Does the modality of instructional messages affect learning? How does it affect different media? In this paper, I offer an answer to these questions by first proposing a theoretical framework from which effective instructional methods can be derived. Then, I report a set of studies where one method, the modality principle, was tested across…

In line with the cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Moreno and Mayer (2007), an interactive, multimodal learning environment was designed for the pretraining of science concepts in the joint area of physics, chemistry, biology, applied mathematics, and computer sciences. In the experimental set up, a pretest was embedded in order to…

The laboratory has long been an important part of the undergraduate science experience. This paper reports on a qualitative, grounded theory study on students' perceptions of the purpose of the laboratory. Thirteen undergraduate chemistry students were interviewed about their experiences in the science laboratory to provide data on students'…

This article highlights the perspectives of young women who have participated in dance for many years. Their viewpoints reveal the unique multimodal nature of embodied learning; in dance classes, teachers and learners communicate through a variety of modes: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, spatial, musical, tactile, gestural, and linguistic. The…

This book is developed to help teach curriculum through the use of movement and dance, while giving students a chance to use their creative problem-solving skills. The text describes a step-by-step process through which instructor and students can learn to transform academic concepts into actions and dances. Theoretical information is also…

This article reports a survey about blended learning in workplace learning settings. The survey found that blended learning gained popularity in many organizations but also that several barriers exist in implementing it. This survey also includes predictions on instructional strategies, emerging technologies, and evaluation techniques for blended…

Many professors who have ventured into online education are finding that shorter, modular clips are a more successful teaching approach than traditional 50-minute lectures. The author cites educators from several institutions who have adapted smaller, 15-20 minute instructional units originally developed for online courses, to their face-to-face…

This article presents a case study of a kindergarten girl from a Bangladeshi immigrant family who demonstrates her multiliteracies as she negotiates the multiple demands of the mandated literacy curriculum. The case is drawn from a year-long ethnographic inquiry of the literacy practices and cultural models in a balanced literacy curriculum where…

This literature review is divided into two parts. The first part is a survey of materials in the William S. Gray Collection at the University of Chicago that deal with modes of learning. The studies reviewed range from the 1930s to the 1960s. The second part of the paper extends the review to studies published during the 1970s. Each section of the…

Instructional objectives are rarely supported by the delineation of alternate modalities for achieving those objectives. Both are necessary for the development of an individualized educational program. Learning research suggests nine general criteria for the selection of appropriate modalities: (1) the amount of immediate positive reinforcement…

Full-term and preterm infants who had participated in studies of cross-modal and intramodal transfer at 12 months of age were seen at older ages to assess the predictive validity of these early measures for later cognition. (Author)

Examines some of the significant research in the area of learning modalities, analyzes the findings of this research, and discusses the implications of reading research as it relates to reading instruction. (RB)

Three categories of learning structure are examined: formal, nonformal, and informal. Other possibilities for grouping the structures are also indicated, including learning for society and learning for oneself. Various modalities of articulation are presented, and a distinction is made between those appropriate for school level and those useful…

Two studies, with gifted elementary and junior-high gifted students, examined Ss' learning characteristics through analysis of scores on the Learning Style Inventory. (CL)

Among conclusions presented by a review of research on modality preference as a method for differentiating beginning reading instruction are that differentiating instruction according to modality preference apparently did not facilitate learning to read. (Author)