The scale invariance of the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory was examined when 412 children were rated by parents on functioning at home and the same children were rated by rehabilitation personnel in an educational setting. Results indicated that parents and personnel can be trained to make similar judgments. (SLD)

Price's comments argue that Peirce advances understanding of the way in which power relations have a direct effect on language use and learning; however, he raises questions concerning Peirce's theorizing of social identity. Peirce responds that Price's reading was structured by an "a priori" assumption that was not consistent with the objectives…

Revisits the debate on linguistics and prescription, with particular reference to corpus linguistics. The article describes an encounter with a large corpus and concludes that intuitive prescription is an essential, desirable aspect of language teaching which does not depend on corpus evidence for its integrity. (nine references) (Author/CK)

This case study examines the shifting bilingual preference of three French/English bilingual children over a 3-year period. Clarifies terms used to refer to bilingual preference. The children's fluctuating bilingual preference was accounted for in terms of three contextual domains: home (predominantly French-speaking), school, and community…

Discusses college course planning and describes the results of an empirical study that explored faculty members' underlying assumptions about planning and their decision-making process when teaching introductory classes. Highlights include purposes faculty express for their courses; contextual influences that modify their intentions; and the way…

This article presents vignettes to illustrate responsive reading assessment, an approach to assessment that focuses on the context and the questions that need to be answered to guide instruction. A variety of assessment techniques are described and the use of student portfolios or organizing assessment data are discussed. (Contains 16 references.)…

Addresses the variations, reactions, and additions to the affective social competence model presented earlier. Specifically addresses the issue of whether sending, receiving, and experiencing are equal components to affective social competence; the time course of affective social competence; the cognitive representations of self and world;…

Examined the effects of task variability on academic task performance and task motivation. Low-income African American elementary students completed four types of academic tasks in low- and high-variability contexts, and they were assessed for task motivation in the two variability contexts. Academic task performance and task motivation were…

This synthesis of articles in the special issue highlights the influence of context and psychological mechanisms on school-to-work transition, especially the effects of sociohistorical changes, gender, occupational aspiration, and parental socioeconomic status. Concludes that forming occupational aspirations and entering a career are complex…

Investigates hypothesis used to explain the relationship between family structure and adolescent drug use, using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS). Reports that adolescents who resided in single-parent or stepparent families had heightened drug use. Higher adolescent drug use was found in communities with a large…

Focuses on two aspects of contextual engagement in relation to second language learning--communicative contexts and learning contexts. Suggests that learning contexts are flawed in respect to the needs of the initial language learner and they need to be refashioned to enable language learners to exploit contextual cues for intake and take…

Discusses data regarding student response to technology and how the beliefs and actions of students influence the use of technology in classrooms in terms of three themes: context and process for learning, changing expectations, and differential responses to learning, based on a longitudinal case study at a secondary school. (Author/LRW)

Examines research in folkbiology (commonsense understandings of plants and animals) to argue that several lines of comparative research are needed to understand the acquisition of folkbiology in particular and conceptual development in general. Asserts that comparisons are needed between children and adults within a given society, between adult…

Offers a clear-cut definition of context within vocabulary acquisition based on the differentiation between verbal and nonverbal context. To prove the feasibility of this definition, it is applied to examples taken from German teaching material within the university environment. (Author/VWL)

Discusses genre theory from the perspective of rhetorical genre studies. Points to issues that should form part of the frame or theoretic context within which teachers who have experience within relevant learning contexts can select or invent appropriate strategies and approaches. (Author/VWL)