Analyzes the metadiscourse in persuasive essays written by university students studying English as a Second Language at a midwestern university. Results indicate that skilled writers are aware of their readers' needs and control the strategies for making their texts accessible to the reader, whereas poor writers cannot generate considerate texts.…

Results of a British program of eight learning strategy workshops for university freshmen are discussed. The workshops focused on essay writing and test-taking skills. Regular attendees had significantly more sophisticated conceptions of learning than irregular attendees and had higher essay and examination scores. However, differences in overall…

Investigated whether specific strategies of commenting or questioning by the adult reader would influence the complexity and type of spontaneous comments to story details made by children listening to stories. Results suggest that parents and teachers should combine questioning and commenting during storybook readings to induce lengthier comments…

Reports on a study designed to replicate and extend existing literature on important factors and abilities that influence sight-reading skills in music. Finds that, in the beginning stages of training, sight-reading skill is not correlated significantly with ability to perform rehearsed music. (CFR)

Asserts that law-related education programs, although more prominent at the secondary level than in higher education, have been successful in educating students about the role of law in society. Describes the use of mock trial competition as an instructional strategy in political science courses. (CFR)

This investigation into the information processing strategies of 12 profoundly/prelingually deaf college students found that subjects with oral/manual educational backgrounds had higher levels of recognition than did subjects from oral-only educational backgrounds. Highest recognition was to the left and right of the fixation point, followed by…

Report provides new data concerning children's accuracy as measured by previous studies and clarifies progress of first graders during entire year on difficult single-digit addition and subtraction problems. Discussion focuses on advantages of an adding on interpretation of subtraction and the importance of emphasizing conceptual understanding…

Examines the effectiveness of SIMNET (Simulation Networking), a virtual reality training simulation system, combined with a program of role-playing activities for helping Army classes to master the conditional knowledge needed for successful field performance. The value of active forms of learning for promoting higher order cognitive thinking is…

Describes transactional strategies instruction, an approach to teaching reading comprehension in elementary classes that focuses on student and teacher transactions with text. Contends that the approach differs from traditional strategy instruction. Provides examples of transactional strategies instruction, including dialogs between teachers and…

Contrasts receptive learning (rote learning) with meaningful learning. Explains that people construct knowledge based on what they already know. Concept maps are used to organize and represent knowledge and help the learner construct new meanings in a subject. Gives examples of concept maps created by scientists. (18 references) (PR)

Describes a seven-year-old boy's activity of drawing pictures of his favorite sport of basketball. The boy's drawing involved the use of proportional reasoning, which requires an understanding of how relationships between objects vary systematically. (BB)

Presents strategies for facilitating collaborative classroom learning (e.g., selective textual variation), noting students should be encouraged to work together in all settings. Two types of study guides can be adapted to encourage collaboration. Examination strategies include question pools, the examination bank assignment, and group essays. (SM)

Student support systems (small groups of students who meet to learn), help combat the problem of large student-to-teacher ratios and increase cognitive and affective outcomes. Small groups allow large amounts of participation and interaction, rapid error correction, individualized practice, and self-paced work that actively involves students in…

Effects of knowledge maps, outlines, or lists of key terms on recall by 74 undergraduates (29 males and 45 females) of 2 biology lectures were compared. The hypothesized advantage of maps over outlines or lists was not found generally, but it was found for students low in prior knowledge. (SLD)

This study compares inservice (n=30) and preservice (n=30) earth and space science teachers on general mental abilities, content knowledge, Gagnean levels of content knowledge, and procedural knowledge in solving earth and space science problems. Results support Norman's theory of learning that inservice teachers function at the tuning mode of…