Examines the relationship between contextual variables and situational expectation of drug use at the school level. Results indicate that the more prosperous the school and the greater the students' perceptions of academic expectations, the lower the situational expectation of smoking cigarettes or taking depressants. However, the higher the…

Suggests that parenting beliefs are influenced by the broader societal contextual variations, and focuses on cultural and subcultural variation. Uses studies of parental beliefs among immigrant families who must make transitions across different cultural contexts to illustrate these variations. (ET)

Used a new statistical procedure to examine consensual beliefs about situations common to universities. This approach aims at constructing a joint hierarchical or non-hierarchical classification of situational categories. Results indicate that a psychologically meaningful and methodologically satisfactory representation of the cognitive…

Formulates 3 hypotheses based on contingency, congruency, and contextual relationships, and tests them empirically on a dataset of 71 randomly selected Dutch secondary schools. Results show that managerial competence is most obvious during hard times, and that principals need more crisis-management training. (52 references) (MLH)

Only the socioeconomic composition of the student body and the percentage of black students were significantly related to between-school differences in student academic norms in a study of student body variables, school organization, and teacher attitudes in 76 Louisiana schools involving 5,400 3rd graders. (SLD)

Responds to Romberg's reaction and argues that the present conservative social context will determine the use to which the "Standards" are put. Expresses concern that unequal school finance policies in providing technologically rich classroom environments will result in educational stratification. (MDH)

Curricular concerns and issues are suggested that encourage prospective teachers to think about the social, political, and institutional context of schooling. Specific issues are considered related to the substantive concerns of (1) teachers' work; (2) achievement of minority students; and (3) gender dynamics and teaching. (SLD)

Four experiments with 132 seventh graders, 162 eighth graders, 75 fourth graders, and 52 third graders compared the mnemonic keyword method with various other vocabulary learning strategies. Mnemonic keyword students outperformed sentence-context and free-study counterparts and generally outperformed others on tests of vocabulary usage. (SLD)

This study examined the interaction of acoustic-phonetic information with higher-level linguistic contextual information during the real-time speech perception process in child, young adult, and older adult listeners. Findings indicated that target word predictability influenced the timing and nature of the real-time recognition process, including…

Examines assumptions inherent in open-ended learning; describes features of open-ended learning environments; and discusses implications for research, development, and implementation of open-ended learning systems. Highlights include context and experience; learner control; higher-order cognitive skills; understanding versus knowing; orienting…

Explores age as a moderator of the relationship among gender, sex role, and coping strategies for 155 males and 281 females in 5 age groups from adolescence through old age. Age is related to type of coping and moderates the relationship between sex role orientation and coping. (SLD)

A feminist perspective is necessary for the continued vitality of social psychology. Major themes of the feminist perspective are reviewed, and some important women from early U.S. psychology are identified as founders of social psychology. In the future, the feminist perspective will function in social psychology as a systems theory. (SLD)

Researchers examined the effect of contextual variety on practice, retention, and transfer of the long and short badminton service in a college physical education class. Results indicated a practice schedule requiring students to change the plan of action from trial to trial facilitated retention and transfer of motor skills. (SM)

Attempts to integrate recent models of social systems based on age and cognitive personality research with research on adolescence. Presents a conceptual model of how adolescents set personal goals, construct cognitive strategies, and evaluate their success in an age-graded sociocultural context. Discusses future directions for research based on…

Comments on Nicolopoulou's article in this issue on the idea that play is an inherently social and cultural cognitive childhood activity. Emphasizes the importance of cultural variation of play for research and education. (BB)