Considers the narrative function of children's play by focusing on story, imagination, and visual expression. Argues that children's storytelling brings into account their knowledge of the world and of narrative conventions. Suggests that context shapes and constrains the stories told. Concludes that storytelling can enhance literacy and should be…

Study creates and tests a comprehensive model of adolescent problem drinking. Results indicate that high levels of parental support and a positive school climate in the 8th grade influence the formation of relationships with peers with positive values in the 10th grade that guard against problem-drinking behavior in the 10th grade. (Contains 40…

Examines the current status of effective-schools research in the developing world and identifies underlying concerns, including effects of World Bank structural-adjustment policies. Posits a contextually related view of school effectiveness--the need to eschew "objective" checklists and gather different stakeholders' perceptions about…

Argues that existing accountability standards for educational leaders are inadequate to accommodate the diverse contextual realities of working life. Raises critical questions concerning the most appropriate philosophical views of contemporary educational leadership and how to assess such leadership. Organizations as open systems are superior to…

Observations and interviews over six months at seven adult mental health day programs in Canada showed how organizational context shapes occupational therapy practice. The social organization of knowledge forms an invisible controlling apparatus that constrains the empowerment of adult clients. (96 references) (JOW)

This study tested the effect of embedded clauses on recall for 48 English-speaking high school students reading Spanish historical texts. It found that the complexity of sentence structure seemed to cancel the advantage of previous exposure to the content domain. Contains 39 references. (MDM)

Presents an account of existential "there"-sentences in which the postverbal negative phrase (NP) is required to represent a "hearer-new" entity. The article identifies five types of formally definite yet hearer-new NPs that may occur in "there"-sentences. The restriction against definite NPs in "there"-sentences results from a mismatch in…

This article examines how psychometric models based on certain assumptions have come to be used counterproductively by many practitioners in ways that limit the kinds of conclusions that can be made. The general problem of the context's influence on performance is discussed, and some implications are drawn. (SLD)

Discusses the application of pragmatic and discoursal principles to second-language acquisition (SLA). After critical examination of more traditionally oriented approaches, the article reanalyzes the process of SLA in an interactively oriented setting and applies the principle of "adjacency pair" to the context of SLA. The principle of…

Explores the concept of curriculum enactment, which calls attention to classroom uses of content and contextual constructions of meaning. The study's methodological framework draws on descriptive, interpretive, evaluative, and thematic dimensions of educational criticism. Two high school English and social studies classes exemplifying curriculum…

Traditional research methodologies (questionnaire surveys) ignore the role of institutional contexts in defining and structuring human agency. Biography and ethnography acknowledge context's importance in constructing leadership systems and treat followers' implicit theories more effectively. This article discusses the purposes, problems, and…

Examined predictors of children's moral reasoning development over 4-year period. Found that parental and friend interaction during moral conflict discussions influenced development differently. Minimal moral development was predicted by friends' cognitive challenges to the target child's moral reasoning and by parents' interfering interactions.…

Study explores how institutional context affects the development of self-concept in a sample of 273 African American college students. Findings suggest that students attending church affiliated historically Black colleges develop significantly higher self-ratings in three domains of self-concept-psychosocial wellness, academic, and achievement…

Discusses a number of issues involved in a description of a variety of English in relation to the distinctive vocabulary of Hong Kong English. Attention to semantic and pragmatic relationships internal to the variety and the sociocultural context in which it operates is urged. (Author/VWL)

Uses a methodology for probing systems-thinking developed and used to investigate the way children (N=35) think about the natural environment. Findings suggest that eight-year-old children are capable of this type of thinking. (DDR)