The purpose of this study was to delineate the implications of language within an educational context as a means of facilitating self-actualization. Three premises identified in a priori fashion were drawn from the literature in linguistics, psychology, and general semantics, creating a three-part language continuum--acquisition, development, and…

The test developed in this study was a 60 item multiple-choice test. Content validity was established by the use of The Barrett Taxonomy of Cognitive and Affective Dimensions of Reading Comprehension as a basis for the test construction. Items were selected to represent subtypes in each of the five major areas of the taxonomy. Construct validity…

This ecological study is one part of a broad research effort to understand the backgrounds and characteristics of culturally disadvantaged children. The study attempted to provide empirical data which could be used to describe differences in home environments and behavior of three young children from deprived and non-deprived homes. Focus was on…

The cognitive levels of 60 children from grades one, three, and five were compared with their linguistic performance on selected examples of similes and metaphors. Cognitive level was measured using Raven's Colored Progressive Matrices; a new instrument was developed to assess children's linguistic performance. Results indicated a significant…

Three assumptions formed the basis for the study: that formal mental operations are expressed by the formation of concepts; that the psychological principle of conservation characterizes the final step in concept formation; and that the attainment of conservation enables the individual to perform the hypothetico-deductive reasoning required for…

The hypothesized relationship between an individual's age, educational background, and ability to understand aspects of semantic ambiguity was investigated in this study. The 90 subjects included ten students in each of grades two, four, six, eight, and ten, as well as ten college undergraduates, ten graduate students, ten high school graduates,…

A program was implemented for improving student's motivation in order to increase their performance and self-esteem. The targeted population consisted of primary grade students in middle-class communities within the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Analysis of probable cause data revealed students' lack of skills related to organization,…

The major purpose of this study was to investigate developmental patterns of understandings of four types of selected phenomena possessed by economically and racially different boys and girls. A total of 64 boys and girls, 32 blacks and 32 whites, were selected from Head Start, kindergarten, nursery, and primary schooling environments and then…

In order to assess the effect of college experiences on student values and retention, a study was conducted of 848 beginning students at three private and four public two-year institutions in the Chicago area. At the beginning of the academic year, two tests were given: (1) the Activities Index to assess the personality characteristics of the…