An exploratory study examined the origins of children's motivational patterns in the family by observing 10 helpless and 11 mastery-oriented third graders. Findings are consistent with the hypothesis that mothers of mastery children may socialize their children's achievement motivation. (SLD)

Grade-level and achievement-level differences were studied in control-related beliefs and relations between students' beliefs and their reading and writing achievement for 364 students in grades 4, 7, and 10. Results suggest that beliefs characteristic of particular achievement levels are not simply reflections of age or grade level. (SLD)

Whether interest improved students' metacognition was studied with 33 nursing students and 51 college freshmen. With differences in prior knowledge controlled, nursing students, for whom the content was related to interest, made more accurate metacognitive judgments than college freshmen. Results emphasize the effects of prior knowledge in…

Student behaviors that best predicted mathematics learning in peer-directed small groups among students who needed help were studied with 166 seventh graders. Tape recordings of student interaction confirmed that receiving explanations and carrying out constructive activity were predictors of achievement. (SLD)

College students in 2 studies (n=95 and 114) completed an epistemological questionnaire with a specific domain in mind (social sciences or mathematics), read a passage, answered a passage test, and completed another epistemological questionnaire. Results supported the idea that individuals' epistemological beliefs tended to be domain independent.…

Two experiments involving 269 college students investigated whether monitoring is better characterized as a domain-specific or a domain-general activity. Findings lend qualified support to the domain-general hypothesis, which states that monitoring within a specific domain is governed by general metacognitive processes in addition to…

Two experiments involving 163 children were conducted to investigate the circumstances under which an abstract statement promotes analogical problem solving in children. External instantiation (providing concrete examples with the statement) and internal instantiation (encouraging learners to generate concrete examples) were equally effective in…

Two experiments involving 153 college students indicated that, given enough time, students studying graphic organizers learned more hierarchical and coordinate relations. As a result, they were more successful in applying the knowledge and in writing integrated essays than were students studying outlines or text alone. (SLD)

Three experiments involving 176 college students assessed the long-term effectiveness of the keyword mnemonic relative to a non-mnemonic (semantic context) learning strategy. The keyword mnemonic produced superior immediate performance, but after two days higher levels of delayed recall were associated with semantic context learning. (SLD)

Results of studies of 238 Australian children of differing socioeconomic status in preschool and at the end of first grade are consistent with the view that socioeconomic status differences in word-level reading achievement are mediated partly through preexisting differences in phonological sensitivity. (SLD)

A follow-up study of 62 children in grades 1 and 2 instructed in phonemic awareness in preschool showed that, compared with 53 controls, trained children were superior in nonword reading 2 and 3 years later and in reading comprehension at 3 years. A supplemental study supported these results. (SLD)

Adult volunteers (n=1,215) in Singapore and San Francisco (California) rated the degree of obviousness of 12 findings of process-product research on teaching. Respondents could not always distinguish true findings from opposites. Differences in gender, knowledge about teaching, and cultural background had inconsistent effects on judgments of…

Conceptual or verbatim questions were placed either before or after an 800 word passage read by college students. Results show that conceptual prequestions produced higher recall than conceptual postquestions and verbatim prequestions yielded less recall than verbatim postquestions. (Author/DEP)

Investigates whether 8-year-olds can be taught a mental imagery strategy to improve their memory of prose they read. Results of the study showed that the children taught the strategy answered more questions than the group who did not receive those instructions. (Author/DEP)

Fourth-grade children were taught 104 words over a five-month period. Following instruction, these subjects performed tasks designed to require semantic processes ranging from single-word semantic decisions to simple sentence verification. Instructed subjects performed at a higher level than control subjects matched on preinstruction vocabulary…