Educators are always looking for ways to enhance the performance of students on outcome assessments. There is a growing body of research showing the benefits of music on educational performance. The purpose of this study was to determine if a "Mozart Effect" improves student performance on outcome assessments in mathematics. In this study, during…

The purpose of the present experiment was to determine whether using an active learning technique, electronic highlighting, can eliminate the negative effects of pre-existing, poor highlighting on reading comprehension. Participants read passages containing no highlighting, appropriate highlighting, or inappropriate highlighting. We hypothesized…

The present study examined the effect of explicit instruction about linguistic hedging on the English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) reading comprehension performance of English Language Learning (ELL) university students through an awareness raising task. A reading comprehension test was developed and validated as the pre-test and…

Knowledge of the strategies used by English as a foreign language (EFL) or second language (ESL) readers can help instructors teach these techniques and thereby enhance their students' reading comprehension. The present study compared three categories of reading comprehension strategies (metacognitive, cognitive, and socio-affective) to determine…

Case study learning was integrated into a course designed to improve students' potential for academic success and increase student retention. Case studies related to self-regulation of behavior, motivation, and cognition for academic tasks were used to prompt students' critical thinking and facilitate deep learning of self-regulation topics,…

The use of a complex battery of reading strategies has been found to be obligatory for those English as a Second Language (ESL) students desirous of a high level of English language literacy and success in US academic institutions. Even though we know of the importance of reading strategies, little research exists on whether or not ESL males and…

Using authentic materials, this study compared the oral reading miscues of 20 university students with reading related learning disabilities to 20 controls matched for age, gender, ethnicity, college GPA, reading achievement score, and college of major. All participants orally read two passages with different text structures from a college…

This study compared 34 lower-achieving (developmental) first-time college students' self-reported self-regulation strategies from a Likert scale to those they reported in structured interviews. Likert scales have offered convenient administration and evaluation and have been used to identify what and how learners study. The reported study activity…

This study examined self-monitoring strategies used by both developmental and non-developmental college students. Students were asked to describe how they know when they have completed a reading assignment, have studied enough for a quiz, and have studied enough for an examination. It was anticipated that at the beginning of the semester, the…

Investigates (1) the differences in deep and surface strategy use of students in an introductory biology class and (2) the differences between the strategies students reported using for test preparation and those they would suggest a friend to use. Finds high performing students used more deep and domain-specific strategies for learning than…

Describes background literature associated with learning styles, the biological basis for learning styles and problems associated with using learning styles in education. Identifies four problems associated with learning styles research. Describes the results of a comparison of four learning styles instruments. (NH)

Examines a broad spectrum of college students' understanding of reading. Finds that students of lower ability characterized good readers as those who read quickly and often, and they characterized the reading process as a passive activity; more capable readers viewed reading as an interactive process. (RS)

Presents a case study of two "at-risk" students who started college with seemingly equal academic aptitudes but who achieved very different levels of success by the end of the first year. Questions the reasons for scholastic success or failure and prompts educators to explore the implications for developmental education. (RS)

Responds to a case study in this issue that discussed the differing academic achievement of two at-risk college students. Suggests the need to look beyond the disability labels applied to students. Suggests considering cognitive motivational factors such as beliefs, goals, and expectations, as well as the results of previous institutional…

Responds to a case study in this issue that discussed the differing academic achievement of two at-risk college students. Explores reasons for one student's achievement and the other's failure using a simple but thorough six-part framework outlining the characteristics of successful students. (RS)