The behavior of 40 mainstreamed educable mentally retarded (EMR) children enrolled in 10 elementary schools was compared based on teacher rating scales and controlled behavioral observations. (SEW)

The authors talk about school psychology and the assessment of profoundly handicapped children from their personal experiences in two fields: special education and school psychology. Each author has practical experience relevant to current trends in these fields. (Author)

Two descriptive chemistry experiments are presented which foster development of students' skills in making observations and deductions. In addition, the experiments are designed to stress the importance of chemical behavior and clear presentation of experimental findings. (JN)

Principals unable or unwilling to conduct thorough teacher evaluations using classroom observations should consider two other sources of evaluation data: "artifacts of teaching," including lesson plans, tests, activity instructions, and bibliographic handouts prepared by teachers, student work, peer testimony, and similar materials; and…

Six infants were filmed at 15 and 30 weeks of age while alone and in the presence of an adult (mother or stranger) who interacted with the infant or remained passive. Signal detection analysis of ratings made by judges showed that infant behavior at both ages varied in accord with whether or not an adult was present. (Author/DB)

Two experiments tested whether children fail to make transitive inferences because they forget the premises. Children did not justify incorrect inferences by incorrect premises. Results between nontransitive and transitive inferers parallelled similar studies with nonconserver- conserver dyads and were viewed as reinforcing the commonality between…

Preschool children were observed in a natural setting in order to examine the continuity of their play styles over a period of one year. Changes in play styles appeared to be affected by peer or teacher intervention. In particular, male peer groups effectively shaped male sex-typed behavior even when they engaged in play activities not…

A symbolic interactionist approach to evaluation views the evaluator as an observer of group behavior in which individual action aligns with collective action. The evaluator attempts to discover what is actually going on in the program being evaluated. Though the interactionist approach frees the program manager from having to articulate goals, it…

Proposed a method of predicting the mean rating of the cooperating teacher and college supervisor of student teachers on the Teacher Observation Rating Scale. Direct observation and operationally defined personality measures predicted student teacher performance more accurately than the prediction of academic performance in education. (Author/JAC)

Describes an ethnographic study of writing in one elementary classroom that identified four functions of writing: writing to participate in community, writing to know oneself and others, writing to occupy free time, and writing to demonstrate academic competence. (HOD)

In a longitudinal study of sibling interaction, same-sex and mixed-sex pairs of siblings were observed twice in their homes. Interaction patterns remained stable over the 18 months separating the two observations. Older children initiated prosocial and combative behavior more often than younger children and submitted less often to dominant…

Observations showed that the use of signs did not impede the development of speech. Instead it seems to increase the children's skill in lipreading, although the early use of written language may play a part by facilitating the encoding of lip movements. (Author)

The social interaction and social organization patterns of 408 Israeli kindergarten children and first graders engaged in outdoor free play were observed for 40 minutes each day for three continuous weeks. (Author/CM)