Communication apprehension (CA) has emerged as the dominant paradigm for explaining communication stress and its corollaries. It has achieved this status largely because several key assumptions have not been challenged or assessed empirically. These assumptions are that CA (1) is a pervasive social phenomenon, (2) affects external outcomes of…

Two studies are presented which investigate the influence of various toy structures on the frequency of individual fantasy play forms in 3- to 6-year-old children. In the first study, the effects of high-realistic/high-complexity and low-realistic/low-complexity toy structures were compared. There were significant main effects for the factor toy…

A study examined a series of performance standards issues in the context of employment and training programs targeted toward the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) population. Telephone interviews were conducted with representatives from the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and departments of public welfare programs in nine states.…

Although research in goal setting has demonstrated that specific, difficult goals lead to better performance, more refined research on the affect of participative decision making and supportive leadership on goal setting has produced ambiguous results. To investigate the relative importance of goal setting, leader supportiveness, and task…

This study measures performance frequency of leadership tasks of approximately 20 percent of Colorado's principals. Principals most experienced do not differ from others on the frequency assessment scale, yet spend more time on instructional leadership activities, which range from teacher support (professional growth opportunities, rewards) and…

Prior research indicates that language-handicapped children obtain higher test scores when tested by personally familiar examiners than when tested by personally unfamiliar examiners. The present investigation inquired whether this finding is due to examinees' actual differential performance across the two examiner conditions, or whether it is the…

Eight coaches of oral interpretation from colleges across the United States were asked to tape record the coaching sessions that brought eight novices to tournament readiness. All of the students used the same three-poem program on the general theme of animals and children, but each student was required to write the introduction and transitions.…

A 2-year study of mathematics performance of sixth-grade students was conducted to: (1) determine the extent to which previously reported sex differences in California data exist and influence student response; (2) examine the predominant successful and unsuccessful strategies used by sixth-grade students in solving story problems; (3) discover to…

Two studies examined the effects of different types of imaginal elaborations on recall. In Experiment 1, 6-year-olds, 9-year-olds, and college adults were given 20 word pairs embedded in one of four types of sentences: short plausible, bizarre, personalized, or self-generated. With no mention of a memory test, subjects were asked to use the…

Is college student academic performance harmed by competing employment obligations? At what point do the hours spent on the job begin to interfere with the predicted academic achievement of full-time students? This study addresses these questions by analyzing data collected from students at two non-residential community colleges. Using an outcomes…

This paper describes the Teacher Assessment Project at Stanford University, which is currently examining the use of performance-based methods for assessing teachers' competence. The research outlined in this work-in-progress explores the feasibility of documenting teaching through the use of portfolios. The paper identifies three…

How different institutions conceive of and construct knowledge is examined by delineating how they enact their conception of knowledge through curriculum. The contention of Burton Clark and others that disciplinary activity is primarily responsible for fomenting knowledge production is argued. It is suggested that institutions have a more powerful…

This study examines research related to factors which influence achievement at the kindergarten level. It also attempts to increase awareness of kindergarten programs which make a child's first experience in school a positive one. The main portion of this paper consists of an annotated bibliography of 34 references divided into four sections. The…

To analyze the usefulness of forensics judges' written comments and to understand how to improve ballots, a content analysis of 175 ballots from schools in a competition district was conducted. Categories for analysis included the following: (1) quantity of comments; (2) format of the ballot; (3) types of comments (including selection,…

The expert system computer simulation detailed in this report is designed to investigate patterns of valuing in decision-making about dossiers of performance data used in teacher promotion evaluations. The knowledge base for the simulation consists of 111 questions organized into 117 rules. The questions and linked advice were derived from…