Standardized testing is an integral part of the English and American education systems. However, the use of high-stakes testing has unintended consequences, one of which is test anxiety. Over the last 50 years, increased attention has been directed to developing tools to identify students experiencing test anxiety. However, many test anxiety…

This article reports findings from a small-scale focus-group study funded by the British Academy. Drawing on Herbert Marsh and Richard Shavelson's notion of "Academic Self-Concept" and David Barton and Mary Hamilton's view of literacy as context-specific social practices, the authors examine what young British "Harry Potter"…

Teaching and learning observations (TLOs) are used in educational environments worldwide to measure and improve quality and support professional development. TLOs can be positive for teachers who enjoy opportunities to "perform" their craft and/or engage in professional dialogue. However, if this crucial, collaborative developmental…

Hearing and hearing-impaired children between ages 4.5 to 15.5 years in England and Belgium were invited to abstract the concept of emotion from photographs and line drawings of facial expressions and body postures. A further experiment isloated the element of context in the task of decoding expression of emotion, resulting in comparatively…

Describes four experiments in childhood autism used as research examples in areas of cognition and social skills. An hypothesis which attempts to connect various areas of impairment, nemely, lack of imaginative play, lack of expressive gestures, and inability to predict and understand behavior in others is explored through a specific cognitive…

Addresses the issue of whether preschoolers are aware of the connection between their emotions, their performance on a task of eye-hand coordination, and their evaluation of the task and their performance. Results indicate a developmental trend that children's predictions conform more to mood congruity theory as they grow older. (Author/DST)

The purpose of this study was to trace the development of children's understanding of emotions between the ages of 4 and 12. Twenty-four children at each of five age groups (4, 6, 8, 10, and 12), equally divided by sex, served as subjects. Three groups of tasks were administered: (1) the recognition of facial expressions from photographs, (2) the…