In educational and training environments, teachers assign their students independent research tasks that require locating, gathering, synthesizing, and summarizing information from one or more information resources containing large, and sometimes overwhelming, amounts of information. This study explored the information location and use activities,…

Views of former adult literacy students about their learning experience were ascertained in a study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 68 former students from 2 adult literacy programs in the Inner West of Sydney (Australia). A literature review focused on the following topics: characteristics of adult basic education (ABE) students;…

Self-directed learning is more appropriate than teacher-directed learning for adult students in colleges and universities. In a self-directed learning environment, students collaborate with the teacher in determining the skills to be learned in the course and form teams needed to carry out work to learn the skills. One learner-oriented model is…

Motivation towards English learning in Japanese schools today is analyzed according to John Condry and James Chambers' process-of-learning paradigm. The four stages of learning (initial engagement, process, disengagement, and re-engagement) are shown to emit different processes of learning in students based on whether learning is intrinsically or…

This booklet focuses on reading motivation, especially on specific steps to motivate the middle school child to learn. The main topics explored are: finding or making time for reading for pleasure; filling or flooding the house with interesting reading materials; and reading as a way of life. Practical questions from parents are answered and…

Written from the perspective that the technology available for language study can be better used, a discussion of television use in second language instruction looks at imaginative uses of the medium for a variety of instructional purposes. The first section identifies opportunities for the use of television, including: as a motivator; in teaching…

The digest summarizes major characteristics of American Indian student needs in the disciplines of science and math and offers constructive ways in which students may be motivated for greater achievement. Motivational, attitudinal, and behavioral factors contributing to avoidance of science and math by American Indian students are identified:…

This monograph for the experienced or novice adult basic education (ABE) instructor reviews some basic concepts in the area of adult learning and provides some ideas for practical application of these concepts in individual settings. It is divided into two parts. The first four chapters are aimed at the trainer who is instructing part-time ABE…

A total of 3,590 students, 155 instructors, and the directors from nineteen of the fifty-nine Minnesota secondary vocational centers participated in a study to collect information about the centers. Focus of the student information was on characteristics by age, sex, parental occupations, etc.; the extent to which students are bused, the time…

A project ascertained needs and interests of adults in the community in the area of life coping skills by conducting an evaluation of former students at H.O.M.E. Learning Center in Orland, Maine. Forty completers and forty drop-outs from a low income, rural sample were interviewed using a non-directive interview approach that focused on past needs…

Factors influencing the social and educational environment of junior high schools are discussed, and recommendations for the improvement of the school environment through increased cooperation among students, teachers, and administrators are given. The needs of early adolescents are identified, and the degree to which the junior high school can…

A study addressed the question, "If a teacher exhibits enthusiasm while instructing, what will be the effect upon measures relating to student achievement?" Student variables studied in relationship to teacher enthusiasm were (1) attendance; (2) interest in school and in the particular subject; (3) educational motivation; and (4) student…

Charles A. Curran has developed a radically different type of language learning by dealing with the learners as a group rather than as a class. The social learning relationships of a class differ from a group in the contract, the social milieu, in the relationships between the teacher and students, and among the students themselves. Curran called…

BECAUSE THE LAST DECADE HAS BEEN A PERIOD OF MORE INTENSE EDUCATIONAL INNOVATION THAN ANY PREVIOUS PERIOD IN HISTORY, A NATIONAL STUDY WAS MADE TO DETERMINE HOW SECONDARY SCHOOLS HAVE CHANGED. A QUESTIONNAIRE WAS DISTRIBUTED TO 10,266 REGIONALLY ACCREDITED HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE UNITED STATES, AND 7,400 RESPONSES WERE RECEIVED. THE SAMPLE POPULATION…

This study focuses on the affective dimension of learning as influenced by a learning environment organized around instructional gaming. Experimental and control classes of seventh- and eighth-grade students taught by the same teachers for both semesters participated in the 1972-73 study. The experimental learning environment contained three…