Self-efficacy, or the belief in one's ability to accomplish a task or achieve a goal, can significantly influence the effectiveness of various instructional methods to induce learning gains. The importance of self-efficacy is particularly pronounced in complex subjects like Computer Science, where students with high self-efficacy are more likely…

Incentive programs in the form of token economies (the granting of points or counters which can later be exchanged for tangible rewards such as free time, listening to records, or candy) are widely used in schools today. The Pizza Hut restaurant chain promotes a motivation plan called "Book It" with free pizza as the reward for increased…

Since high school and college students are often assigned research papers which require extensive reading, they would benefit by using a specific strategy which helps them in applying information-search skills, reading skills, and cognitive processes. Such a strategy assumes that it is the organization of ideas from several sources which produces…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of independent reading on reading ability. The study, conducted in an East Tennessee middle school, consisted of 21 randomly selected students who read a book of their choice at least 20 minutes every day at school and 22 students that did not. The study lasted for 12 weeks. The students were…

A study investigated the relationship between locus of control and intrinsically motivated reading for children. The entire sixth grade, totalling 53 students, of a parochial school in San Francisco was administered the Children's Nowicki-Strickland Internal-External Control Scale. A free-choice paperback reading rack provided the measure for…

A total reading program must provide for the sequential development of reading skills and the deliberate development of interest in reading. The prime means of accomplishing the goals of skills and interest in reading is use of a basal reading program along with independent reading. The basal reader is designed to provide for the sequential…

Since 1945, the proportion of literate adults in Korea has risen dramatically. One of the factors that has facilitated this rise is the current use of the "Hangul" alphabetic script, which is very consistent in its representation of sounds. Although the "Hangul" script was invented in 1443, it was not accepted officially in…

Students' book choices and discussions during independent reading were studied in a combined fifth/sixth grade classroom. The meanings students and the teacher gave to the practice of independent, "free-choice" reading were studied, and the influences that shaped students' choices of books were explored. Independent reading is actually social in…

Several points need to be addressed when selecting humorous books for children. First, people of all ages react to humor in different ways; therefore, what one child finds funny another may not. Care must therefore be taken in sharing books with and recommending books for children. Second, humor itself is difficult to define, but humor should…

Reading as a pastime is basic to creativity and intellectual mind expansion as well as to the appropriate development of listening skills. Reasons for the decline of listening and communication skills can be attributed in part to misuse of media, to latch-key children, to decreased support from parents for reading at home, to lack of sufficient…

A study surveyed independent reading habits and identified causal factors related to the decline in independent reading from middle school to college. Subjects, 100 students enrolled in a developmental reading course at a state-supported university in Kentucky, completed a 19-item survey instrument. A second survey was developed due to the results…

A study of the current expressed reading interests of children in the first two years of school conducted in ten countries--Austria, Canada, England, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Panama, Sweden, and the United States--is reported in this paper. Over 2,000 children drew pictures about what they would best like to read or have read to…

Reading professional literature may be undertaken without a large investment of time or money, yet it still provides a way to increase one's professional knowledge and maintain competencies. To be successful in one's reading, the adult education practitioner needs to consider three aspects of a professional reading program: finding the time,…

This study investigated the use of reading activities in the enhancement of the lives of nursing-home patients. A special reading group was led by a reading specialist in weekly sessions. Patients voluntarily attended the one-hour sessions and read short selections supplied by the reading specialist. Patients ranged in age from 54 to 91. The…

This report compares the relative improvement in reading shown by students taught by teachers trained in the diagnostic/prescriptive approach with those taught by teachers using a conventional method. Subjects were 239 control and 261 experimental students, matched in basic demographic characteristics and in IQ scores, from grades four through…