Abstract. Sixth graders read one of sixteen randomly selected cause-effect passages after receiving one of six communications from an adult: (1) read carefully, (2) try to form an image of the material being read, (3) read for a specific detail, (4) read for the general causal relationship, (5) read to see how the passage is like a familiar example described by the adult, and (6) background information. Students who were told to read for a specific detail remembered that detail better following reading. General comprehension, as measured by the quantity and quality of free recall, was better for students told to form an image, given a familiar example, or given background information, than for students reading the same passages with instructions to read carefully. It was concluded that instructions that encourage the reader to relate old and new information are most effective in enhancing comprehension. The uniqueness of the study in randomly sampling from a population of passages was noted.In most classrooms, teacher-directed techniques for enhancing comprehension usually include some sort of orienting statement or purpose-setting question presented by the teacher just before the students read a passage. The teacher instructions may include: (a) giving the students background information, (b) asking them to read for some specific purpose, or (c) telling them to read carefully. It is not known whether these instructions really enhance comprehension, or if they do, under what conditions they are most effective. They have mainly evolved through pedagogical intuition within the field of reading education and are part of the Directed Reading Approach and other approaches to reading instruction.Recently, many studies have examined the effects on reading comprehension of events which precede reading. When research findings and practical intuition a Reprints may be requested from the authors, 624 Graduate Studies Research Center, Athens, Georgia 30602. 321 322Journal of Reading Behavior X ,4 are congruent, there is probably great validity to a particular practice. Where there is a discrepancy between research and practice, further investigation is essential. Discrepancies may occur (a) when researchers find one result, but practitioners observe another, {b) when researchers find support for a procedure that is not commonly used, or (c) when practitioners claim effectiveness for a procedure that has not been studied experimentally.The present study was conducted for two reasons. First, the intent was to test the external validity of events which have been found to improve comprehension in the laboratory by using a random sample of passages from sixth grade textbooks. The connection between laboratory research on reading and instructional practice is an important one because laboratory studies are usually conducted on one or two specially constructed passages. Only a few unpublished studies have been conducted using three or more passages (cf. Ruff, Note 1; Richmond, Note 3; Rowls, Note 2). As Coleman (1964) and dark (19...

A technique for helping sixth-grade readers understand the main ideas of cause-effect passages was assessed. During each of three practice sessions, 48 lowaverage and good readers in the experimental group read a passage accompanied by written directions to read carefully and by a why prequestion and then answered main idea and literal follow-up questions. During the same sessions, 48 students in the control group were given identical directions to read carefully but did not receive prequestions. During the first of two testing sessions, each group read two passages following these same procedures. During the second testing session, the students read two additional passages, but the experimental group received only general directions like the control group. Results from the two testing sessions indicated that the why prequestions helped the low-average readers, but not the good readers, to understand main ideas and did not interfere with learning of other significant passage information. Recent research suggests that one of the component abilities that separate good comprehenders from poor comprehenders is the ability to recognize the main idea and the significant supporting information in reading selections. Using seventhgrade subjects, Smiley, Oakley, Worthen, Campione, and Brown (1977) provided convincing evidence that the information which good comprehenders recall from passages, but not what poor comprehenders recall, is clearly influenced by how important that information is to the theme of the passage. Similarly, Meyer, Brandt,

This article traces developments that followed warnings in the 1980s that tests used for admission to teacher education or for licensure may prevent or discourage capable African Americans from entering into teaching. With this alleged detrimental effect of teacher testing still an issue, the reported study used the evaluations of a group of elementary student teachers by their university supervisors and the student teachers' scores on the Pre-Professional Skills Test (PPST) to examine the impact on the teaching effectiveness of newly licensed teachers that might be predicted to result if a PPST cutoff score is raised by one point. The findings of the study are placed in a context of possible tradeoffs in raising basic skills cutoffs for teacher licensure, especially certain negative tradeoffs related to participation of African Americans in teaching.

IMPROVING CRITICAL THINKING-defined by one expert as "reasonable reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do"has been a frequent topic in the writing of history educators at least since the early 1970s.2 Although articles and papers from the 1970s3 through the 1990s4 have suggested that history textbooks can be a suitable focus for instructional activities on critical thinking, more often history educators have argued that source documents beyond the textbook and, today, electronic sources are especially good media for helping students improve their critical thinking abilities.5 Indeed, a convincing case can be made for emphasizing critical thinking whenever the Internet is used in history classes, partly because of the inconsistent reliability of the sources that can be easily accessed electronically.6 Even if students are guided to reputable sources for research and writing activities in history classes, Avner Segall has pointed out that the current intellectual climate, heavily influenced by critical theory, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, The History Teacher Volume 37 Number