Over the past ten years, dramatic changes have been seen in the numbers of mildly mentally retarded students in the United States; in particular, a 30 percent decrease in the number of mildly mentally retarded students between 1976 and 1986 has been well documented. These changes have occurred in response to litigation in the federal courts,…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 25 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) superior-subordinate communication; (2) the effect of freedom of expression on role satisfaction; (3) the effects of certain risk factors on nurses'…

Validity is a central issue in use of self-report data for the investigation of teacher thinking. "Triangulation," or use of several data sets to test, corroborate and elaborate each other, is one method for increasing validity of findings. This paper illustrates a process of triangulation of data obtained by three different data…

A study examined bilingual children's composing behaviors during classroom writing and their perceptions of writing. Students' descriptions of what occurred in their day-to-day environment were analyzed using ethnographic methods. The researcher observed five subjects--bilingual students in kindergarten through third grade--for 145 hours, and…

Described are the background, rationale, research design, data collection, analysis, and findings of the Classroom Strategy Study, an investigation of 98 elementary school teachers' general strategies for coping with problem students and their ways of dealing with typical problem behaviors associated with each of 12 types of problem students.…

Concern for the dropout phenomenon among secondary learning disabled (LD) students led to a preliminary study of an urban school's decision-making structures, as well as events that influence ninth graders' behavior and decisions, increasing their risk for dropping out of high school. Data were collected from three sources: observation of school…

This paper summarizes current knowledge from research on teacher effectiveness and discusses the relationship between those findings and educational policy. Few teaching strategies have been studied in different types of environments, so validated knowledge on teacher effectiveness exists for only a few issues. Research findings discussed include:…

This student guide is part of the microcomputer version of the Career Planning System (CPS). CPS is a comprehensive instructional package designed to provide individualized career exploration and career planning experiences for students of approximately middle-school age. This version is designed to take advantage of the motivational, managerial,…

While the literature on the social development of children has increasingly stressed the importance of peer relationships, little research has examined the influence of peers in sex role development. Sex segregation in children's play from preschool through the elementary years remains the norm even though we live in a society that is increasingly…

Through the extensive use of teachers' reports, the many and varied stresses endured by teaching staff and their reactions to them are identified. In focusing on the dual problem of reducing pressures on teaching staff and strengthening their coping resources, this book calls attention to a series of issues within education. Chapters are devoted…

The purpose of this study was to explore middle school students' perceptions of what factors facilitated their learning of science. Between 50 and 60 high-achieving middle school students were in residence on the University of South Florida campus for 12 consecutive days of study in the "World of Water" program. There were two sessions per summer…

The purpose of this study was to explore the utility of the Theory of Planned Behavior for predicting the behavioral intentions of teachers enrolled in the Institute in Physical Science. The study investigated three determinants of teachers' behavioral intentions set forth in the theory of planned behavior, namely attitude toward the behavior,…

This paper is a product of Project COMPETE, a service demonstration project undertaken for the purpose of developing and validating a model and training sequence to improve transition services for moderately, severely, and profoundly retarded youth. The paper describes the Taxonomy of Community Living Skills, an organized statement of…

The development of an English version of a Dutch instrument--the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)--that measures interpersonal teacher behavior (TB) is described. Using this instrument, comparisons were made between Dutch and American interpersonal TB. Students' perceptions of TB were used to measure TB. The QTI was first translated into…

The lack of student discipline continues to be a major concern among educators and the general public. A researcher-developed opinion survey concerning the frequency of, sources of, and interventions for student misbehavior was completed by a sample of 312 students and 106 teachers from four private American-type schools located in Caracas,…