Tobacco-related instruction in undergraduate nursing education in Illinois

Tobacco use is responsible for more deaths in the United States than any other factor. Nurses are in a unique position to convey life-saving messages to clients regarding tobacco use. To gauge the type and extent of tobacco-related background knowledge acquired by nurses in the course of their education, the Nurses' Committee of the Illinois Division of the American Cancer Society (ACS) surveyed 70 nursing programs in the state of Illinois. The number of lecture hours spent on tobacco-related issues was greater in LPN programs than in either associate or baccalaureate degree programs, and instruction was scattered throughout the curriculum of each program. Most schools reported heavy reliance on adult medical-surgical textbooks to convey tobacco-related content. The most recent editions of the textbooks used by the schools were reviewed, and they also were found to adopt a scattered approach, with a disappointing lack of depth regarding the hazards of tobacco. It is recommended a single course be identified as responsible for relaying tobacco-related content and information supplied by general medical-surgical textbooks be supplemented by materials drawn from other sources.     

"Someone with like a life wrote it": The effects of a visible author on high school history students.

This study investigated the effects of a visible author (one who writes in the 1st person, revealing personal opinions and self) on adolescents reading history textbooks. Six high school sophomores read a passage from a textbook that featured an anonymous author (one who writes in the 3rd person, revealing little about personal opinions and self) and a similar text featuring a visible author. Data from think-aloud protocols and semi-structured interviews were analyzed to understand the impact of these authors on students' construction of historical knowledge and on their attitudes toward the texts and toward the discipline as a whole. Students interacted frequently with the visible author, engaging in mental conversations. These conversations led students to a closer relationship with the information presented in the text. The nature of these relationships, both for the visible text and the anonymous text, is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Medical history in the undergraduate medical curriculum

History has long played a role in the education of American physicians, but the uses of medicine's past have changed over time. In the late nineteenth century, some physicians taught medical history to their students to supply a sense of continuity with professional traditions in times of rapid and bewildering change. Other physicians believed that instruction in medical history would impart a sense of refinement to medical practitioners. In the late twentieth century, medical history is increasingly viewed as a significant dimension of the professional, intellectual, and humanistic development of medical students. Further, it is one of the principal means by which recent, radical changes in health care can be given needed perspective. The knowledge that medicine and the medical sciences are fundamentally social enterprises is an important lesson for medical students. Through exposure to the history of health care, students also learn that medical knowledge is itself subject to change and is acquired in specific contexts. In the 1990s, medical history is taught in a variety of settings. In some schools, history is integrated into the teaching of medical humanities. Where medical history is institutionally distinct from the humanities, courses in medical history may be either elective or required. In order to reach students at every stage of their medical education, historians and clinicians can join forces to teach history in innovative and flexible programs.     

Learning from others: Japan's role in bringing psychology to China.

Recent research by Chinese and Japanese historians of psychology and education suggests that it was educational reformers' copying of Japan's education system in the 1st decade of the 20th century that provided the context for developing modern psychology in China. Psychology, although not well understood by those reformers, was thought to be useful in teacher training. In 1902 Japanese psychology teachers came to China and some textbooks were translated. Chinese students studying in Japan also brought back psychological knowledge in translations. However, the Chinese attraction to study in Japan declined after 1906. As the United States opened new universities and provided opportunities for Chinese students to study in US schools, it became a more attractive option for later generations of Chinese, who saw psychology become established as a separate discipline. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology in nineteenth century high schools.

"Psychology as a teaching subject in high schools has been a topic of active discussion by groups and individuals for the past decade." In the writer's collection of textbooks by American authors published prior to 1890, "there are seven which the authors claim are intended for use in high schools, although in two cases it is made clear that the texts are intended for teachers and not pupils." "While we have no data on the amount of use made of these textbooks in secondary schools, the fact that they were issued for such use suggests that the teaching of psychology in high schools has been considered possible for over a century." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prior knowledge activation: Inducing engagement with informational texts.

Failure to engage with informational texts is a problem frequently noted at the high school level, at which students are expected to read independently. As a means of addressing this issue, a prior knowledge activation strategy (PKA) was taught to ninth-grade students in which they were encouraged to make spontaneous connections between their personal knowledge and informational texts. Students who learned to use the PKA strategy consistently outperformed students in a main idea (MI) treatment group and those in a no-instruction control group on application-level comprehension questions but not literal-level questions. A second study replicated the operations of the first study, with the addition of an MI-PKA treatment designed to combine both strategies. Both the PKA and the MI-PKA combination groups performed higher on application-level comprehension questions and demonstrated more positive attitudes toward reading than the other groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How does Bennett Woods Elementary School produce such high reading and writing achievement?

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., about how to read words, comprehend, write) connected to content learning. The school offers a positive, motivating environment. In sum, many elements that potentially supported achievement were identified, including explicit teaching of skills in the context of much reading, writing, and content learning, which is consistent with balanced perspectives on reading and writing development. A major hypothesis in the grounded theory is that even with relatively advantaged populations, great efforts may be required to produce high reading and writing achievement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Typographical cuing in conventional and programed texts.

This study assessed the instructional effectiveness of simple and complex forms of typographical cuing in both conventional and programed texts. 118 pretested, 8th-grade students read an 8th-grade history lesson and were later retested. Analysis of gain scores revealed that: (a) simple typographical cuing distinguishing core from enrichment content enhances the ratio of important to unimportant content learned without affecting the total amount learned; (b) complex typographical cuing distinguishing 5 categories of lesson content fails to increase learning of either core or enrichment content; (c) the programed or quizzed text is more effective than the conventional text; (d) the effects of simple typographical cuing and programed quizzing appear independent and additive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expository Text Comprehension in the Primary Grade Classroom.

This study investigates the effectiveness of an instructional program designed to teach 2nd graders how to comprehend compare-contrast expository text. Along with introducing new content (animal classification), the program emphasizes text structure via clue words, a sequence of questions, and a graphic organizer, and via the close analysis of specially constructed exemplar paragraphs. The authors compared the program with (a) more traditional instruction that focused only on the new content and (b) a no instruction control; 128 7- and 8-year-olds participated. Classroom teachers provided the instruction. The program improved students' ability to comprehend compare-contrast texts. Students were able to demonstrate transfer to uninstructed compare-contrast texts though not to text structures other than compare-contrast. Moreover, the text structure instruction did not detract from their ability to learn new content. The results provide evidence, heretofore lacking, that explicit instruction in comprehension is feasible and effective as early as the 2nd grade. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A quasi-experimental validation of transactional strategies instruction with low-achieving second-grade readers.

Second-grade, low-achieving students experienced a year of either transactional strategies instruction or highly regarded, more conventional second-grade reading instruction. By the end of the academic year, there was clear evidence of greater strategy awareness and strategy use, greater acquisition of information from material read in reading group, and superior performance on standardized reading tests by the transactional strategies instruction students. This is the clearest validation to date of educator-developed transactional strategies instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading rate, readability, and variations in task-induced processing.

Tested the hypothesis that task variables account for previous findings that reading rate is unaffected by readability. In a study with 68 high school students, variations in a reading task were used to induce different processes during reading. When the S had to inspect a text to remember enough for a subsequent word match, easy texts were read faster than difficult texts. When word matching was attempted as the S read, easy texts were read no faster than difficult texts. Findings suggest that when appropriate reading tasks are chosen, reading rate can be used to infer underlying processes in reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The use and effectiveness of a comparison routine in diverse secondary content classrooms.

The purpose of this investigation was to explore teachers' use and effectiveness of a comparison routine to help students understand comparisons of important content information in secondary content classes containing students of diverse ability. Various research methodologies, including single-subject and large-group experimental designs, were used. Measures included students' knowledge of information involving comparisons, the numbers and types of comparisons teachers used, teachers' use of the instructional routine, and teachers' and students' satisfaction with the instruction. Use of the routine led to significantly better retention and expression of information by students in the experimental condition compared with students participating in a traditional lecture-discussion format. Teachers easily learned the routine, delivered more complete instruction, and used the routine to teach regularly scheduled curricula. Teachers indicated that they were satisfied with the routine; in general, students were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with the routine. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discussion of media influences and other selected issues in adolescent psychology texts.

Analyzed the content of 10 adolescent psychology textbooks published 1983–1985 and 15 published 1975–1982. Major issues were found to be sexuality, identity, and drug or alcohol use. Only 12 of the 25 textbooks studied discussed the effects of music and the media on adolescents. It is suggested that music and media influence on adolescents has been and continues to be an issue largely neglected or ignored in basic adolescent psychology texts. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Students' flexibility in solving two-digit addition and subtraction problems: Instruction effects.

This study examined the effects of conceptually based instruction on the development of students' procedural flexibility. Students from 10 2nd-grade classes (206 students) in 9 primary schools in the Netherlands participated in 1 of 2 different instruction programs: the Realistic Program Design (RPD) or the Gradual Program Design (GPD). The RPD teaches conceptual understanding along with procedural skills. The GPD emphasizes the acquisition of standard procedures. Students' use of and preference for procedures were assessed as well as their ability to solve problems in 2 different ways. The RPD led to a higher level of flexibility than did the GPD on all 3 measures, suggesting that the RPD was better in teaching the students conceptual knowledge. In both programs, conceptual understanding seemed to precede procedural skill. However, skill and understanding were closer related in the RPD than in the GPD group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An instructional study: Improving the inferential comprehension of good and poor fourth-grade readers.

Four classroom teachers provided instruction to improve the inferential comprehension of 40 good and poor 4th-grade readers, as determined by scores on the Stanford Achievement Test. The experimental treatment consisted of 3 parts: (a) making students aware of the importance of drawing inferences between new information and existing knowledge structures; (b) getting students to discuss, prior to reading, something they had done that was similar to the events in the text and to hypothesize what would happen in the text; and (c) providing students with many inferential questions to discuss after reading the selection. Results show that poor readers benefited significantly from the instruction, but good readers did not. This differential effect was attributed to the dissimilar aptitudes of good and poor readers and the dissimilar instructional methods that are used with good and poor readers in schools. Conclusions focus on the positive prospect of modeling successful instructional procedures on theoretical, basic research. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reading both high-coherence and low-coherence texts: Effects of text sequence and prior knowledge.

Determined if (1) the advantage for the low-coherence text is due to inferences made while reading, or alternatively, due to inferences generated during testing as a result of less information being available from the low-coherence text; (2) the inferences must rely on prior knowledge, or if inferences based on the text (or recently presented information) are sufficient; and (3) reading 2 different text versions is advantageous for readers. Ss were 80 university students who were assigned to 1 of 4 conditions representing if the Ss read the high-coherence text followed by either the high- or low-coherence text, or the low-coherence text followed by either the high-or the low-coherence text. Methodology involved reading the texts, answering questions about the text, and answering prior knowledge questions. The results indicate that high-knowledge readers benefited from the low-coherence only text when it was read first. Further, low-knowledge readers benefited from the high-coherence text, regardless of whether it was read first, second, or twice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Extended text and the writing proficiency of students in urban elementary schools.

The effect of extended text writing on the writing proficiency of elementary students in urban schools was investigated. 39 4th- and 5th-grade classrooms were observed and categorized according to the ratio of extended text to exercises written by students and according to the level of student engagement. Analyses revealed that students in classrooms characterized by extended text outperformed students in classrooms characterized by exercises both in the quality of the content of their writing and in correct use of writing conventions, after adjustment for pretest differences at both the student and classroom levels. The effect of extended text instruction was consistent for both students of ethnic minority (African American, Mexican American, and Native American) status and students of White European ancestry. No differences were found on a multiple-choice test of language skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does the Influence of Reading Purpose on Reports of Strategic Text Processing Depend on Students' Topic Knowledge?

The authors examined whether the influence of reading purpose on reported use of text-processing strategies was moderated by students' prior knowledge about the topic of the text. Using multiple regression analyses with interaction terms, they found that the effect of reading purpose on reported use of memorization and elaboration strategies depended on students' level of topic knowledge. For participants who read for the purpose of discussing text content, reported use of memorization and elaboration was positively related to topic knowledge, whereas no relation between reported use of such strategies and topic knowledge was found for participants who read for the purposes of test taking or summary writing. This suggests that students' flexible use of text-processing strategies may depend on their topic knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does concept-oriented reading instruction increase strategy use and conceptual learning from text?

The authors define reading engagement as the mutual support of motivations, strategies, and conceptual knowledge during reading. To increase reading engagement, a collaborative team designed a year-long integration of reading/language arts and science instruction (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction, CORI). The authors compared students who received this instruction to similar students who received traditionally organized instruction aimed toward the same objectives. A path analysis showed that CORI had a positive effect on strategy use and text comprehension for students at Grades 3 and 5 when accounting for past achievement and prior knowledge. CORI also had a positive, indirect effect on conceptual knowledge mediated by strategy use, and this instruction facilitated conceptual transfer indirectly through several paths simultaneously. The findings are discussed in relation to a growing literature on instructional contexts for motivated strategy use and conceptual learning from text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of organizational signals on free recall of expository text.

How is text memory influenced by organizational signaling devices? In Experiments 1 and 2, college students read a text with or without headings, overviews, and summaries; then they did a free recall. When the text's topic structure was simple (Experiment 1), signaling had no effect. When the structure was complex (Experiment 2), signaling affected the distribution of recall of text content and recall organization. Experiment 3 compared recall for texts in which all, half, or none of the topics were signaled. Signaled content was recalled equally well for the half-signaled and fully signaled texts. However, unsignaled content was recalled more poorly for the half-signaled text than for the unsignaled text, suggesting that signals direct processing of text content. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)