Fifty deaf and hard-of-hearing students mainstreamed in postsecondary classes rated their classroom communication ease with hearing instructors, hearing peers, and deaf peers. Both quantitative and qualitative results indicated that students varied considerably in their communication with hearing peers and professors, in their relations with deaf…

This study compared 20 young deaf children with either exceptionally good or exceptionally poor spoken language for their hearing loss, age, and intelligence. Factors associated with high performance included earlier use of binaural ear-level aids, better educated mothers, auditory/verbal or auditory/oral instruction, reliance on spoken language…

This study, with 4 parent-child dyads in which the children (ages 9 to 11) exhibited substantial homework problems, found that goal setting and contingency contracting produced significant improvements in children's homework accuracy. Two of the subjects showed substantial improvements in on-task behavior. Parents rated the procedures highly.…

Explores how the Learning Together form of cooperative learning influenced opportunities for acquiring academic English by second-language learners in a sixth-grade social studies classroom. Findings suggest that program developers must provide for context effect and teachers require a broad understanding of academic language. (59 references)…

Appraisal, coping, task performance, and cardiovascular responses were examined among men high and low in speech anxiety who prepared and performed a speech under evaluative conditions. Speech-anxious men saw the task as more threatening. They were more stressed, anxious, distracted, and aware of their emotions, focused on the passage of time, and…

A study used qualitative methods to examine lack of clarity and need for inference in teaching of an undergraduate physics course for nonscience majors. Evidence from several data sources converge, revealing very low levels of student understanding of material presented and strong dissatisfaction with instruction, and also insights into teacher…

Successful interviewers ask job-related, open-ended, and thought-provoking questions on important topics; plan questions logically; avoid making stressful, probing queries and interpreting questions for candidates; ask each candidate the same questions; and make each candidate feel comfortable. A checklist of 25 illegal questions is included. (MLH)

This article considers links between instructional group size and student engagement, caseload and academic achievement, and caseload and special educator attrition. Findings indicate larger caseload and group sizes negatively affect math and reading achievement, student engagement increases when group sizes decrease, and high teacher attrition…

Portfolios, as authentic assessment tools, have become a common element in the curriculum of many college and K-12 classrooms across the nation during the past decade. The continuing advancement of technology has held broad implications for facilitating the further development and refinement of the portfolio as a mainstay element of education in…

This article describes a pilot program, initiated in 1999 by Smoky Hill High School in Colorado, to help gifted students overcome barriers to their success. The program addresses issues in all components or subsystems of a person's life: emotional/psychological, mental/intellectual, physical, spiritual, social, and family. Tips for parents are…

A study examined the accounts of parents of 515 Hong Kong students with special needs of their children's experiences. Academic requirements were found to be a great burden to children and parents. Children with intellectual impairments, autism, and hyperactivity encountered more problems in peer relationships. (Contains references.) (CR)

Study investigated the association between university social-work students' ratings of teaching ability and several course, student, and instructor variables. Analysis of over 5,000 standard evaluation forms indicated strong positive relationships between ratings of teaching effectiveness and ratings of skills, as reflected by course organization,…

Social work students (n=57) enrolled in two University of Georgia graduate-level practice courses were exposed to approximately equal amounts of live, in-class instruction, and two-way interactive televised instruction. Post-course evaluations significantly favored live instruction over televised distance learning. More empirical research…

Implementation of the 1995 South African Qualifications Act necessitates a shift in the student-assessment model. Faculty must cope with increasingly underprepared students. Computer-assisted assessment is one alternative, but engaging the learner in the assessment process, through authentic and collaborative assessment processes, may be the best…

This article reviews the methods commonly used to evaluate journals, looking particularly at indicators relevant to journals in the humanities. It then applies these methods to a sample of Australian humanities journals. The indicators used are: level of holdings in large overseas academic libraries, coverage in international databases, standards…