Current policies place unprecedented demands on districts to use evidence to guide their educational improvement efforts. How districts respond is likely to be influenced by how individuals in the district conceptualize what it means to use evidence in their ongoing work. This study draws on sensemaking and institutional theory to investigate how…

Six intermediate/advanced learners of English, studying in the United Kingdom, identified messages that they wanted to convey in specific future conversations and memorized native-like versions of them. Their ability to use them in practice and in the real conversation was analyzed. Propensity to attempt using memorized material correlated with…

This study examined the interchange of emotional cues during interactions between parents and their popular or rejected children. Participants were 28 4- and 5-year-old preschool children and their parents. Children were selected as popular or unpopular using a sociometric nomination procedure conducted in their preschool or day care classroom.…

This paper focuses on the common sources of etiologies of conflict in multicultural contexts. Multicultural communication is the creation and sharing of meaning among citizens of the same geopolitical system who belong to divergent tributary cultures. The sources of conflict in multicultural relations can be grouped into five broad categories.…

This paper focuses on the void in the literature on the methodology of institutional research and examines the complex process of interaction that occurs when an institution engages a faculty member or academic unit to assume primary responsibility for conducting a research project on behalf of the institution. A case study of a study conducted by…

A two-stage testing strategy is one method of adapting the difficulty of a test to an individual's ability level in an effort to achieve more precise measurement. A routing test provides an initial estimate of ability level, and a second-stage measurement test then evaluates the examinee further. The measurement accuracy and efficiency of item…

A program of theoretical and empirical research focusing on the ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition is reviewed. An integrative framework for information-processing and cognitive ability determinants of skills is reviewed, along with principles for ability-skill relations. Experimental manipulations were used to…

The effect of "temperament" in a school-like environment was evaluated for 30 children with mental retardation, 30 children with autism, and 30 typical children (all groups with a mean mental age of 23 to 24 months). Five-minute videotapes of each child attempting to complete a puzzle were viewed and scored by raters on the University of…

This book analyzes the nature of differences among students in terms of grade levels of academic abilities. How these differences have emerged, and what teachers can do to address such varied abilities in their classrooms are discussed. Chapter 1, "The Nature of the Educational Challenge," examines just how extensive these differences…

A study investigated differences in discourse styles that may affect second language listening comprehension. Ten amateur actors performed three speaking tasks: (1) reading aloud a short self-contained narrative; (2) acting out a memorized script; and (3) conversing with the researcher for 20-30 minutes. Excerpts of the recorded tasks in different…

Understanding the behavior of those evaluating a speech is important for a complete understanding of the public communication process. Ratings of public speaking were submitted to a Rasch analysis to determine whether objective measurement can create and maintain a standard of speech evaluation. Data used were 1,022 ratings of 168 speeches given…

This study investigated the role that emotional factors play in learning about sexual health and in adopting sexually healthy behaviors. Learning about health and adopting healthy behaviors hinges on two variables: the desire to avoid illness and a belief that one can avoid threats to health through personal action. This paper reports on…

U.S. society is diverse, consisting of individuals who may differ in culture, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, religion, language, gender, exceptionality, and age. Optimum learning for all students can occur only in an environment that supports and encourages such diversity. Multicultural education addresses the challenges of recognizing diversity…

This paper presents a rationale for serving gifted students in the regular classroom and offers guidelines for recognizing students who are gifted in the seven types of intelligence proposed by Howard Gardner. Stressed is the importance of creating in the classroom a community of learners that allows all children to actively explore ideas and…

The report describes Project UNIQUE (Underachievers Needing Individualized and Qualitative Unique Education) for gifted underachieving students in grades 3-6, stressing three major instructional components: (1) an affective curriculum; (2) a differentiated curriculum; and (3) a study skills curriculum. The program includes inservice involvement of…