At 3 points in time over a 12-month period, this short-term longitudinal study examined 67 preschoolers' syllable, rime, and phoneme awareness; speech and language skills; and letter knowledge. Findings indicated that rime skills developed earlier than phoneme skills. Structural equation models showed that articulatory skills and syllable and rime…

Assessed effects of sleep restriction and extension on 9- to 12-year-olds' neurobehavioral functioning. Found that modest sleep restriction led to improved sleep quality but to reduced reported alertness. Children who extended sleep improved significantly from baseline their performance on the digit forward memory test and reaction time on the…

A study analyzed the narratives of 24 predominately English-speaking Latino children (ages 3-5) enrolled in a federally subsidized preschool. The length of narrative did not differ significantly by age. However, older children produced stories that contained longer sentences, a higher proportion of grammatically acceptable sentences, and more…

Three experiments obtained same-different judgments from children and adults to trace normal development of local and global processing of hierarchical visual forms. Findings indicated that reaction time was faster on global trials than local trials; bias was stronger in children and diminished to adult levels between ages 10 and 14. Reaction time…

Black and white researchers interviewed black Jamaican and white New England elementary students in urban and rural schools regarding skin color, body size preference, and self-identification, using a modified dolls test. Children from all three communities showed white favoritism and average body size favoritism. Within communities, there were…

Discusses the basic concepts of andragogy, or the teaching of adults. Topics include differences between children and adults; characteristics of adult learners, including time perspective, motivation, being self-directed, and experienced in life skills; and effective program design for adults. (LRW)

For one woman, federal legislation forbidding sex discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds has made it possible to return to college on an athletic scholarship after almost two decades of waiting. Since passage of the law, the average number of sports available to women at colleges and universities and the number of women…

Data on foreign language learning and conversational usage from 12 European Union member states (n=13,029) indicate language learning has increased considerably in 40 years. Of the most commonly learned languages (English, French, German), English has gained most, suggesting emergence as a lingua franca. One analysis gauged the probability that a…

Surveyed students regarding teacher characteristics. Found sex differences but no age, family income, or geographic differences in "good teacher" characteristics; there were sex and private versus public school differences in poor teacher characteristics. Also found that attitude toward students was deemed as important as class content,…

Three studies used interspecies adoption stories to examine children's understanding of the role of birth in determining animal properties and species identity. Found that most 4- to 7-year olds could reliably judge that babies would be of the same species as birth parents, but were unable to attribute properties of adoptive parents. (Author/KB)

Assessed the reading and mathematics abilities of kindergartners and first graders in the fall and spring of the school year. Found that younger first graders made as much progress over the year as older first graders and more than older kindergartners. Findings demonstrated that entrance age was not a good predictor of learning or academic risk.…

Examined age and gender mixing among students, ages 4-19, at an ungraded, self-directed, democratically structured school. Found that age mixing was more frequent for 12- to 15-year-olds than for younger or older students, and that gender mixing was less frequent for 8- to 11-year-olds than for any other age group. (MDM)

A replication of a study conducted nearly 20 years ago investigated teacher burnout among 300 special education teachers. Teachers' age, amount of experience, and preparation had markedly increased since the previous study. Age, experience, certification status, and preparation were not as significantly related to burnout as in the past. (Contains…

Describes a study that compared two sections of the same course: one online and asynchronous, the other face-to-face. Examined gender, age, learning preferences and styles, media familiarity, effectiveness of tasks, course effectiveness, test grades, and final grades; and concluded that equivalent learning activities can be equally effective for…

Identified child and classroom characteristics accompanying complex peer and object interactions in ethnically diverse early childhood classrooms. Found that complex peer interactions were most likely for girls, especially English-speaking, when there was no teacher involvement, and in creative activities. Complex interactions with objects were…