This study was designed to determine forensics students' ability to predict accurately how judges they knew from previous tournaments would rank them in rounds of competitive individual events. The study examined the following hypotheses: (1) contestants can predict how they will do in rounds of competition; and (2) contestants in prepared oral…

Addressing the question, "What can be done to promote school achievement?", this paper summarizes the literature on motivation relating to classroom achievement and school effectiveness. Particular attention is given to how values, ideology, and various cultural patterns impinge on classroom performance and serve to enhance motivation to achieve.…

This study explores the use of the adjunct question paradigm in self-instruction and distance education materials. The subjects were 187 high school students who read text passages and answered one high level (implication or inference) or low level (verbatim or paraphrase) question. These questions were either inserted in the text or massed at the…

Teacher performance areas, criteria for evaluating them, and specific descriptors of behavior satisfying each criterion are supplied in this document. Performance areas and criteria for teacher evaluation were selected by the five school districts participating in the School Improvement Model project. The teacher performance areas selected for…

Guidelines are presented for implementing the self-evaluation model for instructional programs developed at American River College (ARC). After stating the reasons for conducting program reviews, the paper describes ARC's model, which uses a mini-accreditation approach to assess the extent of goal attainment within a broad category of activities…

In contrast to linear models of human judgment developed for predictive purposes which are characteristically insensitive to the exact values of the weights utilized in them, the Linear Multiple Regression Models used for policy capturing are assumed to reflect significant aspects of the subjects' judgmental policies. This latter kind of modelling…

North Carolina students taking statewide achievement tests in grades 6 and 9 were ased two questions about the amount of time they spend doing homework: how much time do you spend doing assigned homework, and how much time do you spend doing work which is not assigned or required by the teacher? The results were compared with their scores on the…

Instructional intervention was offered to 77 educable mentally retarded children (7- to 13- years old) to determine if their academic achievement in reading could be increased when curriculum material was matched to their strongest perceptual modality. (LS)

The National Assessment of Educational Progress has now completed two major assessments of reading. The first took place in the 1970-71 school year, the second during the 1974-75 school year. Both assessed the achievement of students aged nine, thirteen, and seventeen. This report focuses on the results of these two assessments, comparing changes…

A reliable, easily administered performance test of selective attentional ability was sought. A monaural listening task provided a baseline control for adequate hearing and memory; a dichotic listening task then provided indices of ability to focus attention and resist distraction while a simultaneous listening task provided measures of ability to…

The study investigated whether performance levels of employed students receiving financial aid increase singnificantly as a consequence of monetary incentive, and whether there are result differentials for some students and not for others. The assumption concerning the incentive value of financial aid was not supported by the study's results.…

Goals of learning institutions in impairing knowledge and skills are analyzed. Role of the teacher is evaluated in relation to the articulatory goal. Teacher's productivity is considered in relation to a behavioral definition of learning. Six recommendations are made for facilitating the improvement of students' performance. (Author)