This article challenges current assumptions about the teaching and assessment of critical thinking in the composition classroom, particularly the practice of measuring critical thinking through individual written texts. Drawing on a case study of a class that incorporated disability studies discourse, and applying discourse analysis to student…

Robert Rozema promotes the educational potential of the student-produced podcast--a genre with an authentic audience and out-of-school applicability. Podcasting allows students to cultivate creative, efficient writing when delving into literary works. Students write, revise, collaborate on, and produce book-talk podcasts about young adult novels…

Under some conditions, learning is improved by using a dual mode presentation involving for example, visual diagrams and auditory, rather than written text (modality effect). Under other conditions, learning is improved by asking learners to imagine rather than study instructional material (imagination effect). Both effects have been explained…

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)

Third and fourth grade pupils saw a slide story with taped dialog and listened to a second story on audiotape. The research question was whether the form of the story would affect the children's moral judgments. (Author)

Administration of the Learning Style Inventory to 324 postsecondary industrial education students in Florida showed the strongest cognitive style was Auditory-Visual-Kinesthetic; 42% were individual, 21.9% group learners; more preferred oral to written style; and the Auditory Language subscale had the lowest mean score and lowest percentage of…

Describes five approaches to learning styles that may be of interest to college teachers. Presents a short background to learning styles including some of the research that has been generated over the last couple of decades. Discusses the modalities approach, which refers to the three basic ways people learn: visually, auditorily, and haptically.…

The nature of the representations maintained in verbal working memory is a topic of debate. Some authors argue for a modality-dependent code, tied to particular sensory or motor systems. Others argue for a modality-neutral code. Sign language affords a unique perspective because it factors out the effects of modality. In an fMRI experiment, deaf…

Inquiry-based science instruction can provide a rich context in which to build literacy skills in the elementary grades. The authors discuss the benefits of incorporating reading, writing, and speaking into science instruction. They describe the results of research on two models for combining language arts and science--the Science IDEAS model and…