Explores factors related to preservice teachers' capacity to understand the learning cycle. Finds that understanding of the learning cycle was related to science teaching outcome expectancy, not to personal science teaching efficacy or to attitudes toward science. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/WRM)

Examined extent to which demographics, students' personal resources, and family resources predicted stable or lowered educational expectations from eighth grade to 2 years post-high school. Found that predictors of lost talent or lowered expectations over time included low SES and racial group membership. External locus of control predicted lost…

Examined the role of parents acting as a social influence on 11- to 16-year-olds' self-knowledge about competence at academic activities. Found that parent- adolescent agreement was stronger with mothers than fathers and for aspects of self-knowledge that make direct inferences about abilities rather than indirect inferences. Results were similar…

This study surveyed 3,595 teachers to determine judgments of prevalence and types of problems children present upon entering kindergarten. Up to 46% reported that half their class or more had specific problems in any of several transition areas. Rates of perceived problems were related to school minority composition; district poverty level; and,…

Interviewed high school students to determine whether teachers used instructional strategies that students believed helped them master new materials, noting whether the match between learning style and instructional format differed depending on student gender and race/ethnicity. Male Latinos reported more mismatches between learning and teaching…

Explores disappointment in the relationship between students and teachers. Focuses on how teachers express their disappointments in students, how teachers manipulate disappointment to affect student behavior, the role of disappointment for one's self-concept, and how teachers can exacerbate the negative effects of disappointment. Discusses how…

The purpose of this study was to examine programmatic factors that positively impact changes in elementary preservice teachers' teaching self-efficacy beliefs. Specifically, it examined the impact of science methods courses, student teaching, and science content courses on elementary preservice teachers' science teaching self-efficacy. The Science…

The purpose of this article is to describe what could happen in the classroom when parents and teachers have differing expectations of children's behaviors. It also describes strategies designed to accommodate these differences. Differences in acquiring classroom skills can occur because of differing expectations based on children's individual…

An empirical research study based upon the expectancy-value model of Eccles and colleagues (1983) investigated the effect of gender-role orientations on psychological dimensions of female athletes' sport participation and the likelihood of their continued participation in a stereotypical masculine activity. The model (Eccles et al., 1983) posits…

Comparing the experiences of White and Black graduate students illuminate various social adjustment challenges for White graduate students at historically Black colleges or universities (HBCUs) that are distinct from those challenges experienced by Black students on traditionally White campuses (TWIs). Findings in this exploratory and descriptive…

Conventional wisdom is that some topics in introductory psychology are more difficult for students than others. Such wisdom seems reasonable given mismatches between students' and instructors' expectations and variations in both instructor expertise and student motivation across topical areas. Five instructors pooled students' exam performance…

This article relates the experience of Mrs. Vernon, who teaches two sections of an English course at her high school, and has evaluated her high- and low-track students based on cultural and social groups. She uses these evaluations to shape her expectations for the students' academic performance, their future life goals, and her daily method of…

This paper critically reviews the literature on the links between temperament and social development in children and adolescents. Social development is broadly defined to include externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, prosocial behaviour and social competence. It concludes that there are clear links between specific dimensions of…

Race and other forms of difference are socially constructed concepts, continually reproduced and redefined in interaction. It is important to focus on how race and class are constructed by future teachers, because the ways in which they perceive their students may affect their interactions in the classroom, including having lower expectations for…

We investigated perceiver bias in relation to children labeled as sexually abused. Building on recent research indicating that adults perceive children with such a label as having more behavioral problems and lower achievement, we replicated and expanded upon an earlier study. We tested undergraduate students (N = 699), who judged a six-year old…