Eighty-nine experienced teachers of reading, language arts, and special education were found to understand too little about language structure to be able to provide sufficient instruction. The teachers subsequently took a course focusing on phonemic awareness, spoken-written language relationships, and spelling and reading behavior, and judged…

Policymakers promote student teachers' knowledge of subjects and their application of subject knowledge in the classroom as crucial in teacher training reform. The paper presents educational arguments supporting the policy and notes recent studies which have investigated the ways in which students' knowledge of subjects may inform their teaching.…

Discusses ways of approaching text and textbooks as embodiments of a larger process of cultural politics, focusing on the analysis of the relationships involved in their production, contexts, use, and reading. Newer forms of analysis that emphasize the politics of how students actually create meanings around texts are reviewed. (SLD)

A four-step procedure is described for using evaluation to contribute to the knowledge that intake staff need to assign clients to treatment programs. The procedure is illustrated with data from the evaluation of a professional development program delivered to 35 teacher consultants in Ontario (Canada). (SLD)

Evaluates a culturally specific curriculum addressing African Americans for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) education delivered to 339 youths in high school and junior high school in Los Angeles (California). Students in ethnically homogenous classrooms increased knowledge and behavioral intent more than did those in ethnically…

Effectiveness of a program for junior high school students focusing on attitudes and knowledge about weight and dieting was evaluated in 2 studies with 80 females in experimental groups and 139 females in control groups. Subjects responded favorably whether the program was presented by videotape or the regular teacher. (SLD)

A review of 66 reports involving science education for students with disabilities finds that specific instructional strategies and techniques have produced generally beneficial effects. Results support previous recommendations for science education based on documented characteristics of these students using appropriate instructional variables,…

The degree to which between-group differences in performance on individual questions on the NTE Professional Knowledge Test conform to expectations was studied for 19,307 examinees who had taken the NTE Core Battery. Some items are quite consistent with the intended test interpretation test, whereas others are less consistent. (SLD)

Low-income Hispanic elementary students were surveyed to determine tobacco use patterns and sociobehavioral correlates. Tobacco experimentation rates increased by age, with boys more prone to starting than girls. Being offered cigarettes was the strongest environmental indicator of tobacco use, followed by having adult smokers at home, and having…

Discusses two methods for developing and assessing fluid abilities. In the first method, students are asked to solve increasingly unfamiliar problems in a domain; and in the second, students are required to organize knowledge in new ways or view it from different perspectives. (SLD)

Study tested the hypothesis that teacher candidates who were exposed to a theory-oriented normative model and given theory-oriented reinforcement within a practice-oriented context would manifest more positive attitudes toward learning theoretical knowledge than those who were not so exposed. Results proved the hypothesis was plausible. (SM)

Stresses the need for music educators to ask questions that promote higher-level thinking in their students. Provides a flowchart to help teachers organize their lessons and present graphically the ways to construct effective questions. Explains each of the six sections of the flowchart in detail. (CMK)

Describes an AIDS prevention project of the Islamic Medical Association of Uganda, discussing how it was influenced by information from a baseline survey and how it was implemented. A followup evaluation study that assessed the community-level impact indicated that the intense community education effort, which used religious leaders and lay…

This longitudinal study first administered the Uzgiris and Hunt scales (to predict learning of manual signs) to 34 children (mean age 5) with severe and profound mental retardation. Evaluation four years later indicated that achievement of stage five on the Uzgiris and Hunt scales was necessary for even minimal learning and use of manual signs.…

A study examined the role perceptions and beliefs about learning of 20 lecturers in 10 schools at a large Australian university. It identified a perceptual framework within which teachers' intentions are formulated, and which drive the strategies they adopt. Responses focused on their concepts of the nature of learning, perceptions of the…