This report provides a brief overview highlighting why policymakers should expand the focus of school reform to encompass a reframing and restructuring of education support programs and services and school-community partnerships. The report also suggests ways to accomplish this. It is time for reform advocates to expand their emphasis on improving…

Part I of the Learning Climate in Schools evaluation brief looked at violence and disruptive behavior in the North Carolina public schools from several perspectives, including that of teachers expressed in an annual survey. Part II examines teacher perceptions of learning and organizational climates using another set of teacher responses to the…

Discusses the design considerations, research methodology, nature of the samples, and details of the statistical analysis in a study of the effect of classroom environment on learning among junior high school students. Results indicate that achievement is greater in classroom environments which are similar to the student's preferred environment.…

The role of evaluation in improving academic performance is explored. A theoretical development of formative evaluation in higher education and a critique of higher education in the light of that theory is presented. Grading, feedforward, feedback, course length, and cumulative assessment are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Determined: (1) if students (N=69) learned wildlife information resulting from a zoo field trip; (2) teacher's objectives for the trip; and (3) differences between teachers who did and did not integrate a zoo field trip into classroom teaching. Results indicate among others, that learning (as defined in the study) did occur. (Author/JN)

A study conducted to determine whether color makes a significant difference in learning from 16mm sound motion pictures by subjects accustomed to the widespread use of color in contemporary media found no significant differences for the groups of first graders, sixth graders, ninth and tenth graders, and college students tested. (RAO)

The gap between the university's promise and its delivery is seen as not just a failure of teaching technique, or of the general fallibility of tutors and students alike. Rather than try and devise new teaching methods and new curricula, the university needs to recognize that it has failed. (MLW)

Describes an undergraduate automatic controls course in which the teaching-learning process is regarded as a closed loop feedback system. The three basic components of the system: the controller, the plant, and the learning sensors are identified as the teacher, the student, and student feedback respectively. (SMB)

Notes that recent research suggests a curvilinear relationship between teacher immediacy behaviors and student learning. Investigates these variables as they occur in relationships between college professors and students. Finds positive, linear relationships between (1) teacher nonverbal and verbal immediacy and perceived cognitive, affective, and…

The development of a measure to assess students' perceptions of the extent to which higher education learning environment characteristics enhance personal learning is reported. Factor analyses of the Student Assessment of Teaching and Learning are reported for 2,190 students. Implications for using student rating information in teacher evaluation…

A way to assess knowledge acquired through simulation-based learning (intuitive knowledge) is presented. A "WHAT-IF" test item format is developed, and two pilot studies involving 74 college students responding to WHAT-IF items are described. The tests did tap improvement in learning, although test validity was only partially supportive.…

The impact of teacher and student sex differences and student assessment of teacher sex role orientation on student attitudes toward learning was examined with 252 undergraduate students, each evaluating 1 teacher. Results do not support the sex role congruency hypothesis. Students were more affected by overall teacher qualities. (SLD)

Documents cognitive processes mediating the observational learning of conservation. Findings suggest the presence of demand characteristics for high undifferentiated ratings under a public format of certainty appraisal. This contamination prevents valid monitoring of the course of cognitive rule processing. (RH)

A model of building factors that may constrain people and programs has four classes of constraining factors: perceptual, individual, program, and other. (MLF)

This paper describes an approach to assessment in which university students create a comprehensive and analytical summary, called the self-assessment schedule, of their learning in a given subject. The application of the schedule in postgraduate courses is discussed, and the views of staff and students are reported. (Author/GLR)