In its life-time, the profession of language teaching has undergone many changes. Early attempts at language teaching almost entirely lacked a theory base. In the 20th century, however, two sets of language teaching methods emerged; the first set borrowed theories from psychology, linguistics, and sociolinguistics whereas the second set was based…

Proposed a sequence of four developmental levels for the individuation process, from a social-cognitive perspective, from late childhood to late adolescence, defining individuation as separation of self from family. Confirmed these age increases in individuation, using an individuation interview, Selman's self-awareness measure, and the Lunzer…

Studied the relation of self-efficacy and assertiveness to women's willingness to engage in traditional or nontraditional career activities. Strong self-efficacy expectations and assertiveness were related to willingness to engage in career-related activities of nontraditional but not traditional occupations where, regardless of self-efficacy and…

Traces the development and maintenance of a Scottish ideology of egalitarianism from the 1700s to the present. Provides a quantitative summary of social inequality in Scotland since 1945 and suggests ways the egalitarian myth may have been received into the world of post-war policy-making. (KH)

A survey of financial aid administrators in Illinois studied the possible relationships of institutional type, job title, and years of experience on administrators' personal security, socialization, self-esteem, autonomy, self-actualization, and feeling of being knowledgeable. (MSE)

This paper reports on a focus group discussion held in June, 1998, in Killington, Vermont, about a 3-year project in Vermont to encourage the self-determination of people with developmental disabilities. The project has involved training of four project teams, each composed of a person with a developmental disability, a family member, and a person…

The call to change seems to be a constant in education. In second language education, a constellation of changes have been proposed and, to some extent, implemented. This constellation of interconnected changes can perhaps best be termed a paradigm shift, with this paradigm fitting under the general umbrella of Communicative Language Teaching…

Reports on a study that used a national dataset to support or disconfirm research regarding parental involvement with, and control over, various aspects of high school seniors' lives. Findings support the contention that parental involvement and parental control are conditional on one another in predicting adolescents' locus of control. (RJM)

The Council on Quality and Leadership in Supports for People with Disabilities conducted interviews with 447 people with disabilities to identify priority outcomes they expect from service and supports. An analysis resulted in 24 variables loading onto 7 major factors: identity, autonomy, affiliation, attainment, rights, health, and safeguards.…

Observations and interviews in 16 classrooms concerning proximity of instructional assistants to students with disabilities found: (1) interference with general educator responsibility; (2) separation from classmates; (3) dependence on adults; (4) impact on peer interactions; (5) limitations on receiving competent instruction; (6) loss of personal…

Analysis of 5 waves of panel data on over 2,000 males from 10th grade to 5 years after high school found that self-esteem was quite stable over time and was related to shared decision making in the family and intrinsic motivation in school. Findings were mixed with respect to the work sphere. Contains 131 references. (SV)

Presents findings from the field test of 261 adolescents with mild mental retardation and learning disabilities on a student self-report measure of self-determination. The four primary domains of the scale were autonomy, self-regulation, psychological empowerment, and self-realization. The utility of the scale for instructional and research…

Explores the exact meaning of the locus of control construct and differentiates it from key constructs in the personal control literature. Clarifies the meaning of a number of constructs and advocates an approach to counseling which recognizes the heuristic and therapeutic value of employing such constructs in an integrated fashion. (RJM)

A teacher used selected parts of the Autonomous Learner Model with 24 Hispanic first-graders, half of whom were English-language learners, to promote the educational progress of all of the children and find potentially gifted children. Students quickly learned independence, responsibility, resourcefulness, and higher order thinking skills. Several…

Examines the possible influence of locus of control orientation and its relationship to critical aptitudes and developmental variables. Studies six discriminator variables in order to predict an understanding of the nature of science among preservice elementary teachers with respect to locus of control orientation. (CW)