Indicates that situational factors such as perceived novelty, subordinate status, conspicuousness, dissimilarity and prior history correlate significantly with public speaking anxiety. Presents a causal model based on a confluence of previous research and the results of the present study. Includes classroom implications.(NH)

A 1980 study of special education teachers' reports on the availability and usefulness of several types of assessment information for emotionally disturbed/behaviorally disordered students was replicated and results compared. Overall progress was found, with notable increases in availability for types that teachers consider educationally relevant,…

Examined the influence of problem severity, type of intervention, and student ethnicity on evaluations of classroom interventions by white and Mexican-American elementary school teachers (N=80). Data analysis revealed nonsignificant main effects, while teacher ethnicity x student ethnicity and student ethnicity x problem severity factors…

Process reinforcement is proposed as a reinforcement method that is more comfortable, personal, comprehensive, and interactive than traditional behavior modification. Process reinforcement strengthens desired behaviors by engaging learners in a one-on-one examination of how they achieved correct responses and by practicing comfortable eye contact…

Failure to solve school discipline problems is attributed to four factors: school district priorities, unclear problem dimensions, inadequate teacher training, and flaws in teacher/ administrator applied psychology. Psychological approaches that provide systems to control student behavior are described, including biophysical, interactionist, and…

Guidelines for effectively integrating learning-disabled or behavior problem students into regular classrooms are discussed. They include meetings between regular and special education teachers, class rules, discipline, clear directions, individualized instruction, direct instruction for skill acquisition, peer tutoring, structured activities,…

Research on gender differences in classroom interaction patterns is reviewed. The analysis of 24 Year 8 science lessons in Brisbane, Australia, indicates that the interaction patterns of girls are not significantly different from those of boys. Suggestions for future classroom interaction research based on more complex perspectives are proposed.…

Presents two methods of enhancing therapeutic relationships through having special education teachers observe and use students' verbal and nonverbal behaviors during social interactions. Discusses how teachers can identify students' predominant sensory modalities used to communicate experiences and can adopt behaviors similar to their students'…

Two self-report techniques assessed student behaviors before and after life-skills substance abuse prevention program for inner city seventh graders. Retrospective pretest/posttest technique demonstrated no significant changes in drug usage; traditional pretest/posttest indicated significant increases in tobacco use. Results support continued use…

To determine the effect of background music on on-task-performance (OTP), 26 fifth grade science students were observed for 42 class sessions over a four-month period. Time-series analyses indicated a significant increase in OTP for male subjects and for the total class. (Author/CB)

This article reviews self-fulfilling prophecies in three sequential stages: (1) teachers develop expectations, (2) teachers treat students differently depending on expectations, and (3) students react to treatment in expectancy-confirming ways. The focus is on social and psychological events at each stage, causal processes linking stages, and…

Results provide support for the existence of a relation between school behavior and the home environment of young adolescents, since both academic performance and externalizing problem behaviors in school were related to and predicted by the parent-adolescent relationship and/or maternal depression in the home setting. Data from mothers and,…

Investigated the effects of classroom guidance on children's classroom behavior, attitudes toward school, and achievement in language arts and mathematics. The implications for improving elementary school children's behavior and attitudes, and for preventing problems through counseling, are discussed. (Author/KS)

Concludes that (a) there is a lack of congruence between the actual research findings and the numerous "pronouncements and speculations" about microcomputer effects in preschool; (b) many methodological weaknesses limit the utility of research findings; and (c) little is known, empirically, about important process and outcome variables…

Explores student and teacher behavior in writing instruction as the "underlife" (behaviors that undercut the roles expected of participants in a situation) of the current educational system. Suggests that the identities students develop in writing classrooms are more conducive to academic success than the traditional identity of the…