Two separate historical traditions have influenced Swedish literacy: the church and formal schooling. In answer to the challenge of the International Literacy Year 1990, Sweden has formed a national committee to address such issues as future literacy missions, support of international understanding, and stimulation of research. The National Board…

Surveys of school administrators, teachers, and parents were used to gather data about students with impaired hearing in Alberta during the 1989-1990 school year. This survey report begins with an introductory section which highlights the findings. Section II then describes student characteristics of hearing impaired students, including the number…

The work of the National Research Center on Student Learning (CSL) is described. The CSL, one of 23 national centers funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, is an integral part of the Learning Research and Development Center of the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania). The CSL conducts interdisciplinary research that…

A college-level applied sociology course in which students use sociological theory or research methodology to solve social problems is described. Guidelines for determining appropriate projects are: (1) the student must feel there is a substantial need for the project; (2) the project must be approachable through recognized sociological…

A study was made of the repetition of child abuse. (This repetition is sometimes referred to as recurrence or recidivism). The central feature of the research strategy was a followup on a group of families cited for abuse, conducted to determine the degree to which abuse had recurred or had been discontinued and to assess the conditions associated…

To examine the relationship between student writer and audience, five volunteers from a college freshman composition class were asked to think aloud on tape as they revised three out-of-class drafts of a paper. The subjects gave one protocol after getting feedback on an early draft from their own writing group, another after a student-teacher…

The methodology for validating assessment techniques in a performance-based liberal arts curriculum was studied at Alverno College. Two generic instruments for assessing the competencies of "communications" and "valuing" were employed. A generic instrument is defined as one that assesses a competence level across content areas…

Twenty years ago, anyone proposing to help teachers with the problem of classroom discipline had few resources at hand. It was approximately at that time that Jacob Kounin began a series of investigations that have changed our way of talking and thinking about classroom discipline. He changed our focus from a sterile concern with exercising…

This study can be used in a geographic research methods course to show how nearest-neighbor analysis and regression analysis can be used to study various aspects of land use. An analysis of the sand, gravel, and crushed stone industry in three urban areas of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Florida illustrates the locational problems faced by…

Current issues in educational communications and technology are addressed in this collection of 31 papers, in which research reports predominate. Topics discussed include factors related to the learner, e.g., aptitude, recall, computer anxiety, field dependence/independence, reading ability, learning strategies, and cognitive style. Presentation…

This report examines the logic that underlies projection methods and applies that logic to data describing vocational teacher needs for 1978 through 1982. (The report addresses the demand for vocational education teachers only, not for other personnel such as counselors, prevocational teachers, and so on.) The report is organized into three…

This paper presents a complex causal model of teacher stress based on data received from the responses of 1,466 teachers from Malmo, Sweden to a questionnaire. Also presented is a method for treating the model variables as higher-order factors or higher-order theoretical constructs. The paper's introduction presents a brief review of teacher…

Action research, a term first used in the 1940's by Kurt Lewin, implies the application of tools and methods of social science to immediate, practical problems, with the goals of contributing to theory and knowledge in the field of education and improving practice in the schools. Collaborative action research suggests that each group represented…

This report is based on the findings of the Los Angeles County Latino Assessment Study (LACLAS), which consulted with Latinos to determine the priorities, programs, and strategies for meeting the needs of their community in Los Angeles County (California). The study's main objective was to obtain information to assist governmental and…

A procedure was developed to detect differential item functioning (DIF) in a standardized essay test using the Partial Credit Model, the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model. Using a panel of experts in the writing process, hypothesized explanations for DIF at some score points were developed. Data for the study included averaged…