This doctoral thesis examines whether inductive and deductive teaching methods are appropriate for different learners. Statistical interactions between the two instructional methods and various aptitude variables were examined among 275 sixth-grade pupils. Subjects were randomly assigned to rule-example (deductive) treatments or example-rule…

The focus of the study reported here is on two issues: whether the two most elaborate systems of natural observation, that is, those developed by Escalona and Watts could be applied to mother-child interaction recorded in a teaching situation; and whether there are relationships between maternal-child behavior so observed, and a more extended…

The current study is concerned with identifying racial-ethnic differences in cognitive strategies or structures that are related to performance on verbal ability tests. The study had two goals: (1) to compare the semantic equivalency of intelligence test items between racial-ethnic groups, and (2) to examine the relationships of individual…

A compilation is made of reports from a conference dealing with workable administrative practices which provide for individual differences. The nature of individual differences as they operate in reading instruction is defined, and various dimensions, such as growth ages, sex differences, intelligence, cognitive abilities and styles, are discussed…

A total of 240, 7- and 10-year-olds were tested on memory and sex-role preference tasks. The memory task was the Wickens release from proactive inhibition paradigm in which short-term recall of words is tested on successive trials. On trials 1-4 words were selected from 1 of 2 categories, either words with masculine or feminine connotations. On…

A review of the research literature on goal-setting in organizational settings reveals that goal-setting on an individual job results in better task performance. However, the processes behind their effectiveness is unclear. For example, how are various job attributes of task goals related to performance, and how do various individual differences…

In this study an attempt was made to obtain a developmental dimension for estimating longitudinal development on the basis of cross-sectional data. To check the validity of this approach, the cross-sectional data were compared with true longitudinal data. Forty-three public school children were given a series of conservation tasks in four…

The major emphasis of this study is on the comparative validities of paired-associate learning tests and IQ tests in predicting reading achievement. The study engages in a brief review of earlier research in order to examine the validity of two assumptions--that the construction and/or the use of a tactic that simplifies a learning task is one of…

We need to find out the extent to which individual differences, social class differences and race differences in rates of cognitive development, and differential patterns of relative strength and weakness are attributable to genetically conditioned biological growth factors. The answers to this question might imply differences in our approach to…

Today's most promising techniques for differentiating reading teaching are noted to be those which focus upon the individuals within the classroom. Short descriptions are given of nine programs which differentiate reading instruction, and the reader is urged to adopt their most promising features. Programs described are intraclass grouping…

This collection of conference papers by various authors covers the following aspects of individualized curriculum and instruction: (1) research trends, (2) applicability to specific subject areas, and (3) implications for teacher education. (LLR)

The author examines the data from the Richmond Youth Project. Questionnaires were administered to and completed by 4,077 students in the eleven public junior and senior high schools. The students were categorized by degrees as rebel or nonrebel according to three criteria: (1) whether they had stayed away from school just because they wanted to,…

Operational analysis is defined as a part of formative evaluation, taking place while a course is in progress. Student-perceived problems, as reflected by student-initiated reports, are the source of data for this phase of formative evaluation. The self-reporting techniques can reveal individual differences in student/learning-environment…

In this research on individual differences in thought processes, the primary interest was to study the process followed by the subject in order to reach the solution of the problem. For this purpose, the performance of 38 experimental subjects was studied throughout 24 problems of the training sessions. The methods used were group norms, length of…

This book contains a collection of papers that focus on normal infant development, particularly from the standpoint of learning. Written by leading experts from a member of disciplines, these papers deal with topics such as: the examination and observation of infants, including neurological, neuropsychological, and neurobehavioral aspects;…