Presents a rather obtuse and apologetic defense of "The Bell Curve," claiming that the authors have been wrongfully accused of racist tendencies while admitting the many examples in the book that support the claim. Maintains that the book objectively examines important issues of class, intelligence, and social stratification. (MJP)

Explores and criticizes the negative image of Islamic culture often fostered by Western media. Briefly considers the career, contributions, and example of Yusuf Islam (the former Cat Stevens). Includes a list of common misconceptions about Islam followed by corrective information. (MJP)

Two years after California's ban on racial and gender preferences became law, supporters and opponents of affirmative action are debating the impact on college faculty diversity. Some institutions have maintained slow but steady growth in minority faculty; diversity at others has declined. Some say that not all effects of the change, including…

Notes the increase in after-school programs for school-age children and discusses ways to meet the outdoor play needs of this age group. Stresses the need to recognize the unique physical, cognitive, and social needs of school-age children; offers suggestions for developing or modifying playgrounds to meet those needs. (TJQ)

Examines four key themes from a national study, focusing particularly on beliefs and practices of middle school teachers and principals as they relate to academically diverse learners. Provides insight into how middle level educators think about and address academic diversity in their schools and classrooms, and suggests areas for staff…

Under Nelson Mandela's leadership, post-apartheid South Africa made a successful transition to democracy. High priority was given to educational reconstruction, particularly creating a curriculum connected to practical needs for a viable economy and life in a new democracy. President Thabo Mbeki is building on Mandela's policies. (Contains 17…

Examined the joint and unique predictive significance of emergent literacy skills for later emergent literacy skills and reading in two samples of preschoolers. Structural equation modeling revealed significant developmental continuity of these skills, particularly for letter knowledge and phonological sensitivity from late preschool to early…

Presents a collection of articles on blacks in higher education, including such topics as: older black students; blacks in academic nursing; black medical school enrollment; blacks in academic psychology; black colleges being ignored by the Rhodes Scholarship Committee; school desegregation in Cambridge, Massachusetts; Louis Farrakhan as a GOP…

Describes differences between on-campus and distance learners by knowledge, skills, and abilities based on a comparative study of doctoral students at Texas A&M University. Highlights include student perceptions of their competencies; and the use of competency models as assessment tools for strategic decision making and development of courses…

Examined the role of fourth graders' social self-perceptions in their social development. Found significant relationships among self-perception measures, and they were moderately stable over the school year. Found significant sociometric status and gender effects for generalized and dyadic perceptions. Inaccurate social self-perceptions predicted…

Investigated the effectiveness of a program to facilitate preservice teachers' intercultural sensitivity, examining the beliefs of two teachers at the end of the program and noting residual effects 3 years later. Data from students' journals, narratives, essays, observations, and interviews indicated that the program had its intended effect to…

Examines whether differences exist in the provision and use of negative feedback, according to the age of the learners and the context of the interaction. Data were collected from 20 classrooms (20 adult and 10 child English-as-Second-Language classes) and 32 native speaker-nonnative speaker dyads (16 adult and 16 child). (Author/VWL)

Used maternal beliefs, emotions, and experiences of Canadian and Swedish mothers to predict hypothetical physical punishment of preschoolers. Found that Canadians were more likely than Swedes to suggest physical punishment and demonstrate stronger support for spanking. Support for physical punishment and rating target misbehaviors as stable…

Tested the hypothesis that individual differences in immediate-verbal-memory span predict success in second-language vocabulary acquisition. In the two-session study, adult subjects learned 56 English-Finnish translations. Tested one week later, subjects were less likely to remember those words they had difficulty learning, even though they had…

Examines British national examination results and related trends in the declining level of performance in modern languages relative to other subjects, suggesting that this trend to underperform in modern languages may be due in part to the relative difficulty of the examinations. The paper proposes strategies to help teachers become more rigorous…