A practicum addressed the problem of reading comprehension skills in low achieving students by monitoring their progress utilizing precision teaching. Based on referrals from classroom teachers, guidance counselors, and parents, five students ranging in ability levels from kindergarten through grade 8 were accepted into the program for one or more…

A study investigated the influence of key factors (general comprehension ability, prior knowledge of passage topic, interest in passage topic, and locus of control) on training at-risk college students in the use of graphic organizers as a cognitive learning strategy. Subjects, 60 college freshmen required to take a developmental reading/study…

Students can be taught to interpret and write about literature by emphasizing the thinking skills or strategies involved. A series of activities emphasizes thinking skills since this is where textbook teaching methodologies sometimes get off track. The first activity is designed to find out where students are having difficulty in reading and…

For the 1990s and beyond, backgrounds, experiences, needs of all people, along with the appropriate context will provide significant bases for transforming the curriculum. This paper contends that the paradigm for art in the elementary schools must include the interplay of this context with a commitment to "re-viewing" the foundations…

This study investigated the relationship between elementary teachers' theoretical knowledge about seatwork during reading instruction and students' on-task behavior. Subjects, 253 students and their 10 elementary teachers in an inner-city school in Ohio who used seatwork activities with the rest of the class while they worked in small reading…

Thirty-nine at-risk college freshmen participated in an eight week non-credit seminar in the Fall of 1989. At the beginning of the seminar, students indicated that they enjoyed reading, did leisure reading, and felt that lack of vocabulary, slow reading rate, and inability to concentrate were their major reading problems. They also described their…

Computers provide particularly powerful environments in which to examine individual differences in cognitive processing and learning outcomes. The computer's capacity to collect and record response protocols facilitates detailed process analysis. Such analyses contribute to increased understanding of how individuals differ in their ability to…

A freshman writing assignment sequence encouraged students to use metaphors to think their way through scientific topics, improving their writing skills in the process. The students were all women, aged 18 to 48 years, who had been journal writing for several months but who did not consider themselves competent readers or writers. Reading material…

An activity-based approach to learning the U.S. Constitution through a series of clues that describe the amendments and articles is presented in this lesson plan. The articles and amendments are placed in envelopes and put in different locations throughout the school. The clues given to the students partially describe the Constitution and…

The assessment of learning orientation in relation to academic achievement is a continuing interest among psychologists. Two studies investigated learning-oriented and grade-oriented behavior in relation to performance on traditional measures of academic achievement. In the first study, 313 college students completed the Omnibus Personality…

The scientific and technical publications summarized in this report describe research on intelligent instructional systems sponsored by the Personnel and Training Research Programs, Psychological Sciences Division, of the Office of Naval Research. Abstracts of the following papers are presented: (1) "Understanding Reflective Problem…

Designed to explore what is being done to help learning disabled (LD) readers develop comprehension skills, this paper reviews research in teaching reading comprehension to LD students and develops generalizations from the research to guide reading comprehension instruction for such students. The 10 generalizations presented and discussed in the…

The monograph addresses the issue of research on learning disabilities (LD) and proposes directions for research in Iowa by means of four articles, a report of a survey of needed research, and six brief response papers. The first paper, "Issues on the Identification of Learning Disabled Children" (S.W. Ehly), discusses the problems of…

This paper outlines, from the perspective of three school principals, the complexities involved in implementing a curriculum innovation, "4MAT," begun in Ontario in 1984. Curriculum project considerations include: leadership skills necessary; importance of support systems for principals; role of research; role of the principal; project…

The use of the inquiry approach in the teaching of elementary science is examined and advocated in this publication. The position that an inquiry approach is the best way to teach and learn science is upheld and its influence on the development of positive attitudes towards science is stressed. Section titles include: (1) "A Tale of Two Teachers"…