The 10 articles in this book examine how comprehension is affected by what the reader brings to the text, the manner in which the text is structured by the author, and the contextual variables that shape the meaning derived by the reader. Specific topics covered in the articles are (1) background knowledge and comprehension, (2) learning how to…

A study explored a potential aptitude-by-treatment interaction associated with the keyword method of vocabulary acquisition. This method is a two-stage mnemonic process whereby an unfamiliar term is first transformed into a familiar concrete stimulus and then a thematic relationship is created between the transformed stimulus and the information…

Patterns of cautiousness in a prose learning task were examined in three age groups of adults representing three levels of educational experience. Types of instruction, order of material presentation, sex, and educational experience level were varied for all groups of the 90 adults participating in the study. The main findings were as follows: (1)…

University freshman journalism students from two different states were surveyed to study the influence of high school publication experience on journalism career aspirations, perceptions of media credibility, and use of media. About half the students surveyed had worked on high school publications. These former staffers were compared with the…

Reported is the development, use, and evaluation of an instructional technique based upon: (1) the assessment of students' prior knowledge; and (2) a theoretical perspective advocated by Ausubel and others which emphasizes the importance of existing knowledge in influencing subsequent concept learning. The experimental group of 46 South African…

An analysis and model of the cognitive processes underlying complex learning situations are presented. A theory is proposed that attempts to specify particular internal knowledge structures generated and modified during instruction, and to use them to explain specific difficulties that the learner experiences and also the overall progress being…

Considerable attention has been devoted in recent years to theories of text comprehension and recall that stress the importance of preexisting knowledge structures or schemata. While the valuable contribution such research has made to the understanding of the reading process and the various disabilities that often attend its acquisition must be…

Sinclair Community College's (SCC's) Experience Based Education (EBE) program offers an alternative approach to learning which operates outside the time, format, and place constraints imposed by traditional, classroom-based education. After introductory material defining EBE and tracing the increased recognition of adult, lifelong learning…

Recognizing adults' prior college-level learning requires a substantial investment of faculty time to identify learning outcomes and standards of performance, but the benefits are great for students and faculty alike. (Author)

Ten- to thirteen-year-old children selected either the objectively more effective keyword method or the naturalistic context method for learning vocabulary meanings. Concludes that, even in the absence of explicit performance feedback, children can be induced to reflect on their use of strategies and their outcomes on subsequent cognitive actions.…

Confirms that able readers have a more well-rounded sense of story structure than disabled readers. Specifically, that able readers demonstrated an ability to tell more elaborate stories than disabled readers. (FL)

Describes research done to determine whether there is a statistical relationship between an English as a second language learner's ability to determine a word's morphemes or structural units and his/her ability to comprehend written English text. (SED)

A diploma mill is described as a person or an organization selling or awarding degrees without an appropriate academic base and without requiring a sufficient degree of postsecondary-level academic achievement. The indirect victim of diploma mill activity may be nontraditional education. (MLW)

Describes SPAWN, a technique for helping teachers make writing assignments in which students must first read, then integrate information from reading with their background experiences, to produce a piece of writing. (FL)

This report looks at how three secondary English teachers responded to the curriculum materials they encountered as new teachers. The authors were particularly interested in knowing how the materials helped the new teachers learn about teaching language arts. To this end, the authors explored the teachers' perception and use of two sets of…