Reports results of a study assessing the effectiveness of teaching statistics with an emphasis on selection skills. Discusses how general academic ability and gender affected students' learning when the instructor emphasized selection skills. Concludes that teachers must emphasize selection skills through handouts, lectures, and examinations to…

Meta-analysis of 225 hypothesis tests of measures of memory for order (MFO) and the relationship of MFO and measures of general ability demonstrate a significant relationship between MFO and standardized test scores. Fifty-one independent samples were tested. MFO task quality was a significant predictor of effect size. (SLD)

Examined impact on novice family therapists' skill acquisition of the initial phase of family therapy. Results revealed significant changes from pre- to posttesting in family therapy skills. Changes in trainee skill levels were positively correlated to trainee's extent of initial knowledge of family therapy. (RJM)

Analysis of elementary and junior high student and teacher ratings of highly talented peers found that 60% of the 42 items had a significant overrepresentation of either boys or girls, with boys judged more talented in physical and technical aptitudes and girls more talented in arts and socioaffective aptitudes. (Author/DB)

The role played by sex-related differences in prediction of grades from Scholastic Aptitude Test scores with regard to the grade criterion and the variables associated with academic performance was studied for an entire university first-year class (4,351 students). Sources of underprediction for women are discussed. (SLD)

Review research on foreign language aptitude and its measurement prior to 1990. Describes research areas in the 1990s, including affective variables, language learning strategies, learning styles as contributors to aptitude and aptitude as a cognitive construct affected by language variables. Reviews research on individual differences and the…

Examined the long-term effects of ability-grouped mathematics classes on 1,139 seventh-graders who participated in the Michigan Study of Adolescent Life Transitions. The results revealed some negative and no positive correlates at the tenth-grade level for low-ability students placed in low-ability classrooms, compared with their peers placed in…

Examines three concepts of school readiness and national survey data on parent and teacher ideas about what constitutes readiness for individual children. The authors then examine some of the indicators and benchmarks that have been proposed to measure progress toward the readiness goal as proposed in Readiness 2000. (GR)

Contextualizes the mathematical intelligence as revealed in the human tendencies, as supported by the extended family, and facilitated by choice within a responsive environment. Reviews the function of Montessori materials, including mathematical materials, and emphasizes that the personal intelligences are integral to all activities simply…

Introduces the inspection-time (IT) measure in psychology, and argues that its much-replicated correlation with intelligence quotient (IQ) and its potential for theoretical tractability has more potential for the understanding of individual differences in cognitive ability than other indices of human information processing. It summarizes studies…

Describes a teaching method that employs a variety of techniques--including psychology--to reduce math anxiety in basic skills math classes. States that when these types of efforts were made to reduce math anxiety, students received more satisfactory grades and fewer repeats and unsatisfactories. (NB)

Performance of 210 2nd graders in different areas of mathematical cognition was examined. Children were divided into 4 achievement groups. Although children with difficulties in mathematics performed worse than normally achieving groups in most areas of mathematical cognition, those with difficulty only in mathematics showed an advantage over the…

Reinterprets Betts and Shkolnick's results in an article appearing in this "EER" issue. The data do not allow accurate classification of tracked and untracked classrooms. There appears to be little difference in student performance and resource allocation between schools that formally and informally group students by ability. (MLH)

The culminating project in completing a doctorate in education is the preparation and final defense of the dissertation. Specifically in educational administration and leadership, the student will have exerted hours of energy participating in course work, internships as well as in written and oral comprehensive examinations. By the time a student…

Background: Students' self-concepts play an important role in explaining achievement-related behaviour. According to the internal/external frame of reference model (I/E Model), students use two frames of reference to form their mathematical and verbal self-concepts. The model predicts that external comparisons will lead to a positive association,…