Self talk (thoughts about one's self and own performance while learning or working) can affect cognitive and learning strategies that in turn affect specific learning techniques. Negative self talk can interfere with learning since it reinforces feelings of failure, thereby increasing the probability of continued failure, and maintains an…

The articles in this journal focus on the teaching of composition at the secondary and college levels. Separate articles deal with the causes of poor proofreading by students and methods for teaching proofreading skills; the use of folklore as an aid to teaching composition; techniques for overcoming students' fear of failure in the writing…

This text is designed to provide adults who are planning to return to school with an understanding of themselves through insight into their personal problems and clarification of their goals. Factors involved in self-assessment and their relationship to school success are described. Needs, motives, and goals are defined and applied to success in…

Research has found that, in many performance situations, attributions of success and failure may reflect numerous experiences occurring over time. To expand this research, achievement attributions in an extended ego-involving situation, i.e., performance in an academic course, were examined. In addition to the traditional causes of effort,…

In order to assess the academic performance of transfer students from Los Angeles City College (LACC) to California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA), grade point averages (GPA's), completion rates, and departmental differences were calculated. Findings were based on first quarter grade reports for 691 students entering CSULA in 1977-78. Of…

This paper examines issues related to the role of preschool education in Norway. Two dominant philosophies of preschool education are identified, the first emphasizing the importance of play opportunities and the social environment of the preschool, and the second focusing on the importance of adequate pedagogical programs for optimum cognitive…

This report focuses on underschooling in the State of New York. The study provides statistics on dropouts, examines students' reasons for leaving school, and analyzes the school histories of dropouts with respect to patterns of disruption, truancy, and academic failure. Suggestions of school administrators and dropouts on how students might be…

An evaluation was conducted to determine the usefulness and effectiveness of the Washington Occupation Information Service (WOIS) materials and training workshops. Eighty-five Youth Employment and Training Project (YETP) counselors and administrators from twenty-one Comprehensive Employment Training Act (CETA) sites throughout Washington…

This article describes the philosophy and methods used by the staff at the Granite Alternative School in changing student attitudes through behavior modification. The students involved all have a failure syndrome or low self-image, and are dropouts from traditional high schools. Among the techniques used are: (1) reinforcing good behavior (praise…

An evaluation was conducted of the second year of Project REAL (Relevant Experiences for Alternative Learning), which provides high school students in Newark, Delaware, with community-based career development experiences and relates these learning activities to the curriculum of life skills, basic skills, and career development. In the area of…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper examines the concept of the least restrictive alternative for handicapped students as it applies to vocational education and provides representative models of service delivery systems. First, the origin of the least restrictive environment concept is traced, including the…

A case history of a 16-year-old Puerto Rican male high school dropout is presented to illustrate the visual-perception difficulties resulting in illiteracy and academic failure. The boy had had a number of years of formal schooling without learning any of the basic skills. Neither the academic nor the work training programs at Mobilization for…

This report describes a practicum project that attempted to reduce apathy among students and parents of students at an inner-city junior high school. All seventh-grade students at the study school and some of their parents were selected as the target group. A support team composed of noninstructional school personnel and community representatives…

This bulletin is published annually in the interest of children with specific language disabilities, learning disabilities, or dyslexia. Articles in this issue deal with "A Neurological Overview of Specific Disability for the Non-Neurologist,""The Evolution of Human Capacity for Language,""A Salute to Anna…

A two-year evaluation of William Glasser's Schools Without Failure (SWF) program was carried out in the New Castle School District in Pennsylvania. In the first year, ten elementary schools were paired on the basis of size, socioeconomic status, and past achievement of pupils. One school of each pair was randomly assigned to begin teacher-training…