An ongoing study for the National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning, conducted by Alan Purves, Sarah Jordan and others aims to identify the problems and challenges facing teachers and students of culturally diverse texts. It is also trying to determine how best to incorporate multicultural literature into the curriculum, grades 7…

Drawing on interviews and on the actual language that readers (students, teachers, and adults) use to interpret and respond to literary texts, this book examines the conventions that shape talk about literature in large groups, small groups, and adult book clubs. By looking across contexts, the four separate but related studies in the book raise…

A recurring theme within the prolific body of research on reader response is that of reader stance. Although several prominent theories of reader response spring from different perspectives, they share one common property: each describes reader response in terms of two opposed domains with particular responses falling somewhere on a continuum…

A study investigated the religious and spiritual values in selected children's books. A second study investigated children's comprehension of the values messages. Thirty realistic fiction books which won, or were honor books for, the John Newbery Medals for 1974-1988 were selected. A modified version of the Values Category Scale was developed and…

A study investigated whether three types of journalistic material--news stories, news articles, and news reports--could be reliably distinguished from one another, and whether these genres had differential appeal to audiences. News reports are defined as succinct reports of facts, while news articles represent a more analytic form of reporting,…

The peer-group method of composition instruction represents the quintessence of the "environmental" mode of teaching which brings teacher, student, and materials more nearly into balance. Responding to recent criticisms of peer-response groups, a model was developed to establish a middle course, balancing (1) philosophical stances; (2)…

A study was conducted to determine how readers regard the accountability of newspapers that employ ombudsmen. Subjects were 393 readers of Kentucky's "Louisville Times" and "Courier Journal." Both papers, the first American papers to hire ombudsmen, publicize the existence of the ombudsman in a daily column, and from 1974 to…

Demonstrates the use of Adlerian vocational psychology to conceive the career pattern described by the Publican in an article in this issue, to relate it to his vocational behavior, and select counseling topics that could aid his career development. Describes Adler's psychology as offering a process theory of vocational behavior that comprehends…

Responds to article by Dorn (1986) on career development in business and industry. Provides clarification regarding definition, job titles, job roles, and points of entry for behavioral science professionals. Emphasizes human resource development rather than more generic use of counseling or career development in business and industry. (Author)

Explains how analogies teach students to read critically as well as independently. Presents examples of student-written analogies, and notes that this exercise gives students confidence in their powers of literary interpretation. (MM)

Describes how observation-writing (noncritical, written observations of a peer's writing) can be an effective technique for guiding student discussions in peer-response groups. (MM)

Recounts the effective use of unusual teaching methods for poetry: (1) allowing students to read and write about Wordsworth outside on a warm spring day, and (2) asking students to keep a journal while reading the poetry of Hughes. Suggests that these approaches allow students to "bring their own experiences" to the poetry text. (NH)

Describes Moos' conceptual framework which delineates how perceptions of collective human environments (social climates) influence behavior, with congruence achieved when individuals adapt their preferences in selecting environments, as underemphasizing the role of individual variables and the actual environment. Advocates continual analysis of…

Comments on E. G. Creamer and Don G. Creamer's article "Predicting Successful Organizational Change: Case Studies." Notes leadership placement in student affairs is logical but unfortunately not probable if the change is institutionwide. Raises questions about the conclusions drawn, although states a liking for the model. (ABL)

Claims that Malthus'"Essay on Population" is preeminently a rhetorical achievement because it (1) originated from controversy; (2) traced and dramatized the effects of a principle that, in Malthus's opinion, was long known but little understood by the public; and (3) drew its power from the evocation and conscious imitation of Newton's…