This paper presents a historical overview of visualization as a human problem-solving tool. Visualization strategies, such as mental imagery, pervade historical accounts of scientific discovery and invention. A selected number of historical examples are presented and discussed on a wide range of topics such as physics, aviation, and the science of…

This paper examines the impact of film and television stories on prospective teachers and the ways in which popular culture has influenced ideas formed about teaching roles and schooling. Questions about teachers' beliefs and how teachers see the practice of schooling are integral to curriculum planning and reform in preservice teacher education.…

This book describes transdisciplinary management of multiply disabled children with vision problems and presents four theoretical models of visual assessment and three illustrative case studies in a sequence appropriate to the learning process. The first three models are intended to lead to assessment and management of the child and the last to…

Undertaken as part of a larger study, the experiments described in this report examine various aspects of the relationship between pictures and text and of the methodology for examining that relationship. Each of the 11 experiments described in the report involved college students and deals with the effects of storyline and texture on the reading…

A study investigated connections between reading difficulties and short term memory processes in order to explore the psychological basis for some individual differences in reading comprehension skills. Drawing on previous research indicating that poor readers were inferior to normal ones in judging whether two patterns of long and short tones…

A three-stage model for the systematic development of competent secondary school teachers of speech communication begins with the prospective teachers examining "who they are" and "what makes them confident and happy" in terms of motivational needs, and dominance-submission, anxiety-confidence, and rigidity-flexibility characteristics. The second…

Recent graduates (N=173) and current student teachers (N=59) in the areas of early childhood, elementary education, and special education, rated 30 teacher competencies in terms of perceived importance and their own competency levels. Frequencies and percentages of responses were tallied for both groups and for each certification area. Analysis…

Classical measurement theory was used to investigate the measurement (psychometric) characteristics of both parts of the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT) administered in either a "no guessing" supply format or a multiple-choice selection format to undergraduate college students or to middle school students. Three issues were…

This study investigated the differences in the reading rate of eighth grade students on a cloze reading exercise involving the reading of text from a computer monitor. Several different modes of presentation were used in order to determine the effect of prior experience with computers on the students' reading rate. Subjects were 240 eighth grade…

The study sought to determine if there are differences between shifts of workers in Intermediate Care Facilities in their ratings of the daily living skills of mentally retarded residents, and whether these differences reflect actual differences in performance by the residents. Staff were interviewed concerning the level of prompt required to…

Behavioral differences between Soviet and American foreign language teachers are examined as a basis for improving intercultural understanding and promoting more productive work in the bicultural classroom. The observations are made by American language teachers who have known teachers from both countries as both students and peers. Specific…

Using 33 college freshmen enrolled in a basic reading skills course as subjects, a study was conducted for two purposes: (1) to determine the effects of direct exposure to the topics of the selections in the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT) on their posttest scores, and (2) to investigate whether students exposed to the…

To discover what part parent impartiality might play in creating a climate in which each individual child can prosper, 198 college students from a large Midwestern urban university were questioned about their perceptions of their parents' behavior during the time that they were growing up. The first section of the survey consisted of 50 questions…

Courses in Spanish for nurses at Loretto Heights College in Colorado combine language instruction, cross-cultural studies, instruction in medical problems particular to certain groups, medical systems and philosophy, and participation in a college-wide interdisciplinary program entitled "Values in Concert." In this program, sets of three…

Two experiments were undertaken in Hong Kong to examine sociocultural factors in the speech acts of making apologies in Cantonese. The first experiment involved ten men who were given role cards describing various situations with minor to serious problems for which they must apologize. The influence of certain situational variables on the…