Map Perspective and the Learning of Text

In two studies, undergraduates learned a map of the city of Rome in either a flat survey map or a one-point perspective format. The perspective map lead to greater feature recall in the first study and to better memory for a related text when features were correctly located in the second study. Both studies suggest that map scanning patterns may differ depending on the learner′s point of view.     

Processing procedural documents: A cognitive model for following written directions

This paper reviews empirical literature on how people use documents to perform tasks. We examine studies that have been published under the topics of: following written directions, reading maps, following instructions, using job performance aids, and processing procedural texts. Documents that contain a procedure, such as a set of directions, require transformation of information. Such transformation frequently requires converting a procedure represented verbally in a text into a procedure represented behaviorally in a performance. To accomplish this transformation, we propose that students must: (a) form a conceptual model of the performance; (b) encode procedures from the document; (c) engage in self-testing; and (d) conduct self-corrections to repair mistakes. We further propose that these operations are performed most efficiently with distinctive information resources. An overview of the task is likely to be most effective in facilitating conceptual model formation. Procedural information that emphasizes temporal characteristics of the performance will facilitate the encoding of procedures. A representation of the outcome (usually graphic) improves self-testing, and the comparison of the outcome with progress in the workspace leads to most effective self-correction. This process-resource interaction minimizes the number and complexity of transformations required to process procedural documents.     

Academic behavior and grades of mainstreamed students with mild disabilities.

This study examined the relationship between the classroom behaviors and final grades of mainstreamed students with mild disabilities in three urban schools in Grades 3-9. Significant correlations were found for all academic behaviors except attendance and homework at the elementary level and written work at the junior high level. In addition, significant differences in reading scores were found between mainstreamed and regular elementary school students. Findings indicate that mainstreamed students with mild disabilities may participate in academic lessons as well or nearly as well as their peers without disabilities.     

Learning To Read Each Other: Black Female Graduate Students Share Their Experiences at a White Research I Institution

This paper uses Black Feminist Thought to explain the lived experiences of three Black female graduate students at a White Research I institution. Through mentoring from Black female professors, the students received instrumental and psychosocial support that helped them to navigate through their graduate level work. Common themes of identity, community service missions, and empowerment provides a thread that ties the student’s narratives together. We close by offering some suggestions for further research on the Black graduate experience and mentoring Black graduate students. Meca R. Williams, Denise N. Brewley, R. Judith Reed and Dorothy Y. White are affiliated with University of Georgia. Rachel T. Davis-Haley is affiliated with University of New Orleans.     

Barriers that lead students to take television-based college courses

Conclusions Time rather than distance seems to be the major constraint facing college students who choose to enroll in television-based courses. Students find that their greatest challenge is how to manage their time in view of competing demands from jobs, families, and other responsibilities. Computer-based interaction with faculty seems to be a feasible approach to providing increased communication between faculty and students enrolled in telecourses. Telecourse students, for the most part, are favorably disposed toward telecourses that would require them to use computers in their homes. They are less inclined to take courses that require the use of computers in the work place, and would resist courses that require them to come to campus or learning centers to use computers, especially if those computers were high-powered workstations. Note:Copies of the full report of this study may be obtained free of charge by writing to: The Annenberg/CPB Project (A), 901 E Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004.     

Factors of Programme Choice in Public Television: a national survey

The differing audience objectives of public and commercial television in the United States pose significant issues relative to how programmes are chosen for broadcast. Factors which influence the selection of programmes on public television (the chief broadcast outlet of educational programmes in America) warrant the scrutiny of media scholars, for such factors may prove influential in determining the nature of broadcast educational programmes. A survey of US public television programmers, conducted to examine factors perceived as important in making programme decisions, identified 11 factors, but about 70% of the total variance was explained by the first five factors: (1) audience measures, (2) personal feedback, (3) programme strategy, (4) station resources and (5) intuition. The audience measure factor explained the largest proportion of the variance (30%). Several factors were comparable with those used in an earlier study of commercial TV programme decision‐making. The findings suggest that perhaps internal constraints (station budget) cause public and commercial programmers to be similar in their perceptions about factors regarded as influential in programme selection     

Differences in transitional needs of high school students with and without learning disabilities

Studies investigating the post-high-school vocational status of individuals with disabilities have frequently found that these individuals are more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, or employed part-time, when compared to nondisabled peers. Transition programs are needed for adolescents with disabilities to facilitate their vocational success. The current study surveyed 80 high school students with learning disabilities (LD) and 80 nondisabled (NLD) peers to determine their transitional needs. Results indicated that (a) more students with LD than NLD students are involved in transition programs; (b) career goals were established by the majority of both groups; (c) parents provided most of the assistance in making career decisions; and (d) twice as many NLD students as students with LD wanted to go to college, while twice as many students with LD as NLD students wanted to enter the job market. More students with LD than NLD students were aware of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services, but the number was still below 50%. The majority of the information about VR services came from the school.     

Differential relationships between language skills and working memory in Turkish–Dutch and native-Dutch first-graders from low-income families

In the Netherlands, Turkish–Dutch children constitute a substantial group of children who learn to speak Dutch at the age of four after they learned to speak Turkish. These children are generally academically less successful. Academic success appears to be affected by both language proficiency and working memory skill. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between language skills and working memory in Turkish–Dutch and native-Dutch children from low-income families. The findings revealed reduced Dutch language and Dutch working-memory skills for Turkish–Dutch children compared to native-Dutch children. Working memory in native-Dutch children was unrelated to their language skills, whereas in Turkish–Dutch children strong correlations were found both between Turkish language skills and Turkish working-memory performance and between Dutch language skills and Dutch working-memory performance. Reduced language proficiencies and reduced working-memory skills appear to manifest itself in strong relationships between working memory and language skills in Turkish–Dutch children. The findings seem to indicate that limited verbal working-memory and language deficiencies in bilingual children may have reciprocal effects that strongly warrants adequate language education.