Analyzes how locus of control affects teachers instructional perceptions, their perceived workload, and their professional satisfaction. Reveals that teachers emphasizing an internal locus of control are satisfied professionally, see teaching as demanding, and positively view their instructional practices; teachers emphasizing an external locus of…

Reports results from a study exploring the information retrieval (IR) and types of interactive feedback during mediated IR. Five types of interactive feedback were identified, extending the interactive IR model to include relevance, magnitude, and strategy interactive feedback. Implications for further research investigating the nature and models…

A survey of 1,453 University of Alberta (Canada) graduates found their positive perceptions of the university's teaching had a strong impact on satisfaction, controlling for gender, age, discipline, grades, prior postsecondary experience, assessment of skill development, satisfaction with university learning-related resources, and several other…

Question Master (QM) is a decision-support system automating some more routine, fact-type reference questions encountered by guiding librarians through a set of clarifying questions before recommending appropriate print or electronic resource from WorldCat, the OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) Online Union Catalog. This study found that the…

The sociocultural aspects of infertility among members of the matrilineal ethnic group Macua are studied. Strategies applied by infertile women, the use of traditional healers versus modern hospital, and explanations given for infertility are presented. Solutions attempted, social consequences of infertility, and recommendations for culturally…

A study proposed a structural model of college faculty worklife and tested its generalizability by examining possible differences in the model across three cross-sectional samples of probationary faculty at a major research university over an eight-year period. Identified trends in faculty perceptions about their worklife over time can be used as…

Investigated reliability of the Family Narrative Consortium (FNC) scales for measuring the effect of social context on construction of family narratives. Analyzed data from four FNC studies to determine reliability of scale dimensions of narrative coherence, narrative interaction, and relationship beliefs. Found that the scale was a set of…

Builds on a "fifth level of elucidation" concerning what influences educator morale, job satisfaction, and motivation. Compares findings from two UK studies involving elementary schoolteachers and academics. For each group of educators, six issues mattered: equity and justice, pedagogy, organizational efficiency, interpersonal…

The influence of employment on parenting stress among 122 mothers of 5-year-olds with developmental disabilities and the influence of parenting demands and family support on work quality and absenteeism was examined. No significant associations were found among employment status and parenting demands, daily support, or stress. (Contains…

Students in a self-contained gifted and talented fifth grade evaluated three major learning activities of the Full Option Science System (FOSS). Students rated the activities very positively and felt the activities had given them greater confidence to work in groups, to be creative, and to strive to accomplish hard tasks as well as developing…

Used the 1996 National Survey of Teacher Education Program Graduates to evaluate the baccalaureate and Master's of education teacher education programs at one research university. Four measures were compared with norms from programs nationwide. Overall, graduates were very positive about their programs and careers, with both groups' responses more…

Twenty-five studies were reviewed that surveyed parents of children with moderate to severe mental disabilities concerning such issues as what parents wanted their children to learn, desired school setting, type or degree of desired involvement with the schools, level of satisfaction with services, and needs and plans for their children as adults.…

Study utilizing self-determination theory (which poses four types of motivation: intrinsic, self-determined extrinsic, nonself-determined extrinsic, and amotivation) postulates varying consequences for adaptation and well-being. Finds the four types of motivation could be reliably measured and that intercorrelations between them were consistent…

A telephone survey of 147 participants, ages 27 to 96, in a low-vision service program of an urban vision rehabilitation agency found that most respondents continued to use their devices every day for months after low-vision services were completed, and three-fourths reported that the services had a positive impact on their everyday functioning.…

Discussion of the situational dynamism of user-centered relevance estimation focuses on a study that used magnitude estimation to express the relative importance of each document retrieved from an information retrieval system. Topics addressed include relevance estimation as a cognitive schema and the relationship between learning and user…