Perceived educational strengths and weaknesses of Appalachian schools are examined as indicators of school effectiveness in this study, which is based on the formula that the expectations people have of schools minus the perceptions of how those expectations are met equals a dissonance factor. The School Effectiveness Inventory (SEI), which…

Several conditions, identified by Cambourne (1988) as contributing to children becoming successful language users, have been simulated in Australian schools in order for children to feel self-assured in mastering writing and reading just as these conditions have promoted the developmental process of talking in the home. The conditions are:…

Whether there is a causal link from attitudes to economic success is investigated in this study, which uses data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. A theory of motivation is proposed which has two components: motives, generalized dispositions to approach or avoid a class of incentives, and expectancies, an individual's assessments of the…

To investigate the influence of instructional behaviors and adult expectations on children's task performance, 48 boys either 5 to 6 or 8 to 9 years of age individually viewed instructional videotapes and participated in a delay of gratification task. In the first phase of the study, videotapes were produced in which instructors were told to…

The responses of first-grade students to seatwork assignments were studied through detailed narrative records, copies of seatwork performance, and informal conversations with the students about their work. Two distinct groups of students were identified for comparisons: those whose responses to seatwork were frequently poor (low attention and low…

A study of student perception of their intended college at the end of their high school junior year and after a 5-week summer orientation on campus revealed, in comparison with national norms, an unrealistic expectation on pretest scores with four of the five post-test scores showing more realistic expectations. (JT)

Investigated the development of temporal perspectives in disadvantaged subcultures and the cognitive structures underlying those perspectives. Subjects were 120 males, including 20 Anglo-Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans, from each of two age groups. (10-12 and 14-17). (Author/SDH)

A study undertaken in 1983-85 examined the effects of job loss and financial stress on the cognitive stimulation provided for children in the home and parents' confidence regarding their children's future. Effects of parents' educational level were also considered. It was hypothesized that when parents were unemployed, or had a grim view of the…

In spite of major changes in women's work force participation, there is evidence that many female adolescents have limited their career aspirations because of stereotypical thinking in their career decision making. Evidence that these attitudes may be equally true for intellectually gifted females is inconclusive. This study was conducted to…

As a part of the initial phase of a strategic planning effort for the development of Florida's 1988 through 1991 long-range cooperative extension program, an effort was initiated to achieve common expectations for overall organizational mission and purpose among diverse cooperative extension faculty. The unification effort included the following…

Changes in mothers' strategies for eliciting verbal responses (EVR's) as a function of child age were investigated in this study. Seven mother-child dyads were observed in their homes when the children were 16, 21, 24, 30, and 34 months of age. Mother EVR's were coded according to syntactic form, type of cue for child response, and complexity of…

This paper reports the descriptive results of a national study undertaken to profile the 1982 graduating college senior in terms of his or her work-related attitudes, interests, expectations, perceptions, and values. Introductory sections present a statement of the problem, the purpose of the study, a review of the literature, and a discussion of…

A three-phase investigation of memory and metacognitive development was conducted to learn how teachers structure children's study activities to develop memory and metacognitive skills. In the first study, observations of 69 teachers of kindergarten through sixth grade classes showed a peak in strategy suggestions at the second and third grades.…

This paper examines, in terms of family role expectations, problems and difficulties experienced by families with aging members. These difficulties are presented as a manifestation of dysfunctional societal attitudes and beliefs that make it inevitable that an aging family will experience conflict with regard to family roles. Dysfunctional beliefs…