A study investigated the incremental value of a medical reasoning aptitude test to predict students' overall medical school performance and knowledge and clinical reasoning during preclinical years and clerkship performance. (MSE)

This study investigated issues affecting the achievement of girls talented in mathematics, focusing on those enrolled in the Advanced Placement program. Data from 1975, when boys were first admitted to all-girl classes, to 1985 are compared. Aptitude increased, achievement remained virtually unchanged, but GPAs for girls dropped. (MNS)

The context of staff development programs should be selected from options promising substantial increases in student learning and aptitude. This article introduces the "effect size" concept and reviews recent research on teaching models (cooperative learning, information-processing models, synectics, nondirective teaching, and DISTAR). Includes 55…

Describes a study that examined the relationship between academic ability or aptitude, as measured by grade point average and American College Test scores, and achievement with and without computer-assisted instruction. (15 references) (CLB)

Comparison of verbal Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and California Achievement Test (CAT) scores of high school students who had (N=1,333) or had not (N=445) taken at least one year of foreign language study supported the conclusion that length of foreign language study was positively related to high SAT verbal scores. (CB)

The effects of different instructors and student Myers-Briggs Type Inventory personality characteristics on the accuracy of predicting 1041 introductory English composition grades from a single regression equation were investigated. Results suggested that grades were inflated in classes with high means and deflated in classes with low means.…

This study explored questions about the effect of lesson structure and cognitive development on science achievement of 42 students in grades four and five in British Columbia. Increased lesson structure did not significantly increase achievement, and interaction effects were generally nonsignificant. Conservation ability significantly affected…

Meta analysis was used on 18 studies of elementary students that tested the effects of teacher expectation on pupil IQ. Data supported the view that the better teachers know their pupils at the time of expectancy induction, the smaller the treatment effect. Additional findings and implications for further research are discussed. (BS)

Focuses on the interpretation of the Sociocultural Scales and Estimated Learning Potential scales of the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment by counselors making placement decisions. Presents case examples illustrating assumptions counselors must make and controversial aspects of the system. (JAC)

Finds some evidence that out-of-level tests are more suitable and reliable for poor readers than are on-level tests. (FL)

Three functions that might explain why analogies are effective reading aids are described. Six experiments using elementary, secondary, and college students are reported which address the use of analogies as reading aids. Performance improvement, reading time, effects of restrictive time conditions, and aptitude treatment interactions are…

Concludes that field-independent college writers produced discourse that was judged more coherent than the discourse produced by field-dependent writers. Concludes that cognitive style is a significant variable in explaining differences between good and poor writers. (FL)

The interrelationships of a variety of student aptitude and achievement measures are examined in a sample of 88 Australian undergraduate students, and the critial role of the data analyst in examining the relationships is discussed. (MSE)

The relationship between reading scores on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT) was investigated, along with the tests' predictive validities for medical school achievement. Although NDRT was better as a single predictor of achievement, it has limitations as a predictive device. (SW)

Reports on three experiments designed to investigate K. Goodman's finding that children read words better in context than in isolation. Concludes that Goodman was wrong about the effects of context on word recognition, and that what seems to separate good from poor readers is the ability to decode words independently of context. (FL)