Investigates factors influencing the decision of secondary school students to continue or discontinue the study of French beyond the compulsory years in an Australian college. Results indicate that gender, perceived ability in French, encouragement from parents and teachers, peer group preference, and beliefs about the career relevance of French…

Investigated relationships among interest, motivation, mathematical ability, quality of experience, and mathematics achievement among (n=108) high school freshmen and sophomores. Found that quality of experience was mainly related to interest in mathematics and not to ability. Achievement was most strongly related to ability. (45 references)…

Among 800 Swedish 13-year olds of high mathematical or verbal ability, boys with high verbal ability were found to have highly educated parents. Girls of high mathematical ability had high father presence and highly educated mothers. Educational choices in secondary school were more affected by gender than by ability. (SLD)

Reviews data from the "High School and Beyond" study to examine sibling intellectual symmetry and the degree to which family background affects the siblings' intellectual ability. Finds considerable symmetry in intellectual skills. Discovers little impact on symmetry from gender or birth order. (CFR)

Comparisons of aptitude factor structures were made in nationally representative samples of young black, white, and Hispanic American men and women who took the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) (n=9,173). Tests reflecting content common in high school curricula showed few sex or ethnic differences. Other differences are…

The number of high school students scoring 600 or more on the verbal portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test has dropped by 35 percent since 1972. The influence of television, changes in the makeup of the college-bound student population, and eroding standards in secondary schools are being blamed. (MSE)

Researcher Howard Gardner discusses the extent of students' application of learned concepts to real life; Project Zero research on alternative educational assessments; evaluation of children's multiple intelligences and aptitudes in the Spectrum classroom (combining free play and structured activities); teacher's role in providing each child an…

A multisensory structured language (MSL) approach was utilized with two groups of at-risk high school students (n=63), taught in either English and Spanish (MSL/ES) or Spanish only. Foreign language aptitude improved for both groups and native language skills for the MSL/ES group. A group receiving traditional foreign language instruction showed…

Study investigated relative merits of using teacher judgment and Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test (SFRIT) to estimate students' math and reading achievement. Analyses of students enrolled in a remedial-reading program, showed that the SFRIT recovered more variance from the distributions of math and reading tests than did teacher judgment. (RJM)

Reviews findings on the predictive validity of psychometric tests of intelligence. Concludes that conventional tests of intelligence can be useful but only if they are interpreted very carefully, taking into account the factors that can affect them, and in conjunction with other measures. (Author)

Reports on empirical research on second-language (L2) Zairean multilingual students of English as a Second Language. Findings confirm the hypothesis of the differential effect of task type and the level of target language attainment on the amount of interaction; suggest a significant effect on L2 learning of oral peer interaction; and show a…

Three experimental studies investigated psychological processes underlying the effects of achievement in one domain and on self-perceived competence in another. In Study 1, high achievement in one domain led to lower self-perceived competence in the other. Study 2 showed inverse effects on self-perceived competence based on achievement feedback.…

Determines the best predictors of compositional creativity among a set of selected variables for upper elementary students in order to demonstrate the importance of students' musical experiences outside of school. Finds that the best predictors were musical achievement and academic grades, while the strongest predictor was informal musical…

In this study, the authors surveyed undergraduate students at a large northeastern business school concerning influences on their choices of major. The authors examined factors such as why students initially select particular majors and which positive and negative factors relate to any later changes in those choices. Results show that interest in…

PURPOSE: This research determined the psychometric quality of a criterion-referenced measure that was thought to measure preschoolers' print-concept knowledge (PCK). METHOD: This measure, titled the Preschool Word and Print Awareness (PWPA), was examined using the partial credit model (PCM) to determine its suitability for use by clinicians,…