The majority of research to date on pre-task planning has investigated the impact of planning time on L2 learners' oral production, and has generally reported its positive effects on their task performance. However, little research on planning has been conducted in writing contexts, and there is no firm evidence to demonstrate that pre-task…

This paper presents a discussion of the constraints imposed on lexicalisation during production by language-specific patterns, such as whether words exist in a language to describe a given event and whether language-specific syntactic and phonological information correlates with semantic properties. First, we introduce in broad strokes relevant…

An experimental study compared celebrity evaluations of a treatment group exposed to a celebrity endorsed prosocial message and a control group shown a picture of the celebrity. Subjects, 88 young adults (younger than 25 years) enrolled in an introductory communications class at a mid-size university in the northeastern United States, were…

This paper considers a group of preservice teachers' construction of concept maps derived from y = x + 5 and y = [pi]x[squared] with emphasis on their conceptual understanding of function. The two statements are perceived to represent a number of different concepts with indications of compartmentalized knowledge structures that might prevent the…

There is a growing consensus among educational researchers that traditional problem-based assessments are not effective tools for diagnosing a student's knowledge state and for guiding pedagogical intervention, and that new tools grounded in the results of cognitive science research are needed. The ConMap ("Conceptual Mapping") project, described…

This report documents progress at the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) on the feasibility of scoring concept maps using technology. CRESST, in its integrated simulation approach to assessment, has assembled a suite of performance assessment tasks (the integrated simulation) onto which they have mapped the…

Structural knowledge is a pre-requisite to valid performance assessment scores because structural knowledge leads to better transfer. Better transfer will cause consistency to occur between task performances for a given individual, and this consistency allows for less construct-irrelevant variance and more construct-relevant variance to be present…

Students (N=14) in a geomorphology course took an objective geomorphology test, the tree construction task, and the Standardized Concept Structuring Analysis Technique (SConSAT) version of concept mapping. Results suggest that the SConSAT knowledge structure dimensions have moderate to good construct validity. Contains 82 references. (DDR)

Reports on a study in which a teacher used the collaborative development of a format-free computer database to facilitate the construction of knowledge by a group of students (n=3) during a science project. Results indicate that knowledge construction is enhanced when children collaboratively develop a format-free database. Contains 27 references.…

Reports the comments of students in an A-level revision course in physics on being asked to draw a concept map for energy. Students' comments on the task were generally positive and related to their feelings about the task and their own learning. (DDR)

Describes Subject-Attitude-Development (SAD) mapping, a technique for helping developmental reading students focus on information relevant to an author's thesis and recognize relationships between the thesis, main ideas, and supporting details. Discusses strategies for implementing SAD maps and student reactions to the technique. Includes sample…

Examines the effect of key concept mapping strategies on reading comprehension and writing performance of fifth grade students using basal reading materials. Concludes that key concept mapping enhances comprehension of factual/informative text, but has no effect on written composition. Finds that literary mapping strategies enhanced neither…

Students are most intellectually engaged when they help define lesson content, have time to pursue an interesting direction, are allowed different forms of expression, create original and public products, and accomplish a socially relevant task. Teachers can help engage and empower students by developing overarching goals, gaining insights through…

Describes how to teach students to plan and write reports using software designed to facilitate information organization. Creating outlines and concept maps is discussed, examples are provided that use "Inspiration" software, and a list of software titles for outliners and concept mappers is provided. (Contains two references.) (LRW)

Describes a study of U.S. Air Force design professionals that examined aspects of collaboration in multidisciplinary design teams and identified design experts' information needs that could be supported by information technology. Highlights include concurrent engineering, electronically networked communication, internal process in information…