A study investigated how well four family medicine residency directors could predict their students' performances on the Quebec licensing examination for family physicians. Results showed the directors had difficulty discriminating among performance groups, suggesting that evaluations by directors and standardized examination results should be…

The article reviews research on the language basis of reading disabilities and draws implications for early identification. The article considers language problems in reading-disabled children, follow-up studies of language-impaired children, and phonological processing and reading disabilities. Implications include the value of preschool…

The role of practice tests in predictions about test performance on texts was investigated in 3 experiments with a total of 180 college students. Taking a similar practice test did not help students predict their test performance. Practice tests may help students learn information. (SLD)

Fourth and fifth graders built weather measuring instruments, entered data into a computer program that forecasted weather, and compared the resultant forecast with actual weather. As a result of their activities, students took a greater interest in weather phenomena, understood the computer program, and learned to think more logically. (LB)

Mothers and fathers were interviewed when their child was 3 months old and observed in the Strange Situation when their infant was 12 months old. Infants' security of attachment was predicted by the quality of interaction with parents and by the amount of time parents spent with the infant. (BC)

Examined relationship between Differential Ability Scales (DAS) and academic achievement as function of race among 48 Asian-American and 1,731 white children, aged 6-17, from DAS school-age standardization sample. Results indicated that majority white group scores were overpredicted on Basic Number Skills and Asian-Americans' scores were…

A methodology for confronting students with the inconsistencies entailed by their own beliefs is outlined. This methodology is illustrated using the dynamics domain of physics and a computer modeling program, DYNALAB. (KR)

Two prediction models using age and entry-level reading and math scores to differentiate completers and noncompleters were tested with 1,319 community college adult basic education students. Persisters and dropouts were not homogeneous groups; for example, General Educational Development completers differed from other completers, and early and…

Examined the development of proportional reasoning by means of a temperature mixture task. Results show the importance of distinguishing between intuitive knowledge and formal computational knowledge of proportional concepts. Provides a new perspective on the relation of intuitive and computational knowledge during development. (GLR)

This study of 420 entering students at Dartmouth Medical School (New Hampshire) found that a combination of criteria such as Medical College Admission Test scores, undergraduate science grade averages, and college selectivity was useful in identifying successful first-year students. Results also indicated that the admissions committee…

Shares the results of two studies on the Possible Sentences strategy which indicate that the strategy can be as effective, if not more so, than semantic mapping in teaching vocabulary and fostering recall information. (MG)

Examines the effect of using a literature webbing strategy lesson and predictable books with 22 below-average first grade readers. Finds that the literature webbing strategy lesson was significantly more helpful in improving below-average readers' comprehension as measured by miscues in oral reading and answers to comprehension questions than was…

Analysis of a two-way sample of means is considered when corresponding population means are believed a priori to satisfy a partial order restriction. Simulation and the Gibbs sampler are used to summarize posterior distributions, and the posterior distribution is used to predict GPAs of first-year students at University of Iowa. (SLD)

A study of the relationship between first-year results for 115 Dutch medical students and achievement during medical school was studied using an item-response theory model for the longitudinal measure of change with stochastic parameters (developed by Albers et al., 1989) indicates that a low rate of growth in the first year persists. (SLD)

Retrospective questionnaires and prospective monitoring measures were used to test the trait of coping styles of 105 college students as predictors of their weekly alcohol consumption. Individuals reporting deficits in emotion focused and avoidant coping strategies drank more often than subjects with other styles of coping. Measurement methodology…