Suggests that declines in newspaper penetration, lessened competition, or shifts toward getting news from television weakens people's understanding about partisan candidates. (RL)

Examines common assumptions concerning the interrelationship between power and knowledge, and considers four ways that the power/knowledge argument can go awry: power as the cause of social inequity, categorization as discrimination, reason as repression, and the system as responsible. The paper encourages greater thoughtfulness in talking about…

Surveyed 400 faculty members at a southeastern university to measure their knowledge of disability laws and of recent court decisions that affect higher education. Results indicate that most faculty members were only marginally aware of their rights and of the legal rights of students with disabilities to reasonable modifications of institutional…

Psychological and biological reasoning are intertwined yet differentiated in preschoolers' understandings of bodily processes and events. Three studies suggest that preschoolers distinguish biological phenomena from psychological ones in their causal reasoning, although their reasoning about biological phenomena is sometimes influenced by…

Examined fourth graders' tobacco attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge and investigated the validity and reliability of the survey instrument. Results indicated a positive relationship between attitude and behavior, and gender differences were significant. High numbers of students had already tried tobacco. The survey instrument was comprehensive…

Collected data on the drinking behavior of 415 pregnant adolescents over a five-year period to examine relationships between knowledge and attitudes about drinking and drinking behavior. Results indicate that knowledge about drinking was related to a decrease in drinking among drinkers during pregnancy. Other results are reported. (RJM)

It is argued that students who appear to ignore common sense and real-world knowledge in their approach to mathematics word problems in school are often behaving sensibly given the situation. The improvement of mathematics word problems for teaching will require changes in teacher beliefs and the use of modelling as an activity of organizing. (SLD)

Explored the relationships among acculturation, distrust of Whites, and AIDS knowledge for 171 African American adults. Results suggest that African American knowledge of AIDS transmission may be affected by distrust of Whites, with those who know the least about AIDS being the most distrustful. Implications for AIDS education are discussed. (SLD)

This paper reviews the literature on grammatical knowledge in language comprehension in the preschool years from the perspective of sensitivity to structural contrasts. Studies of both direct and indirect evidence of sensitivity to structural contrasts were evaluated and showed that there may be a developmental sequence of increasing sensitivity…

A study of 419 applicants to the University of Virginia's medical school compared preinterview and postinterview applicant ratings on six objective scales. Analysis found only ratings of commitment to serve others not significantly changed by the interview. Rating of familiarity with medical issues changed the most, and overall impression improved…

Agriculture/natural resources majors (n=36) and communication arts and sciences majors (n=20) were all reasonably knowledgeable about Michigan geography, but less so about the United States and the world. Although ag students were more knowledgeable, both groups displayed gaps in knowledge of international agriculture issues. (SK)

This article details the qualitative results of focus groups with adults who are visually impaired and received assistive technology (AT) training (n=55) and with AT trainers (n=48). Participants described the state of AT training at the beginning of the 21st century from their perspectives as students and teachers. (Contains 4 references.)…

Compared tutoring episodes where tutoring did and did not cause learning in university physics students to inform design of intelligent tutoring systems. Found that when students were not at an impasse, learning was uncommon regardless of the tutorial explanations employed. When students were at an impasse, tutorial explanations were sometimes…

Utilizes a 32-item survey instrument to measure knowledge and attitudes of 5th and 6th grade students regarding sea turtle conservation on Zakynthos, Greece. Results indicate low knowledge scores and high scores for attitudes, but an overall positive correlation between knowledge and attitudes. Knowledge, understanding and/or concern, and locus of…

This article compared views of 23 incarcerated and 23 non-incarcerated female adolescents about their performance and knowledge of communication. Although findings on pragmatic practices and on knowledge of conversational rules were similar for the two groups, views of the incarcerated teenagers suggested they did not perceive themselves as…