The article reviews the literature concerning family influences on early childhood development. Implications of this literature for intervention planning with high risk children and families are suggested. Topics covered include the early parent-child relationship, disciplinary strategies, stimulation, parental instruction and expectations, the…

Compares independent and dependent variables for teaching effectiveness and formulates generalized statements about the effect of course characteristics or student characteristics on student ratings of instruction. Finds a direct correlation between student ratings of faculty and expected course grade. (MS)

Explores the factors associated with expected outcome of emotional expression and likelihood of expression among 125 first-, fourth-, and sixth-grade children. Results suggest that socialization practices tend to be directed towards the suppression of sadness among males. (RJC)

Effective discipline is achieved in San Diego County, California, schools by applying four qualities identified in defective schools research: (1) high expectations; (2) frequent monitoring; (3) shared leadership; and (4) home school relations. (MLF)

In a study of 121 elementary school teachers, those with strong beliefs about the importance of student work habits reported that they planned their lessons with greater responsiveness to student performance than teachers with less strong beliefs. Their learning-disabled and average-achieving students also achieved better than those with teachers…

A study investigated the degree to which changes made in a traditional introductory computer course addressed student expectations. The revised curriculum focused on computer literacy and computer awareness rather than programming skills. Evaluation suggests that, although neither course realized student expectations fully, the revised course…

A conceptualization of test theory is discussed that addresses issues of weight and coverage of evidence for statements framed in recent educational/psychological paradigms. Implications for language assessment built around the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages' guidelines are considered. (26 references) (Author/CK)

Maintains that educational integration assumes that heterogeneous grouping will increase the extent to which the learning disabled are accepted by peers. Reports on a study of 128 adolescents in integrated and nonintegrated schools. Finds that the frequency of contacts, not the type of school attended, led to more positive expectations. (CFR)

Argues that if educational institutions wish to achieve the goal of cultural diversity, they must go beyond curricula that transmit culture (that is, the core curriculum) or transform culture (that is, multiculturalism) and embrace a curriculum that enhances individual differences. Maintains that institutions should affirm students' individual…

In November 1992, Japanese Ministry of Education declared middle school teachers could no longer use distribution tables produced by private testing companies to predetermine high school students' curricula. Failure to implement reform stems from structural and cultural roots. By presorting students and molding their expectations, traditional…

Suggests that asking children to color within the lines does not stifle their creativity but is similar to expecting children to stand in line for the bus or write neatly. Proposes that expecting students to color within the lines is establishing a basis of knowledge and control from which they can eventually explore more creative avenues of…

This study identified expectations that 40 mothers had for their adolescent children in the areas of future living arrangements, employment/education goals, and social relationships. Mothers of adolescents with severe mental retardation and adolescents without disabilities had similar expectations for their children, that is, independence.…

Examined differences between mothers of behavior-problem boys (MBPs) and mothers of average boys (MABs)in processing information in compliance situations. Found the MBPs made greater attributions of defiant intent toward the child and experienced more anger than MABs in ambiguous stimulus situations and that MBPs expected more resistance in…

A consumer research technique, conjoint analysis, was used to assess the relative importance of several factors in 104 fourth-year medical students' selection of specialty. Conjoint analysis appears to be a useful method for investigating the complex process of specialty selection. (SLD)

Examines why the U.S. educational system often produces students who graduate without adequate writing skills and how the stage was set through a political climate that created lowered expectations of student skills. The article explores the failed attempts of the process schools of composition, its counterweight known as deconstruction, and the…