This final report of a reading instruction study examined teachers' use of research-based practices when teaching reading comprehension, as well as the barriers that prevent teachers from using such practices. Six schools in two school districts in a southwestern urban area were selected for intensive study; 39 teachers of grades 4-6 participated.…

This paper describes the ongoing process of a partnership project between the staff of an elementary school and senior education students enrolled in a language arts minor. The project detailed in the paper is measuring the effectiveness of a school-based language program and examining the impact of the program on the staff of the school in terms…

British psychologists have presented educational psychology as an academic discipline and have distanced themselves from practical teaching. Most have disavowed any particular knowledge about teaching and suggested that teachers themselves should discover the way academic concepts are applied to teaching. As students of human learning, educational…

Although there is little literature on the topic, there seems to be no reason why quality circles (QCs) could not be implemented in an educational organization. The most important obstacles are the seeming lack of tangible results in education, the lack of a tradition of group decision making and participative management, and the confusion over…

A "special themes in literature" course about illness and disability was designed to help future nurses to understand the human, rather than the clinical, dimensions of impairment and its effects on the sufferer as well as the sufferer's family, associates, and community. The objectives of the course were to look at such matters as…

The second of two conferences on adult literacy focused on the broader contexts of adult literacy. That is, lack of basic skills is not a problem in a vaccum but is bound up with people's other problems and needs and the forces shaping their lives; likewise, efforts to teach basic skills must be viewed in relation to the local, state, and national…

The development of the Maslowian Scale, a method of revealing a picture of one's needs and concerns based on Abraham Maslow's levels of self-actualization, is described. This paper also explains how the scale is supported by the theories of L. Kohlberg, C. Rogers, and T. Rusk. After a literature search, a list of statements was generated…

The methods used by E. L. Thorndike, L. L. Thurstone, and G. Rasch to address issues related to item-invariant measurement and the scoring of individual performance are compared. The analyses highlight the close connection among the three methods, and suggest that progress in measurement theory reflects the movement from essentially ad hoc methods…

A study investigated the known phenomenon of "intermediate effect" in which medical students with an intermediate amount of knowledge and experience demonstrate higher amounts of recall of the text of a medical case than either experienced clinicians or novices. In this study the amount of activation of prior knowledge was controlled by…

Application of the study of humanities in administrator education is explored in this paper. The argument is made that humanities studies help to conceptualize ideas and generate theory, and to represent and explain what is uniquely human. Effective administrators require problem-solving and critical thinking skills for dealing with people-related…

By scrutinizing the extensive and growing literature on media ethics and media codes, as well as the current history of litigation in libel cases, this paper analyzes the risks presented by journalistic social responsibility in the context of expanding tort liability for what might loosely be called journalistic malpractice. Following a review of…

Although many composition teachers have taken to heart recent studies on the mind-brain (humanities/science) link and have begun to anticipate enhancing the teaching profession by providing a solid link between teachers of writing and "hard" scientists, such links between minds and brains should not become part of pedagogical design. Textbooks and…

The role of research in the future of special education is discussed. The impact of research on practice is exemplified in the rise of the mainstreaming movement from research findings unable to find benefits in special class instruction for the mildly handicapped. The continuing ambivalence of the practitioner toward research is noted. The past…

To the traditional arguments for teaching children to read can be added the contemporary idea that literacy is a tool, the necessary skill for full participation in society, and the ticket to social mobility and success. New reasons for reading books have emerged from recent gains in the understanding of the comprehension process and the nature of…

A broadcast internship program at the University of Missouri at St. Louis has established prerequisites such as a declared major in speech, a resume, and a transcript of all previous college work. For the course, students must write their own learning objectives before the internship begins and a projected calendar of their working hours. They…