Comparison of costs and effectiveness of using student data for formative evaluation of instructional materials and of using instructional editing guidelines incorporating attributes of effective instruction indicate greater cost-effectiveness if guidelines are used, with no significant difference in instructional effectiveness. Subjects were 70…

This study conducted at Bowling Green State University in 1978-79 compares student reactions to a media-assisted library skills lecture tour and a self-paced workbook covering similar material, traces their reactions during development of a workbook program, and analyzes associations between student reactions and other variables. Fifteen…

Replicated a study of boys with conduct problems using a parent-mediated treatment. Parents were trained to alter deviant behavior by following procedures derived from social learning theory. Child behavior showed significant change through termination as measured by parental reports. Follow-up data showed improvements were maintained through one…

Describes efforts to design a method of assessing community college students' entry-level writing skills, which compared the predictive validity of three methods of evaluating writing skills: writing samples, objective tests, and self-assessments. Results of these scores were correlated with students' success in writing courses. (CAM)

Use of a videotape technique to evaluate medical students' ability to observe psychopathology after a psychobiology system course is reported. Performance on this audiovisual examination was found not to be related significantly to any of the other methods of evaluation used in the course or in other courses during the first two years of medical…

Describes a statistical integration of findings from 74 studies of visual-based college teaching. Results indicating that students in such instruction generally learned slightly more but that there was no effect on course completion rates or student attitudes are discussed, and 19 references are provided. (Author/BK)

Provides data and discussion about the effect of different kinds of testing upon the distribution of scores for racial minorities. Also considers the issue of direct versus indirect measures of writing ability and the place of usage testing in the measurement of writing ability. (RL)

The authors argue that developments in these two fields have converged to the point that it is counter-productive to view them separately. This thesis is elaborated by reference to historical antecedents, the concern for communicative competence, the issue of study skills, psychological processes, and the teacher's role. (Author/SJL)

This study of the influence of graduate teaching assistants upon student reactions to introductory sociology focuses on two questions: (1) Does the graduate teaching assistant influence student satisfaction with the sociology course as a whole? and (2) Do students feel they derive the essence of the course from the lecture or the small discussion…

Challenges the assumption that contextualized vocabulary learning invariably leads to superior retention. The article compares two different instructional treatments in a university classroom experiment in China in the teaching of English as a foreign language: the study of contextualized versus decontextualized English word lists. (40 references)…

A Dutch study compared the clinical diagnostic skills of 612 medical students educated at schools with problem-based, integrated, or conventional curricula. Students responded to 30 case histories epidemiologically representative of Dutch society and all organ systems. Students trained within problem-based and integrated curricula made more…

Discusses a comparative study of regulations for assessment of achievement and grading in German secondary schools. Results reveal schools provide alternatives to traditional grading and take into account interdisciplinary or special learning achievements and social behavior. Summarizes major results. Discusses problems in the basic conception and…

Describes an experiment that examined the relationship between successful searching of CD-ROM databases by undergraduate students and various types of instruction provided by the library staff. The findings indicate that the only level of instruction that resulted in a significant difference was a live demonstration of searches. (six references)…

Two charting strategies to help students organize patients' data are Weed's problem-oriented medical record and Russell's condition diagram. Students at the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio were divided into study groups. The condition diagram group format may be helpful for students with lower academic achievement. (Author/MLW)

Reports on a study of university students that evaluated presentation styles in computer-assisted learning (CAL) and computer-based training (CBT) programs. Monochrome and colored textual presentations are compared, differences between computer-naive and computer-literate users are explored, and implications for the design of CAL and CBT programs…