Examines three theories of research--mechanistic, organismic, and contextual--and concludes that a contextual world view would give the multidisciplinary field of home economics a unified focus. (SK)

The relationship between young children's social competence and the goals of early intervention programs is explored, focusing on the significance of peer-related social competence, the development of peer social competence skills in young handicapped children, the nature of assessment and intervention strategies, and the importance of the social…

Extent of resemblance in the communicative behavior between dyads that share common members was examined by means of linguistic and conversational measures. Findings indicated that although there was considerable consistency in the linguistic output of dyads within a 15-minute interaction, there was no consistency across dyads that shared a common…

Describes two studies that analyzed the impact of problem type on the understanding of commutativity of multiplication of (n=20) children ages 8-10. The concept seemed poorly understood, but the children did significantly better in the context of rotation than of rearrangement of elements. (Author/MKR)

This study examined the impact of environmental print over a 4-year period with 28 children (initially ages 3 and 4), all with severe to profound hearing losses. A four-phase environmental print task was administered annually for four years. Results are interpreted in terms of recognition and interpretation, constructing meaning from print, and…

Investigates whether Arabic orthography differs from an alphabetic orthography regarding context effects among poor and skilled readers. Finds that skilled as well as poor readers significantly improved their reading accuracy when they read voweled and unvoweled words in context and that skilled readers significantly improved their reading voweled…

Applies the social relations model (SRM), designed to analyze nonindependent data, as a solution for studying the ways in which group members interrelate and influence one another that avoids some of the data analysis problems indigenous to group psychotherapy research. Discusses examples of applications of SRM to previously inaccessible research…

Examines the theoretical underpinnings of situation cognition and derives implications for the design of situated learning environments. Highlights include a discussion of the four basic issues of the conceptual framework of situation cognition; these include the role of content, context, facilitation, and assessment. A table summarizes the…

Argues that a curriculum based on mathematics such as it arises in solving everyday problems is unrealistic; the problem of transfer cannot be resolved by claiming that it should not exist in the first place. (49 references) (MKR)

This article reviews the basic tenets of the Situational Leadership model, examines the steps of the Conflict Model for decision making, and presents a conceptual model that integrates the two. The integrated model aims to provide a systematic means for allowing individuals to learn how to participate in organizational decisions. (JDD)

Challenges Wilson's 1990 work which, according to the author, bluntly rejected various expert-novice techniques in favor of the classical experimental design. Asserts that, if educators want to study expertise, they should move to understand this expertise in context, for example, in real-life tasks. Argues that research questions not methodology…

Presents an interdisciplinary model that weaves leadership concepts into the contextual richness of history by employing the visual arts as catalysts. Links leadership concepts to activities involved in the administration of an art museum. Assesses strategy's effectiveness by examining comments from involved students. (17 references) (MLH)

Analysis of young children's comprehension of common idioms revealed a significant linear trend for children to make more literal responses with increasing age. Children did not find the story contexts helpful in interpreting the idioms. A range of comprehension scores was found among the individual idioms, but semantic transparency was not…

This study examined the presuppositional skills of 5 verbal autistic children (ages 7-12). Results revealed that subjects demonstrated some social-cognitive knowledge of others as reflected in quantitative and qualitative modifications in language relative to naive and knowledgeable listener contexts. (Author/JDD)

Gives an overview of the 10 research articles in this issue. Notes that all studies in this issue examine child behavior from a perspective that views behavior as mediated by social context, challenging the logical positivism of conventional experimentation. (MM)