulate their child during paired reading at…

The Studio Model was developed at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to improve teaching and learning in introductory science classes. The study reported in this article explored the efficacy of the Studio Model at the high school level. The Studio Model combines collaborative learning with the use of online materials designed to support and…

The Healthy Learners Asthma Initiative (HLAI) involved collaboration between Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), local health care providers/payors, parents, and other partners. The intervention included development of enhanced asthma care in school health offices and clinic performance improvement projects to foster adoption of National Institutes…

This study examines the effects of a systematically designed innovation strategy on teachers implementation of a sex education curriculum and its related determinants. A quasi-experimental group design was used to assess the effectiveness of the innovation strategy. Teachers filled in questionnaires on the determinants of curriculum implementation…

Background: To investigate whether recent first episode major depression in adolescence is characterised by selected executive difficulties in attentional flexibility, behavioural inhibition and decision-making. Methods: Selected executive functions were compared in adolescents with recent (past year) first episode major depression (n = 30) and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of small group discussion on students' conceptual understanding of chemical equilibrium. Students' understanding of chemical equilibrium concepts was measured using the Misconception Identification Test. The test consisted of 30 items and administered as pre-posttests to a total of 81…

In this article I critique six quantitative studies of Reading Recovery and five reviews of Reading Recovery research published in Tier 1 research journals--journals accepted as having high levels of "expert scrutiny" through peer review. I also critique several quantitative research studies of Reading Recovery published in Tier 2…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a combined museum and classroom intervention project on science learning in low-income children. The focus of the program was on children's content knowledge and concept complexity. Thirty children were in the experimental group. A control group of 18 children visited literacy and social studies…

This study investigated the effectiveness of concept mapping used as a learning strategy with students in English as a Second Language classrooms. Seventy-nine ESL students participated in the study. Variables of interest were students' achievement when learning from English-language text, students' reported use of self-regulation strategies…