Criticisms of traditional approaches to the assessment of student abilities and instructional program design are reviewed and alternative, dynamic approaches are suggested. A major feature of the suggested approaches is assistance to influence student performance and thus reveal the potential for change. The approaches are categorized and examined…

Identifies criteria for classifying languages according to their function and geographical spread in international business activity. Three language types are identified: (1) languages of marketing contact; (2) market languages; and (3) languages of marketing value. It is suggested that the overwhelming volume of the world's businees is conducted…

Describes study that examined similarities and differences between the "Journal of Instructional Development" and "Educational Communication and Technology Journal." Highlights include the results of a content analysis, and the extent to which novices and experts could distinguish between the journals by classifying articles…

Seeks to demonstrate that cooperative education is the epitome of human capital investment and, therefore, co-op should adopt the simple, relevant, and well-established classification strategy founded in economics. (JOW)

A taxonomy of computer-based speech training systems is presented, based on the physical source of feedback, standards of evaluation, level and type of detail on which feedback is based, and the form and instructional context of feedback. Reasons for selecting a particular approach are discussed in relation to existing systems. (Author/JDD)

Develops a classification system for the physical environment based on 3 dimensions of stimulation. Intercorrelations of physical and social environmental measures obtained for 88 infants of 12 months supported the validity of the decision rule that nonresponsive animate stimulation is primarily physical rather than social. (RJC)

Expectations concerning form and color in object label referencing of 80 children of 2-3 years were examined in 2 studies. Findings show that children as young as 2 expect form similarity to be a better guide than color similarity to the extension of object labels. (RJC)

The doctrine of localized brain functions has strongly influenced many educators. Gerald Edelman's recent research challenges this doctrine by advancing categorization and recategorization as the brain's overriding activities. Instruction that focuses overmuch on similarities is misguided and confusing. Instead, classroom instruction should employ…

Discusses the need for accurate documentation of museum holdings and the feasibility of using online library catalogs as models for automated cataloging in museums. The description of museum computer projects covers problems that have impeded automation in the past and the current status of several projects. (34 references) (CLB)

Describes work in progress at the Smithsonian Institution in developing a system to understand and articulate the information needed to support collection related functions. The discussion covers the data modeling methodology used and the advantages of this methodology in structuring museum collections information. (one reference) (CLB)

A population of 41 manufacturing salespeople, 32 distributor salespeople, and 24 manufacturers' agents used a 7-point scale to rate 82 selling competencies. The resulting classification groups, in order of importance, are communication skills, customer relations, professionalism, selling skills, problem solving, business maturity, and management…

Studied 16 six-month-old infants to determine whether they organized speech categories around prototypes. Infants correctly sorted novel stimuli over 90 percent of the time. Generalization to novel members of the category was significantly greater after exposure to the prototypical exemplar. (RJC)

Reviews approaches for categorizing outcome criterion measures in the human services. Suggests a multidimensional paradigm based on conceptualizations advocated in the literature. Discusses paradigm's implications for rehabilitation practice. (Author/ABL)

Proposes a new taxonomy for classifying the graphic cues commonly used in visually informative text. Subsumes spatial and mark cueing (lines such as dividers, guidelines, network links, and visual tags) under a new concept called diagraphic cueing. Surveys various forms of graphic cues. (RS)

Discusses findings of a study designed to achieve two goals: (1) determine the affect of peer collaboration on high school biology students' acquisition of concepts related to photosynthesis, and (2) examine interactions in a collaborative peer group situation to determine how these interactions relate to the development of concepts associated…