Researchers' interests in direct-writing assessment are traced, and conclusions are drawn about how far such research has come in the last 15 years. Focus is on the concerns evident in the bulk of the work done on writing assessment and on the direction in which writing assessment is moving. (SLD)

Peer review practices of scholarly journals were examined through a survey of 215 members of a professional society in the field of mass communication. Both researchers and referees had mixed feelings about peer review and specific journals and dissatisfaction with the direction and content of research published. (SLD)

Describes a meta-analysis of 41 studies that looked at effectiveness of continuing medical education (CME) for improving physician knowledge and performance; at influence of CME on patient health status; at variables relating to quality of instructional program design; and at effects of intervening variables and threats to validity in methodology…

Factor analytic literature published since 1965 examining the dimensionality of the adaptive behavior (AB) construct is reviewed, in light of AB's inclusion in the definition of mental retardation. Personal independence and five secondary factors were identified. AB's dimensionality varied as a function of number of methodologies and scale…

Few educators pay attention to educational research results because the research is removed from the realities of the classroom, relies almost exclusively on tests of statistical significance, and is usually the result of the publication requirements of universities. Cites 10 more reasons for poor research and advises typical research pitfalls to…

Students at concrete or formal operational reasoning levels made similarity judgments on geometric concepts and mathematical expressions on ratio, proportion, and similarity. Clear prototypical maps could be derived for both groups. Formal operational students structured subject matter content significantly more like subject matter experts than…

Reports an assessment of the extent to which research findings in developmental psychology textbooks are known to students with limited psychology training. Concludes that many research results reported in textbooks may already be known to students. Attempts to explain this phenomenon, noting implications for developmental psychology teachers.…

Highlighting the importance of precision in recording, analyzing, and interpreting data in experimental psychology courses, the author proposes that students be assigned grades of A or F for the results section of laboratory reports. Papers receiving F's could be resubmitted for reduced grades until they are free of errors. (GEA)

Presents a variety of ideas and guidelines for day care directors on such topics as managing a procrastinator; improving annual reports; quality commandments; mini fiestas for children, parents, and teachers; selective reading for directors; morning exercise programs for the staff; and suggestions for successful fundraising. (BB)

Agreement between two independent reviews of each of 278 manuscripts was compared on an overall recommendation and on specific rating items. Agreement between reviewers on separate dimensions, the unweighted sum of the dimensions, and various weighted sums was no better than that for the overall recommendation itself. (SLD)

Teaches researchers how to improve the quality of both the content and the delivery of research paper presentations. Covers the following topics: (1) understanding the medium; (2) using visual aids; (3) presentation design; (4) delivery; and (5) managing question-and-answer time. (FMW)

This research was designed to document the ability of Down's Syndrome children aged 5-10 to perform equivalence tasks, and to investigate possible relationships between such performance and the presence of certain potentially confounding task variables. (MNS)

Assignment projects for high-achieving ninth graders were developed, and a comparative evaluation study indicated that they were effective. It bacame clear that teachers needed more practical support, so a diagnostic study was undertaken, leading to the establishment of a link between a categorization of student difficulties and a hierarchy of…

Data were collected by pencil-and-paper instruments from 33 students in grade 10 in Perth, Western Australia. Data indicated that students were only slightly knowledgeable about energy and energy conservation; they had slightly positive attitudes toward energy conservation. (MNS)

Surveyed were 220 teachers in grades one-three in 11 states on their use of 11 devices for teaching mathematics. The percent of teachers who never or seldom used the listed manipulatives ranged from 40.8 to 74.7. (MNS)