Background: Past research has revealed the positive impact that interest development can have on achievement outcomes with early-adolescents in physical education (PE). Interest is considered a psychological state of engaging and willingness to reengage in specific content that develops over time; however, little work to date has examined interest…

Calvin Lunsford Beale was born in Washington, DC, on June 6, 1923, and passed away at age 85 on September 2, 2008. He was a city boy born and bred, and while he "never wanted to live in a rural area" he became one of the most astute observers of rural America in the latter half of the twentieth century. Calvin spent the majority of his…

This article applies Engestrom's Activity Theory (AT) as an analytical lens to identify defining characteristics of the collaborative creative music making activities of composing and arranging. Attention is paid to the complex interrelationships among the various elements of interaction in children's collaborative creative music making as…

Provides an analysis of America based on the travel accounts of several foreign visitors and diplomats over the course of U.S. history. Viewpoints are expressed that reveal an America with many contradictions and a dark side. (GLR)

Examines maternal and paternal behaviors in 78 parent-child dyads in Mexican families. Observed patterns were found to run counter to traditionally held views of Mexican parental roles. Findings proved to be similar to those obtained in observational studies in the United States. (Author/CB)

Maternal and infant behaviors of 30 American and 52 Japanese mother/infant dyads from middle-class homes were compared. The major differences in caretaker behavior were (1) the Japanese mothers spent more time with or in the presence of their babies than did the American mothers, and (2) the American mothers were more active in positioning the…

This study focused on French and U.S. mother-infant dyads interacting in their homes. Infants' visual attention, tactual exploration, vocalization and mothers' mediated and unmediated stimulation and speech to infants were observed. Mothers and infants in the two cultures showed some similarities and some different emphases in their activities,…

This paper addresses the special problems in assessment of pupils who are congenitally or prelingually deafblind and who may have other disabilities, and argues that nonintrusive instruments and procedures are the assessment tools of choice. It contends that not enough attention has been given to developing, validating, and applying assessment…

Types of questions asked in first-grade mathematics classes in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States were investigated. Observations of 311 lessons by 16 Japanese, 20 Taiwanese, and 33 U.S. teachers suggest that the kinds of questions asked in Taiwan and Japan contribute to more sophisticated mathematical knowledge. (SLD)

Two naturalistic research studies observed 45 eleventh grade students carrying out research paper assignments, and a third such study focused on 26 third grade students. The studies took place in Alberta (Canada) in 1993, Texas in 1996, and Washington state in 1999. From data analyzed in the interviews and written documents, the initial findings…