A study investigated the viewing behavior of a sample of public television supporters, specifically examining the relationship of their social characteristics to viewing and to knowledge about Africa as presented in the series "The Africans." Subjects, 120 District of Columbia adults drawn from the membership lists of a local public TV…

In a search for effect dissemination methods for parent training programs, a videocassette program was developed as an alternative to traditional, professionally led programs to train parents in teaching self-help skills to their developmentally disabled children. Effectiveness of the videocassette approach was tested when 55 families in Los…

A study determined how direct instruction is being used and why it is being used the way that it is. Data were collected through observations and interviews from teachers and principals in 12 elementary schools involved in a school improvement project based, in part, on direct instruction. Results show that, in general, the elements of direct…

Teachers have the same rights as others, under the first amendment, to express their views outside the classroom. Inside the classroom, however, the teacher is obliged to meet the expectations of the job, and this implies reasonable restrictions on the expression of private views. United States Supreme Court cases have reviewed the teacher's right…

Research on interactive thinking has revealed that teachers make interactive decisions in response to students' behavior and to the flow of the activities or routines they have established based on their planning. The purpose of this study was to describe the interactive information processing of preservice teachers, and to identify similarities…

Cooperative Learning is a teaching methodology based on the belief that learning increases as students develop cooperative skills. A recent experiment with cooperative learning at the Philippine Refugee Processing Center indicates that it can be used effectively with low-level learners of English as a second language to foster both language…

Characteristics of the older developmentally disabled adult were studied in an examination of data collected on 485 randomly selected clients in four age categories; 18 and under (N=74), 19-54 (N=336), 55-64 (N=48), and 65 and over (N=27). Medical and physical problems were assessed, including general health, mobility problems, and prescription of…

The study reported here sought to establish the predictive validity of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP), an instrument designed to identify preschool children at risk for school-related problems in the primary years. Children (N=338) in 11 states who were originally tested in 1980 as part of the MAP standardization project were given a…

The need for an analytical approach to the study of phatic, metalingual, and metacommunicative functions in asymmetrical communicative situations (between native speakers and language learners) is discussed. The study presents theoretical frameworks for gambits and repairs, the linguistic phenomena that primarily serve those functions, and…

Focusing on purpose in the writing of college freshmen, a study examined the writing processes and how they related to the conceptions of purpose of four freshmen enrolled in a composition course at Indiana University. Discourse-based interviews were conducted before and after the students completed three tasks designed to vary their choice of…

A study investigated how oral discourse affects the communicative process of teaching and learning and how that process influences and is influenced by the goals and expectations of college instructors and college students. Three college classes were observed for one semester. Data were collected in the form of field notes, cassette tapes of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 5 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the influence of background knowledge on non-native students' memory for reading passages, (2) the development of a reading textbook with a teacher's manual for English as a second…

Conducted as the third in a series of four investigations of teacher explanation of reading skills, a study examined the relationship between explicit teacher explanation and student awareness of lesson content and reading achievement gains. Subjects were seven fifth-grade teachers and their respective low-reading ability groups. The teachers were…

The Meadow-Kendall Social-Emotional Assessment Inventories for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Students (SEAI) are designed to be completed by teachers and other educational personnel in close contact with deaf students. The school-age inventory contains 59 items divided into three subscales: social adjustment, self-image, and emotional adjustment.…

A large-scale sociological study of teacher burnout in the public schools is summarized. Data presented in the study consist of: a sample of 3,500 teachers in Houston, whose attitudes were monitored in 1977; exit interviews of every teacher in the initial sample who subsequently quit teaching over a 5-year period; achievement and attendance…