College seniors participated in an ethnographic interview study about their academic motivations. It was found that grades and graduation are 2 primary distal target goals that motivate their academic efforts during the senior year. A variety of proximal factors were also reported to affect the seniors' motivation. These factors can be divided…

The authors developed a grounded theory about how a school serving relatively advantaged children produces high reading and writing achievement compared with schools serving similar populations of students. The school's faculty is reading and writing focused, and students experience many books as they receive explicit, demanding instruction (i.e.,…

This is a case study of Benchmark School, which educates 6-to 15-year-olds with a history of school failure. Grounded theory methodology was employed to generate a theory about how the school promotes achievement. Many elements potentially promoting academic achievement were identified, including ones informed by psychological theory and research…

The characteristics of educational intervention research are reviewed: Educational intervention research is inspired by diverse theories, targeted at a variety of simple to very complex interventions, and includes a variety of methods and measurements. Some interventions have been studied much more than others, with the more studied ones often…

A portrait, using grounded theory qualitative methodologies, was constructed of a K-12 school serving urban, African American students, one producing high achievement. The primary data were observations complemented by questionnaire responses and document analyses. Consistent with conclusions in the effective schooling literature, this school has…

Kindergarten children were administered a paired-associate learning task at the beginning and end of the school-year, under either regular (control) or self-generated visual imagery instructions. Age predicted performance in the imagery but not in the control condition. Results supported the developmental imagery hypothesis. (Author/RD)

The keyword method helped elementary school children learn Spanish vocabulary, especially when they were provided with relevant visual images. The Spanish word was associated with an English keyword sounding like the foreign word, and the picture illustrated some interaction between the keyword and the English translation. (GDC)

Purposes of the study were to determine whether training children to compare different parts of text improves detection of text errors and whether self-controlled training of comparison produces more durable use of the strategy. Children offered a self-instructional routine monitored comprehension better than did subjects given minimal training.…

Elaborative interrogation was compared to the construction of imaginary representations to determine its efficacy in fact learning. Four experiments, involving a total of 260 undergraduate students, indicated that elaborative interrogation is equally as powerful a learning procedure as is imaginary representation and that both are useful during…

New vocabulary was taught to 147 college students, in two experiments, by 1 of 3 methods: keyword, semantic context, and no-strategy control. There was no evidence that keyword-mediated gains on learning vocabulary-associated definitions were obtained at the expense of acquisition of other information. Applications for instruction are discussed.…

The keyword method was compared to the context method of learning new vocabulary in two experiments with undergraduate subjects. In both experiments the keyword method produced significantly greater definition recall. Implications for vocabulary learning theories in particular, and discovery learning approaches in general, are discussed.…

The two experiments reported each varied whether 80 college students learned a vocabulary list using the keyword method or through their own strategies and whether items were experimenter- or subject-paced during presentation. In both experiments, keyword subjects outperformed controls, and there was no Treatment x Pacing interaction. (Author/PN)

The keyword method of vocabulary learning was compared with five methods designed to increase semantic processing of the definitions of vocabulary words. The method enhanced vocabulary/definition (associative) learning, but not definition (response) learning per se. In contrast, the semantic conditions tended to increase nonassociative learning of…

Fourteen female teachers participating in Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools' Students Achieving Independent Learning Program, which promotes strategies-based instruction to enhance reading comprehension of elementary school students, were interviewed about program effects. Teachers identified both strong points and shortcomings of the…

Twelve- and 18-year-olds learned a list of paired associates; experimental subjects were instructed in mnemonics, while controls simply learned the pairings. When subjects were presented a list of Latin nouns and their translations to learn, spontaneous transfer of the mnemonic strategy occurred only among 18-year-olds. (Author/GDC)