A sample of 236 elementary-level Black, Hispanic, and Anglo pupils, referred or nonreferred for learning disabilities, were assessed with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised and the Kaufman-Assessment Battery for Children cognitive and achievement scales. Results showed that referral status, ethnicity, and language proficiency…

Compared day care and home-reared children's language performance. Results showed home and day care children did not differ on IQ or dependent language measures. IQ was strongest predictor of language performance; birth order was next strongest. Fathers' language activity time and parent educational level related to language performance.…

Evaluates present conditions and recognizes current methodology being used for rule-based systems and schema-based systems, and gives examples of these systems. Lists educational implications of artificial intelligence and expert systems. (MVL)

Reports on a study that examines how teachers' expectations of students' performance relates to race and social class when the targets of evaluation are Hispanic and White. Examines how teachers modify such judgments based on additional information and determines the criteria teachers believe they are using when making evaluations. (LS)

Recent results relating to the stability of scores on the Raven Progressive Matrices Test for different subgroups within and between the United Kingdom, United States, and other Western societies are summarized. Despite the continuous increase in scores over time, differences between socioeconomic and ethnic groups remain. (TJH)

Fifteen learning-disabled (LD), 33 attention disordered (AD), and 28 normal adolescents were assessed with 2 performance measures and 3 behavioral measures while working on mathematics problems. Findings support theoretical predictions that LD and AD children have difficulty with repetitive stimuli, contributing to mathematics deficits. (SLD)

A descriptive and metanalytic research review indicates that physically attractive students are usually judged more favorably than their unattractive counterparts by teachers on several dimensions including intelligence, academic potential, grades, and social skills. The influence of moderating variables and possible mechanisms responsible for the…

Nine papers are presented that focus on the Raven Progressive Matrices tests. An overview of research on the Progressive Matrices; a review of international norming studies; recent data from China, Hong Kong, Brazil, New Zealand, and Australia; and a comparison of data for retarded and nonretarded children are presented. (SLD)

System-initiated adaptive advice and learner-requested nonadaptive background information were investigated in computer simulation game experiments with 64 seventh graders, 38 college students, and 80 seventh and eighth graders in Germany. Results are discussed in terms of theories of problem solving, intelligence, memory, and information…

Employing standardized achievement tests to ascertain educational quality is like measuring temperature with a tablespoon. Such tests are prone to testing-teaching mismatches, omitted items, and confounded causation problems. Actually, three factors influence students' scores: what's taught in school, native intellectual ability, and out-of-school…

Discusses Art Costa's 14 Intelligent Behavior Characteristics and gives examples of picture books that apply to each characteristic, including persistence, decreasing impulsivity, listening, cooperative thinking, flexibility, metacognition, accuracy and precision, sense of humor, questioning, using past knowledge, risk taking, using all senses,…

This article describes critical events that have shaped gifted education, including: the work of Lewis Terman and Leta Hollingworth, establishment of the National Association for Gifted Children, the First World Conference for Gifted Children, differentiated curriculum, federal gifted legislation, and the publication of "National Excellence:…

This cross-sectional study explored whether participation, from early childhood, in play involving different cognitive abilities predicts visuo-spatial achievement at ages 9, 12, and 15. Based on parental assessment, prior and present practice of spatial manipulation play was found to be consistently more frequent in boys than in girls; the…

Information processing researchers have assumed that algebra symbol skills depend on mastery of the abstract rules presented in the curriculum (Matz, 1980; Sleeman, 1986). Thus, students' ubiquitous algebra errors have been taken as indicating the need to embed algebra in rich contextual settings (Kaput, 1995; National Council of Teachers of…

Two studies of second graders at risk for reading disability, which were guided by levels of language and functional reading system theory, focused on reading comprehension in this population. In Study 1 (n = 96), confirmatory factor analysis of five comprehension measures loaded on one factor in both fall and spring of second grade. Phonological…