Two studies of adults between the ages of 18 and 87 were conducted to determine the relations among age, motor speed, perceptual speed and 3 measures of cognitive performance: study time, decision time, and decision accuracy. Results indicated that increased age was associated with lower accuracy as well as with longer study and decision time.…

This paper discusses methods for providing students from diverse home environments with essential educational experiences. It emphasizes the importance of patience in teaching children comprehension and offers guidelines for fostering children's development of comprehension, memory, and evaluative and relational thinking skills. (PB)

Advocates that language anxiety can play a significant causal role in creating individual differences in both language learning and communication. This paper studies the role of anxiety in the language learning process and concludes that the linguistic coding deficit hypothesis errs in assigning epiphenomenal status to language anxiety. (57…

Reports of five Canadian universities concerning gender discrimination in salaries are reviewed, compared, and evaluated. All found some discrimination, but approaches taken varied considerably. Analysis suggests the focus on single equation models is problematic, and further information gathering is needed. (Author/MSE)

Rural families in the 1990s have less to support their children and schools than a decade earlier: rural poverty (particularly among children), single-parent families, and maternal employment have increased whereas education and incomes of young adults have decreased. Although education has increased in importance for jobs, rural schools systems…

Reports on a study of the relationship between achievement motivation at school and child-rearing practices. Finds that more motivated children live in more rigidly structured families. Suggests more research on the differential influences of social context and gender. (CFR)

For 92 male and 101 female Korean 11th graders, creativity as measured by the Torrance Tests of Creativity, showed little relationship to school performance. Females tended to be more creative than males, but, irrespective of gender, students with right-brain associated thinking and learning style earned high creativity scores. (SLD)

Forty-five Canadian Native teachers (Cree, Inuit, and Mohawk) completed the Canfield Instructional Styles Inventory and Teaching Styles Instrument. Results show that these teachers share instructional preferences that differ from those of mainstream teachers. Furthermore, there were differences among Native groups, particularly in overall typology…

Addresses the question, "What is Indian about Indian education?" as a move toward a theory of Indian education. Interviews with American Indian and Alaska Native graduate education students at Harvard suggested 12 standards for shaping Indian education: spirituality, service to community, identity, culture, continuity with tradition, respect,…

Much of the thinking about social differences in South Africa is ensconced in a racial equality framework that presupposes the existence of stable and homogeneous racial entities. Policies of social redress may actually obscure educational equity by conceptualizing race as separate from the gender and class issues that are also part of social…

Reports on an analysis of national assessment data on the academic achievement of 6,423 English and Welsh second-grade students. Uses multilevel modeling to explore the relationship between academic attainment and background variables. Finds a relationship between test scores and nursery school education. (CFR)

Maintains that, although the United States has always been a multicultural, multiethnic, and multiracial society, there is a need for historians to reflect this social composition in their work. Provides an extensive review of Ronald Takaki's "A Different Mirror" and asserts that it is an essential contribution to this task. (CFR)

Analyzes the appropriateness of textual media in the construction of meaning by reviewing the psychological research on semiotics and multiple intelligences that support a broadened notion of text, and presenting findings from research on the construction of nonprint texts in disciplines other than English. It suggests that exclusively focusing on…

Special education teachers (n=407) were surveyed regarding coverage of 45 controversial or sensitive topics in their instruction of students with learning disabilities, mental retardation, or behavior disorders. Topical issues were addressed only to a very limited extent, but were addressed more with students having behavioral disorders and at the…

A case study examines the experience of a middle school mandated to provide differentiated instruction for academically diverse learners and considers factors affecting movement toward differentiated classrooms. Clarity in defining the concept is discussed, along with administrative barriers, issues related to changing expectations, and need for…