This study investigated the effects of advance organizers on Taiwanese middle school students' English listening comprehension after they watched videos. The participants were 82 eighth-graders in Taiwan, and they were randomly assigned to one of three groups: a control and two experimental groups. Two language proficiency levels- low-to-medium…

The effects of cursory preliminary directions on the use of numerical tables, bar graphs, and line graphs by 288 fourth and sixth graders were investigated. Participants received no directions, written directions only, or written directions with assistance where necessary. The undirected table and bar graph users performed moderately well. Their…

Information in these guides was distributed to participants in the Communicating for Agriculture Rural Knowledge Bowl in ten states: Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia, Montana, and Tennessee. The materials are designed for secondary students and deal with rural economic development and the impact of…

"Adapting Instructional Techniques" was developed at Indiana University to improve the performance of teachers in classrooms equipped for interactive audio or video in a distance education setting. The formative evaluation of this videotape is described. The tape suggested modifications for five common instructional techniques used in…

Many science educators are concerned with students' ability to understand science as a process and with their conceptions of scientific knowledge. Preliminary work has shown that the use of a model organizer can result in student perceptions of improved understanding, but the reason for this effect is not known. This research was undertaken to…

A study was conducted to examine the relationships of four areas of textual design factors that are relevant to external students' learning as they use their course study guides: the micro and macro textual features, the linguistics, and the instructional design elements. Twelve external students from two units at the Gippsland Institute were…

Using 38 beginning-level university students of French, this study confirmed that student listening comprehension of a foreign language video would be facilitated by the use of an advance organizer consisting of several short sentences, written in French, that summarized chronologically the events in the video. Sample test items and answers are…

A study was undertaken to explore whether students using an advance organizer-metacognitive learning strategy would be less anxious, more self-directing, more efficient, and more self-confident when learning unknown computer applications software than students using traditional computer software learning strategies. The first experiment was…

This study was an action research project designed to improve students' reading comprehension. Students in the targeted kindergarten, second, and third grade classes exhibited a lack of reading comprehension, which interfered with their academic achievement. Data was collected by student and parent surveys, observations, and document analysis.…

This study investigated the effectiveness of two English second language (ESL) teaching methodologies commonly used in bilingual classrooms: concurrent translation, often criticized but widely practiced, and dual language preview-review, which combines introductory and follow-up exercises in the first language and lesson teaching in the second…

A needs assessment that utilized questionnaires and an interview showed that fifth grade students at the practicum site were not able to use reference materials appropriately. Target groups for the practicum were the fifth grade students and teachers. Constructivist methods were used to increase students' knowledge of using reference materials and…