A sample of l34 adults enrolled in adult education programs for credit ranked types of test items. From most to least preferred, the five types of test item were multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, and essay. Respondents also explained which type of test item contributed to anxiety for them. Vaguely written essay questions…

How writing teachers get students from the personal-experience theme, with its many colloquial terms, to the formal essay seems to be a national issue. Teachers are under pressure to do the thing that colleges seem to value most--to teach the kind of essay that corresponds to term papers or essay questions. Colleges emphasize this because it is…

A follow-up study of two instruments for evaluating college writing was conducted. The experimental scale (E Scale) was developed in 1976 and revised for this study. The control scale (C Scale) was described in the literature in 1977. Ten English majors graded ten essays from diagnostic entrance exams. Both the E Scale and the C Scale were used,…

The writing assignments developed for a course in expository writing intended for gifted eighth grade students are described in this paper. The first assignment described is a causal analysis essay that required the students to examine events from their lives or from newspaper articles and analyze the causes of the actions involved. The paper…

Ten essays are presented which suggest rationale and methods for involving students of American history in first hand research using primary source material. The book is intended for classroom and extra curricular use by teachers and students of American studies on the high school, college, and adult education levels. It can also be of use to…

This evaluative and developmental study was undertaken between 1972-74 to determine the effectiveness of items used for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in relationship to other item types used in assessing English proficiency, and to recommend possible changes in TOEFL content and format. TOEFL was developed to assess the English…

A study was conducted to determine whether a significant correlation existed between an essay's letter grade and five important factors of syntactic maturity (clause length, t-unit length, sentence length, clauses per t-unit, and t-units per sentence). A total of 45 essays--15 A, 15 B, and 15 C papers as graded by five junior college English…

These essays reflect experiences during a series of visits paid to schools in eight Canadian provinces during the fall and winter 1975-76. The object of these visits was to explore the nature of the recent changes in students and in the formal institution of education. What is argued is that both morality and rationality require that the primary…

This paper discusses kinds and characteristics of language play, explores the relationship of such play to wider domains of language and play, and speculates on the possible contributions of language play for language mastery and cognitive development. Jump rope chants and ritual insults ("Off my case, potato face") and other expressive…

Because outdoor education complements the aims of education in a way that indoor instruction cannot, it should therefore provide the setting for experiences that cannot be achieved or achieved as readily in the classroom. Outdoor education provides pupils the chance to come to grips with reality, acquire the principles of democracy, and…

Virtually all of the essays in this collection reach the conclusion that corporal punishment in the schools is counterproductive. The book is organized into sections presenting historical, psychological, and legal perspectives on this subject, as well as case studies, opinion surveys, and the results of research. Rational alternatives to the use…

Job creation properly researched and developed can help vitalize vocational education for educators, their students, and the community. The migration of employers from the inner cities to outlying areas over the past few years has created a wasteland within our cities. To help rectify this situation, vocational education needs to start preparing…

The document presents 19 essays which explore the growth of international relations (IR) as a field of intellectual inquiry and evaluate dilemmas currently facing IR. Authors were selected on the basis of involvement with midcareer students while participating in overseas graduate programs of the Schools of International Relations at the…

Designed to be immediately useful and practical for language arts teachers in the secondary schools, the six articles in this monograph are illustrative not only of methods but of pedagogical processes that are the components of successful teaching. The first article offers more than 20 ways of motivating and involving the nonreader and describes…

Six articles on issues in vocational education are presented in this booklet. The first article, "A Need for Articulation in Vocational Education," by Joseph Semak, discusses different approaches to the problem of articulation. Ruth Volz, in "Vocational Education for Our Ageless Society," examines the need for developing programs and training to…