The public schools responsible for educating hundreds of thousands of East European Jewish immigrant children in New York City between 1893 and 1917 had three major goals: scholastic preparation, especially literacy in English, acculturation, and socioeconomic stratification. According to information obtained from interviews of students and…

This study elaborates the cultural categories of meanings used by seventh-graders at a junior high school to describe their teachers. It examines the common expressions students used in open-ended interviews to describe their teachers and their experience within these teachers' classes. A semantic structure that underlies the terms that students…

To determine what factors either alone or together interact to create ethnic variations in mental health care use in the State of Hawaii, a study interviewed subjects who were randomly selected from the higher income area of Diamond Head/Kahala and the lower income area of Kalihi/Palama. Ethnic groups studied included Caucasian, Japanese, Chinese,…

One area explored in the second (in-depth) phase of the Learning in Science Project was "children's science," defined as views of the world and the meanings for words that children have and bring with them to science lessons. The investigation reported focuses on the concept of "light" held by 36 students. Data were obtained…

The Learning in Science Project has adopted the view that science teaching might be improved if teachers can be given some appreciation of students' views of the world and the beliefs, expectations, and language that learners bring to new learning situations. This investigation focuses on the views that children (N=34) may have about rocks and…

The Learning in Science Project (1979-1981) studied the problems and difficulties of learning science at the 10-14 year old level in New Zealand to provide insights into the world of the science learner and provide an alternative perspective of the science classroom to that currently held by teachers and others. This paper offers practical…

A 1981 study was conducted to explore and modify both sentiment concerning retirement and its effects on career plans. The study's three principal components were a questionnaire mailed to a sample of 1002 University of Washington nonacademic staff members aged 36 through 55, a "mid-career planning" workshop for 75 questionnaire respondents, and a…

This study is based on three sources: (1) an experimental try-out of four oral proficiency testing methods (oral interview, role play, reporting test, and group discussion); (2) an evaluation of the testing methods by a panel of experts; and (3) an analysis of the same testing methods by policy makers. The findings are reported in terms of the…

In circumstances where judges are required to make ratings of performance, it is usually required to have two or more raters who are trained to agree on independent ratings of the same performance. It is suggested that such a requirement may produce the paradox of attenuation associated with item analysis, in which too high a correlation between…

This paper reports the summative evaluation of the part-time learning project "Women and Politics," based on a 2-day forum sponsored in November 1986 by the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (Toronto, Canada) and the Committee for '94. The project consisted of a 6-part series featuring the speeches, workshops, and question periods from the…

In fall 1988, a study of full-time faculty and staff was conducted at Evergreen Valley College (EVC) to identify factors contributing to burnout and to create opportunities to allievate the problem. The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to assess the level of burnout among full-time faculty, administrators, and classified staff at EVC and…

An understanding of the concepts of atoms and molecules is fundamental to the learning of chemistry. Any misconceptions and alternative conceptions related to these concepts which students harbor will impede much further learning. This paper identifies misconceptions related to the fundamental characteristics of atoms and molecules which Grade 12…

A project was designed to define the extent of the courses and programs available to unemployed adults and to investigate the problems involved in maintaining an up-to-date information, guidance, and counseling service in the United Kingdom. Interviews were conducted with 100 unemployed adults in Nottingham, England. Information was sought on…

This study of the feasibility of conducting a cost-benefit analysis in the complex environment of the formalities used in the United States as part of its administration of the copyright law focused on the formalities of copyright notice, deposit, registration, and recordation. The U.S. system is also compared with the less centralized copyright…

To address the problem of increasing professional isolation of building administrators, the Principals' Inservice Project helps establish principals' collegial support groups across the nation. The groups are typically composed of 6 to 10 principals who meet at least once each month over a 2-year period. One collegial support group of seven…