This paper demonstrates effective strategies for helping Taiwanese English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students participate in extensive and active viewing of Chinese-subtitled films outside of the classroom, focusing on how appropriate strategies for watching Chinese-subtitled Hollywood films in authentic viewing environments can guide students…

"The Achiever" is published monthly during the school year for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) President Establishes National Advisory Panel on Math: Experts to Advise on "Best Available…

Intrinsic motivation is usually regarded as a significant determinant of the use of elaborative and metacognitive learning strategies that, in turn, foster the acquisition of well-structured and transferable knowledge. In studies testing this assumption the following pattern of results is usually obtained: Intrinsic motivation is significantly…

Ways in which students struggle with academic anxiety and what educators can do to help are explored in this book. The book presents examples involving students in grades K-12 who represent diverse backgrounds and were drawn from classrooms and from academic therapy sessions. How academic anxiety looks and feels from the student's point of view is…

This document details the planning process and briefly discusses the experiences of faculty and students in two distinct paired-course learning communities at Northampton Community College in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania). One learning community paired a critical reading course with principles of sociology, while the other paired a freshmen composition…

This document is a series of short papers (47) on topics of interest to community college instructors and practitioners. The topics covered in the papers include: study and writing tips for students, teaching strategies and tips, descriptions of innovative programs, using technology in teaching and learning, interacting with students, and…

This paper discusses how museums, adventure programs, and discovery activities can become an intrinsically differentiated gifted curriculum for gifted learners. Museums and adventure programs are a forum for meaningful learning activities. The contextual characteristics of effectively designed settings for learning activities can, if the…

Visualizing during reading, choosing just-right books, using a table of contents, and peer editing are strategies used by skilled readers and writers. This book contends that there is no better way to teach them than through minilessons. Minilessons provide strategic, focused instructions that children can put to immediate use. The book offers the…

School psychologists face the challenge of completing standardized, multiple choice tests for professional development in order to meet the competency standards set by organizations and regulatory agencies. Research has indicted that adequate preparation in test-taking skills can significantly improve attitudes toward test taking and actual…

Connectionist models apply various mathematical rules within neural network computer simulations in an effort, among other things, to mimic and describe human memory associations and learning. Learning involves the interaction of information provided by instruction with existing information already in the learner's memory (Ausubel, 1968; Bruner,…

This paper describes one approach to implementing cooperative learning in mathematics classes virtually 100% of the time. By describing this maximum approach, it is hoped that teachers will be encouraged to try cooperative learning at least part of the time in their classrooms. Cooperative learning activities help identify widespread student…

Noting that learning to read and learning to write are closely linked, this paper asks why there are sometimes readers who cannot write and writers who cannot read. The paper advocates taking a closer look at the reading and writing relationship to answer the question and provide strategies for competent literacy instruction in all areas. It…

This study examined the potential of a hypermedia-based expert tool to scaffold 66 regular education sixth graders engaged in a problem-based learning (PBL) program. Participants completed "Alien Rescue," a hypermedia PBL environment on the solar system. The tool under investigation offered students interactive video of an expert…

This study characterizes the inscriptional practices demonstrated by 7th graders, particularly their use of data tables and graphs, in an inquiry-based learning environment. Drawing on a naturalistic approach, we examined two seventh grade classes during an eight-month instructional unit that emphasized water quality and relevant concepts. We…

This bulletin outlines the reading and mathematics improvement goals for the Washington public schools. In 1998, the Washington legislature required that school districts establish 3-year reading improvement performance goals for elementary schools to be achieved at the end of the 2000-01 school year. Additional improvement goals were adopted by…