A study of exceptional secondary school biology teachers was conducted to determine what factors might be important in encouraging young women to remain on the "science track" during high school. Each teacher had a record of encouraging his/her female students to enroll in further science and mathematics courses. Three questions were…

Noting that loss of control is a major concern confronting patients experiencing an illness, this paper critically analyzes the research literature on control and clarifies the implications of this research for provider-patient communication. The paper first defines control, noting that the most frequently cited definition is the "locus of…

Designed for developmental educators involved in a Telementoring Project, this instructional unit identifies common causes of poor academic performance by students enrolled in developmental programs. The sections of the unit address: (1) students' lack of personal and/or academic autonomy in terms of expected success, locus of control, and…

The theoretical African mode of thinking about liberty seems to stand in contrast to the view of liberty that has dominated Western philosophy. Western philosophy accepts as its starting point the notion of an unconstrained and uncontextualized "I" that is defined in relation to the self and its inner being. Greek, Cartesian, and…

Research has shown that girls and boys begin at equal levels of performance in mathematics and science, but that during the middle school years differences have been observed in both science achievement and science attitudes of males and females. It appears that once science becomes an option for females, they often do not select science…

Most school curricula include the study of health as a separate subject or as part of science. Despite this, students often leave school without a clear understanding of many health concepts. This study investigated a group of grade eight and nine students' knowledge of personal health and physical fitness concepts and its relation to locus of…

Motivation is widely believed to be a critical component of the learning process in the elementary classroom, but educational research has failed to substantiate this belief. To investigate interrelationships among selected motivational variables, demographic, motivational and achievement characteristics of 400 elementary school students in Grades…

To investigate locus of control and its relationships to ethnicity, socioeconomic status (SES), and academic achievement, a large sample of Black, Mexican-American, Native American, and White students in the fourth, fifth, and seventh grades were administered the Academic Achievement Accountability Questionnaire (a locus-of-control questionnaire)…

During the fall semester of 1976, a pre-test/post-test study was conducted to compare open circuit television and on-campus instruction for "introduction to business" students. The telecourse consisted of on-campus orientation, newsletters, a study guide, 30 TV programs, telephone assistance, selected activities, and examinations. The sample…

To further validate the locus of control (LOC) construct and to counterbalance the present tendency in LOC literature to downgrade the external LOC personality, the relationship between LOC and social acceptance or popularity was examined. It was hypothesized that a relationship exists between LOC and social acceptance; and secondly, that a high…

The characteristics of individualized services offered by the Northwest Staff Development Center in Livonia (Michigan) to teachers in seven school districts were studied and a user profile was sought as a measure of program effectiveness. Services were requested directly by individual teachers and administrators to meet specific needs. Requests…

A study was undertaken at Bronx Community College (BCC) to: (1) examine the relationship between feelings of powerlessness and academic success at the college level; and (2) assess the relationship between powerlessness and background variables such as students' race, sex, age, socio-economic status, and family characteristics. A biographical data…

The relationships between schools' physical environments and the teachers who work in them were explored. Eleven middle school teachers were interviewed about their orientation toward and operation in their schools. They were asked what they thought were their schools' most important features, how they felt about the buildings, what were its good…

Past research on teachers' causal attributions has shown little relation between perceptions of responsibility for positive versus negative student learning outcomes. In this study, Weiner's model for causal attributions was employed to explore these perceived attributional differences. Data were gathered from 184 teachers from two metropolitan…

This paper summarizes and compares three studies which used different approaches to diagnostic/prescriptive instruction: (1) voluntary diagnosis and remediation; (2) required diagnosis with no formal remediation; and (3) required diagnosis with prescribed remediation. It includes an examination of the influence of selected student entry…