A geography skills test was administered to over 3,000 Indiana college students enrolled in introductory geography courses in 1987. The National Council for Geographic Education Competency-Based Geography Test, Secondary Level, Form D, was used to measure geographic ability in the area of map skills, place name location, physical geography, and…

This literature review focuses on the problem of lack of student motivation to learn. The purposes of this review are described as an exploration of factors that influence classroom motivation and suggestions of strategies for promoting students' desire to learn. Annotations are provided in these areas: student/teacher interaction and classroom…

A model explaining various influences on general student opinions of faculty teaching performance was developed for a college in the University of North Dakota (UND). The goals were to (1) find a way to remove influences of improper criteria from general measures of teaching performance and (2) determine which differences in adjusted general…

Gagne proposed in his learning hierarchy model that a final task could not be performed by an individual who does not have the subordinate skills, and that any superordinate task involved in the hierarchy of skill building could be performed by an individual provided suitable instructions were given, and provided the relevant subordinate knowledge…

The Achievement Based Curriculum (ABC) is a process for training teachers how to plan, assess, prescribe, teach, and evaluate instruction for all children. Project I CAN is a research database designed and organized to be used by physical educators and classroom teachers. The materials cover the scope (preprimary through secondary) and essential…

This study was undertaken to examine what would happen if individuals who are intrinsically motivated to perform a cognitive problem-solving task were offered a contingent extrinsic monetary incentive for doing so. Sixty male and 60 female undergraduates at the University of South Florida used microcomputers to complete a cognitive task requiring…

A pilot study was conducted to determine the effects of certification status on the performance of mathematics teachers in Mississippi. A number of new teachers of mathematics in Mississippi agreed to participate in the study. The subjects included 33 regularly certified teachers who had received certification from colleges of education and 14…

The role of content in formal operations tasks was explored in research that systematically varied the content of tasks and children's performance by developmental level and socioeconomic status (SES). Subjects were 110 Icelandic 12-year-olds who had entered a longitudinal study when they were 7 years old. Two extreme ability groups of children…

This research brief reviews selected 1986 publications concerning the effects of class size on student achievement, attitudes, and behavior. The following points are made: (1) smaller classes in the lower grades have a positive effect on student learning attitudes and behavior; (2) minority, disadvantaged, and low-achieving students perform better…

The Management Profile is an appraisal measure that examines the actual job performance of a manager to ascertain relative strength in six management functions and three leadership roles. The management functions examined are administration, technical competence, influence/control, persuasion, training/development, and forecasting/planning. The…

This paper was written in response to the Idaho Teacher Excellence Program (part of the Idaho School Improvement Act of 1984) to assist districts in developing teacher appraisal programs. Central to effective teacher appraisal systems is a clearly defined purpose, i.e., the improvement of instruction. The system used should distinguish between…

A pilot program, the Career Ladder Plan, was developed in Kentucky to evaluate a teacher's performance in terms of professional growth and development and professional leadership/initiative based on that teacher's performance on a setting/goal attainment process. Goals jointly selected by the teacher and his/her principal must contribute to school…

A survey of library directors and assistant/associate directors at the 19 campuses of California State University (CSU) revealed a number of factors mitigating against the implementation of assessment center programs for the development of academic library managers. Respondents were asked in a questionnaire to describe their attitudes toward…

Samples of 17 male and 31 female first graders, 26 male and 22 female third graders, 23 male and 25 female fifth graders, 21 male and 27 female ninth graders, and 18 male and 30 female college students predicted their ability to recall sets of items that varied in number of items presented and presence or absence of categorization. The aim was to…

As one aspect of the project on expected student achievement of the Kentucky Career Ladder Plan, teacher participants (N=26) were interviewed about their perceptions of the issues surrounding the use of student achievement data in teacher evaluation. Perceptions of students (N=59), parents (N=23), and principals (N=22) were also obtained through…