Researchers at Northern Illinois University have begun to compile findings from a study investigating the most critical audience factors impacting the design and delivery of instruction for international learners in higher education settings in the United States. The findings are being incorporated into small bulletins called…

The Faculty of Public Administration at the University of Twente in Enschede (Netherlands) asked for a course in study skills to improve the passing rates of public administration (PA) students. Interviews with students and a questionnaire about study skills confirmed the need for such a course, but the University's previous experience suggested…

To determine if integrating course content with reading study skills would (1) increase student learning of course content and (2) improve students' general reading achievement, one section of a reading education course for preservice teachers was taught reading study skills along with course content; two sections were given no classroom…

The potential contribution of mentoring to educationally disadvantaged students was examined at Brooklyn College. The students were part of a program called "SEEK," which admits low income students regardless of their high school grades and which provides counseling, tutoring, and remediation. A major goal of the mentoring project was to…

Progress on the University of Texas personalized system of instruction (PSI) project is described. Twelve courses in the College of Engineering and five in other colleges were developed for PSI under a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Each of those courses has now been offered at least once, thus making it possible to begin evaluating…

The Inventario de Comportamiento de Estudio (ICE), a Spanish translation of the Study Behavior Inventory (SBI) was developed and tested using a group of 594 undergraduate students from randomly selected classes at a private comprehensive university in Mexico. Both instruments were designed to assess the study behaviors of students in institutions…

This paper describes the Buddy Program for international teaching assistants (ITAs) at Michigan State University (MSU) in East Lansing and presents brief case studies of the program in action. The Buddy Program pairs new ITAs with undergraduates at MSU to help familiarize ITAs with student life at the school and help them assimilate into their new…

The first phase of a study investigating textbook readability and students' reading levels used three traditional formulas to assess the readability levels of 51 primary textbooks from college introductory social science courses in 7 disciplines. The second phase investigated the relationship between the readability levels of students' texts,…

A study skills course offered through Project Start, a summer program for high-risk incoming college freshmen at Ball State University, Indiana, is described. While primarily designed for students who were denied regular admission because of low high-school rank and low Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, the program also allows previously…

The Computer-Assisted Study Skills Improvement Program (CASSIP) is designed to help students develop effective study skills and academic attitudes, thus increasing their potential for scholastic success. The program contains four integrated items: Study Skills Surveys; Study Skills Modules, Study Skills Notebook; and Study Skills Test. The surveys…

The way that the Open University system in Great Britain operates and the use of the mass media are discussed in detail. A number of problems the adult student is likely to face are identified, along with basic differences between U.S. and British societies that influence the application of an open university approach. Attention is directed to:…

The potential reliability and construct and predictive validity of a 30-item Study Skills Questionnaire (SSQUES) was evaluated for its ability to: (1) predict student performance in a self-paced, individualized, or computer-managed instructional environment, and (2) identify students needing some type of study skills remediation. The study was…

The relationship between learning to program at a construct level and learning and study strategies was studied for college students enrolled in a beginning Pascal programing course and a calculus course (four sections of the programing course and two of the mathematics course). For both the experimental group (n=42) and the first control group…

A study of community college students' use of educational support systems was conducted at the City Colleges of Chicago. The study sought to determine: (1) the level of usage of formal support systems (e.g., teachers, class participation, counselors, tutors, libraries, and other learning resources); (2) the level of usage of informal support…

The relationship between test preparation and academic performance on a high school graduation test was studied using data from the 1995-96 Louisiana Graduation Exit Examination (GEE). Test preparation was measured based on students' responses concerning whether they prepared well for the test or not. Academic performance was measured through five…