Shows that English as a foreign language (EFL) students in mainland China believe that their command of English vocabulary plays a crucial role in their reading comprehension. Suggests the final replacement of linguistic knowledge by conceptual or sociocultural knowledge as the top factor that affects their reading comprehension seems to take…

Describes a teacher research project. Suggests the author's reading methods course was effective in adding some strategies to the preservice teachers' understandings of reading. Notes students seemed more willing to add reading strategies in areas where they lacked prior knowledge and experiences, but demonstrated reluctance to change in areas…

A study involving 547 girls and 641 boys investigated gender-related differences in prior knowledge in physics before the start of initial physics instruction and influence of prior knowledge on future achievement in 8th-grade German physics courses. Girls achieved lower overall scores in the applied test of prior knowledge in physics. (CR)

Investigates the attitudes and participation of students in computer-mediated communication (CMC) campus-based courses and their perception of the impact of CMC on their learning. Student characteristics including gender, educational status, computer experience, and skill level are discussed, course factors are considered, and student criticism is…

Examines third year university physics students' use of models when explaining familiar phenomena involving interaction between metals and electromagnetic radiation. Concludes that few students use a single model consistently. (Contains 27 references.) (DDR)

Our research reflects the current trend to relate individual differences in second language learning to underlying cognitive processes e.g., Robinson, 2002. We believe that such investigations, apart from being of practical importance, can also shed light on the cognitive mechanisms underlying the language learning process. Here we focus on the…

This study attempted to investigate students perceptions toward the use of the digital library in weekly web-based distance learning assignments portion of a hybrid instructional programme. Attention was given to three variables: age, gender, and prior experience with the Internet. A Likert-type instrument consisting of 10 items was designed to…

When watching a small child with a toy car, it is seen that interest in motion comes early. Children often suggest speed through sounds such as "RRRrrrRRRooooommMMMmmmm" as the toy car is made to speed up, slow down, or accelerate through a turn. Older children start to consider force and motion studies in more detail, and experiences in school…

Students' strategies for solving long division problems under a realistic mathematics approach (RME) at Dutch primary schools were categorized in two ways: (a) according to the level of how students created multiples of the divisor (chunking) to be subtracted from the dividend; and (b) according to their use, or nonuse, of schematic notation.…

The World Wide Web (Web), the largest multimedia system in existence, has been heralded by many as the perfect tool for lifelong learning. One topic mentioned in this regard is science, since many adults have little prior knowledge about it and the field is constantly changing. Yet little empirical research has been done to examine how web…

This study investigated the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach expository text comprehension during guided reading. Participants included 72 second graders in six classrooms, organized into four guided reading groups in each class (n = 24). The six classes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Text Structure,…

This study examines the role of self-regulated learning (SRL) in facilitating students' shifts to more sophisticated mental models of the circulatory system as indicated by both performance and process data. We began with Winne and colleagues' information processing model of SRL (Winne, 2001; Winne & Hadwin, 1998) and used it to examine how…

Students are often asked to integrate information derived from reading multiple documents into a consistent story or model. Based on models of comprehending individual text, we predict that the structure and accessibility of earlier texts should influence one's ability to integrate a new text with previously learned material. In two experiments,…

Written language requires prior knowledge of many foundation language skills. Students with language learning disabilities find it difficult to integrate language skills into academic writing assignments. Exceptional educators can teach foundation writing skills through certain underlying components of language, that is, phonology, morphology,…

This study investigated the use of nonnative function words in the written production of learners of Italian as a third or fourth language with English, Spanish, or French as native or nonnative languages. Results show the frequent use of the French subject pronoun il (he) in learners' texts. The rate of subject insertion and omission was thus…