An experienced art teacher working with students in grades two through six implemented and evaluated a practicum intervention designed to improve the self-images of male black students, their academic accomplishments, and their feelings of pride in their school. Five actions were taken to attain the objective: (1) cultural materials produced by…

The technique of path analysis was used to test the role of student task engagement as a mediating process variable linking teacher behavior and student achievement in mathematics and social studies classes. Study participants included 40 teacher interns and their respective second-, third-, and fifth-grade classes from a school district served by…

This report contains the findings from a survey of over 38,000 youth in grades 7, 9, 11, and the first year of college or university, designed to obtain a cross-sectional perspective of the development of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Also included…

Modifying the classroom behavior of passive college students is central to the task of improving education. At Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, an Academic Orientation Workshop for freshmen was designed to communicate the college's expectations of high student involvement in classes from the outset of the student's college experience, in order to…

This training manual presents information on the relationship between the educational environment and minority student underachievement. The materials presented are designed to assist teachers in establishing positive student-teacher relationships and to create a challenging and friendly classroom climate. The training package, designed to be used…

A study investigated the viewing behavior of a sample of public television supporters, specifically examining the relationship of their social characteristics to viewing and to knowledge about Africa as presented in the series "The Africans." Subjects, 120 District of Columbia adults drawn from the membership lists of a local public TV…

In a search for effect dissemination methods for parent training programs, a videocassette program was developed as an alternative to traditional, professionally led programs to train parents in teaching self-help skills to their developmentally disabled children. Effectiveness of the videocassette approach was tested when 55 families in Los…

A study determined how direct instruction is being used and why it is being used the way that it is. Data were collected through observations and interviews from teachers and principals in 12 elementary schools involved in a school improvement project based, in part, on direct instruction. Results show that, in general, the elements of direct…

Teachers have the same rights as others, under the first amendment, to express their views outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, however, the teacher is obliged to meet the expectations of the job, and this implies reasonable restrictions on the expression of private views. United States Supreme Court cases have reviewed the teacher's right…

Research on interactive thinking has revealed that teachers make interactive decisions in response to students' behavior and to the flow of the activities or routines they have established based on their planning. The purpose of this study was to describe the interactive information processing of preservice teachers, and to identify similarities…

Cooperative Learning is a teaching methodology based on the belief that learning increases as students develop cooperative skills. A recent experiment with cooperative learning at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center indicates that it can be used effectively with low-level learners of English as a second language to foster both language…

Characteristics of the older developmentally disabled adult were studied in an examination of data collected on 485 randomly selected clients in four age categories; 18 and under (N=74), 19-54 (N=336), 55-64 (N=48), and 65 and over (N=27). Medical and physical problems were assessed, including general health, mobility problems, and prescription of…

The study reported here sought to establish the predictive validity of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP), an instrument designed to identify preschool children at risk for school-related problems in the primary years. Children (N=338) in 11 states who were originally tested in 1980 as part of the MAP standardization project were given a…

The need for an analytical approach to the study of phatic, metalingual, and metacommunicative functions in asymmetrical communicative situations (between native speakers and language learners) is discussed. The study presents theoretical frameworks for gambits and repairs, the linguistic phenomena that primarily serve those functions, and…

Focusing on purpose in the writing of college freshmen, a study examined the writing processes and how they related to the conceptions of purpose of four freshmen enrolled in a composition course at Indiana University. Discourse-based interviews were conducted before and after the students completed three tasks designed to vary their choice of…