This overview of recent research on individual differences especially concerns that research which relates to human learning and instruction. Several major areas of research are identified, and within each area various issues related to that area and representative studies are discussed. Whenever possible, references to more comprehensive reviews…

This study examines the hypothesis that the lack of parental approval of the child characterizes child-abusing families. As part of a larger study of the coping styles of such families, a variety of verbal and non-verbal behaviors in parent-child interactions was examined. Subjects were 80 mother-child pairs from among four groups of comparable…

A one-year project to explore the use of children's language served as a basis for staff development through the North Dakota Study Group on Evaluation. Children's conversations among themselves were observed and recorded within the classroom setting, and the content of the observations were used for planning curriculum and assessing children's…

A number of propositions about power in America--taken from the work of Olson, Lowi, McConnell, Schattschneider, and Edelman--are presented and discussed. These propositions comprise an alternative theory to pluralism, which is termed "plural elitism." But neither pluralism nor plural elitism explains the emergence and effects of the…

Skills training, personal-emotional development, and cognitive development are areas of importance in counselor training and education. Emotion, defined as the counselor's experiencing a strong feeling accompanied by physiological activity and the interruption, however momentary, of the counselor's ongoing cognition, is a critical factor in…

In any successful conversation, a speaker must select both what is said and how it is said on the basis of various estimates of the listener's abilities, knowledge and interests. Most research on linguistic input to children has focused on the tendency of speakers to simplify their speech for the younger listener. Little attention has been paid to…

Demonstrating and testing Conant's recommendation that teacher competence should determine certification, this four-phase study from 1964-68 developed and field-tested procedures for evaluating teacher competence and for determining how evaluation is affected by the beliefs of student teachers and observer-judges. Following the Phase I orientation…

In a 2 1/2-year study of the application of interaction analysis (a method of classroom observation) to preservice teacher education, approximately 40 secondary student teachers were involved in an experiment during each of 3 semesters. A 2 by 2 factorial design made it possible to test the influence of 2 independent variables (student teacher…

Little is known about how children gain interpersonal access in settings where adults are not present or are unavailable. This study sought to describe children's strategies for access into and withdrawal from peer interactive episodes in a nursery school. Data were collected from direct observations of two groups of children. One group attended…

Peer counseling in high schools provides a developmental growth opportunity for adolescents as well as a valuable outreach service for the Guidance Office. Through intensive small group experience and training, selected students gain insight into their own ideas, needs, and values. They also learn more effective interpersonal and decision making…

College Classroom Vignettes, a videotape technique used to motivate teachers to change classroom behavior, is discussed. This new application of videotape was undertaken at Northwestern University's Center for the Teaching Professions with funding from the Danforth Foundation. College Classroom Vignettes are videotape records of actual classroom…

The present study evaluates the immediate effects of an experimentally manipulated social comparison on the subsequent behavior of lower socioeconomic status black children four to five and seven to eight years of age. The effects of four conditions of social comparison are measured with respect to the children's self-reinforcement,…

This grant application describes the theoretical background and research design of a project intended to study the interaction between children's styles of functioning and the opportunities and requirements of an open classroom environment. A major assumption to be tested is that exploratory children function more effectively in open classrooms.…

A picture-board sociometric interview for preschool children is described and information on reliability and validity is presented. While the reliability of this measure of peer popularity is low to moderate using test-retest or split-half measures, the interview data does seem to predict other relevant measures of the social behavior of young…

The effect of classroom environment on Head Start, preschool and primary grade children is examined in this study which organizes the results of a number of selected studies. The research strategies employed in these studies included observations in specified programs (in-class or by video-tape), tightly-controlled classroom experimentation…