The authors examined the impact of elaborative interrogation on knowledge construction during expository text reading, specifically, the interactions among elaborative interrogation, knowledge, and interest. Three measures of learning were taken: recall, inference, and coherence. Elaborative interrogation affected all aspects of learning measured,…

Second- and 3rd-grade children with poor word-level skills were randomly assigned to 8 months of explicit instruction emphasizing the phonologic and orthographic connections in words and text-based reading or to remedial reading programs provided by the schools. At posttest, treatment children showed significantly greater gains than control…

Difficulties with picture naming tasks are associated with literacy problems. When given naming tasks, children with dyslexia are slower to produce words and have a higher proportion of errors (M. Wolf & P. G. Bowers, 1999). However, little is known about the relation between literacy and naming in other populations. This study investigated this…

Elementary school children, some of whom were nonnative speakers of English, learned to add and subtract integers in a discovery-based multimedia game either with or without verbal guidance in English or optionally in Spanish (Groups G--verbal guidance and No-G--no verbal guidance, respectively). Group G members chose to listen to verbal…

The authors investigated the etiology of low mathematics performance in 7-year-olds in the context of normal variation. The lowest 15% were selected from a representative U.K. sample of 2,178 same-sex twin pairs rated by their teachers according to National Curriculum criteria in 3 domains of mathematics. Model-fitting analyses of mathematics…

Multicollinearity is a well-known general problem, but it also seriously threatens valid interpretations in structural equation models. Illustrating this problem, J. Pietsch, R. Walker, and E. Chapman (2003) found paths leading to achievement were apparently much larger for self-efficacy (.55) than self-concept (-.05), suggesting--erroneously, as…

The authors examined the effectiveness of self-regulated learning (SRL) training in facilitating college students' learning with hypermedia. Undergraduate students (N = 131) were randomly assigned to either a training condition or a control condition and used a hypermedia environment to learn about the circulatory system. Students in the SRL group…

The authors examined students' understanding of hypotheses as beliefs that can be empirically verified. Thirty second graders and 30 sixth graders considered cases of disagreement about foods and colors that reflected either alternative hypotheses or different preferences. Their task was to decide whether the validity of each expressed belief…

The authors examined knowledge, interest, and strategic processing profiles within special education for 4 educational communities. Participants included undergraduates not majoring in special education and undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty from special education. Cluster analysis tested whether participants would exhibit the…

The expertise reversal effect occurs when a learning procedure that is effective for novices becomes ineffective for more knowledgeable learners. The authors consider how to match instructional presentations to levels of learner knowledge. Experiments 1-2 were designed to develop a schema-based rapid method of measuring learners' knowledge in a…

Two studies examined associations between college students' help seeking and perceptions of their classes' achievement goal structure. Study 1 established that students' help seeking (N = 883 in 6 chemistry classes) could be parsimoniously described by distinct approach (intentions to seek autonomous help from teachers) and avoidance patterns…

This study provides initial evidence for the criterion-related validity of tacit knowledge (TK) as an alternative measure for selecting psychology graduate students and adds insight to the construct of TK by evaluating its factor structure, assessing convergent relationships with other variables, and exploring alternative reasons for why TK…

Participants acquired spatial knowledge of a fictitious island by studying either (a) a complete physical map, (b) a sequence of part maps each showing the outline of the island and a subset of the landmarks, or (c) a sequence of sentences each describing a part map. During test, they verified the direction between 2 landmarks. Spatial knowledge…

To understand the role of affect in classroom discussion, the authors asked 16 students taking a 3-hr seminar to participate in a semester-long grounded theory inquiry. Coding of classroom observations, stimulated recall interviews, and self-ratings from each class meeting resulted in a model of affect as a catalyst in students' experience of…

The purposes of this study were to assess the effects of schema-based instruction (SBI) in promoting mathematical problem solving and to investigate schema induction as a mechanism in the development of mathematical problem solving. Twenty-four 3rd-grade teachers, with 366 students, were assigned randomly to conditions that provided instruction on…