Reviews the history of racial nomenclature in the Americas with regard to indigenous peoples, African Americans, and mestizos (persons of mixed ancestry). Discusses influences of colonialism and racial discrimination on the naming of groups. Describes the Native American concept of identity as a series of concentric circles extending from one's…

Attention during reading lessons was explored for 116 second and third graders (60 males and 56 females). Some of the concurrent and antecedent factors that influence attention were investigated. Oral reading errors undermine attention. Nominal reading group membership is more strongly related to attention than individual fluency and comprehension…

Three computerized adaptive tests (CATs) in mathematics, reading, and writing were administered to 628 community college students to determine whether examinees of different ethnic, gender, ability, and age groups, and computer experience were differentially affected. Some differences exist; however, they do not preclude use of CATs. (SLD)

The impact of learning mathematics under successful and unsuccessful cooperative group conditions was studied for 181 seventh graders in Montreal (Quebec) who had a learned-helplessness or mastery-oriented attributional style and different prior mathematics achievement. Learning of helpless and less able students may depend on accomplishments and…

Employs observations and interviews to explore ways four basketball teams used players' bodies to create a plural self, transforming individuals into interconnected, deindividualized members. Raises the possibility that for many athletes this temporarily realized plural self continues as a possible self and invites the development of certain…

The author articulates how she helped create learning through a center for teaching and learning and other strategies.

This study analyzed doctor-patient communication from a sociolinguistic perspective, focusing on two issues: (1) why patients are not more effective in asserting themselves in talking with doctors, and (2) why doctors don't talk more like normal people (i.e., patients). Research on communication in health care contexts is reviewed, looking at such…

In English as a second language/English as a foreign language classrooms where teacher-fronted instruction is still the norm, small group work tends to be avoided because conversational activities among nonnative speakers are generally thought to be of little use. The validity of small-group work among nonnative speakers is defended with both…

Effective schools provide at-risk students with a community of support that encourages school membership and educational engagement. This study describes effective dropout prevention programs, develops a generalizable, theoretical framework for understanding the relationship between at-risk students and their schools, and suggests local and state…

This fourth in a series of eleven learning modules on program planning, development, and evaluation is designed to give secondary and postsecondary vocational teachers information and skills needed to ensure a properly organized occupational advisory committee. The terminal objective for the module is to organize an occupational advisory committee…

This set of social studies resource materials was designed to help Oklahoma teachers supplement or replace curriculum used for kindergarten through sixth grade. Each of the seven sections in the document presents a topic for an elementary grade: Myself, Kindergarten; My Group, Grade 1; My Neighborhood, Grade 2; My City, Grade 3; My State, Grade 4;…

Notes on the association's annual meeting are presented, including data charts on membership and membership changes. Other contents and issues addressed include: dues schedule, bargaining election problems, income and expenditures, membership problems, elections, state conferences, the Yeshiva decision, the United States Department of Education;…

This paper looks at how rhetoric was used as an instrument in the Progressive Education Movement. According to the author, this movement stretched from the early 1920s to the early 1950s. As part of it, educators placed increased emphasis on child development, the student's freedom to develop naturally, student motivation, and the school/community…

A social psychological analysis of the school life of disadvantaged children indicates that conflicts result from the lower-class youngster's need to adjust to the expectations of middle-class society. A review of social psychological theory points to the implication that the cultural conflict is a fundamental one going to the very heart of basic…

The general objective of this study was to determine the nature and extent of reference group pressures on an individual's decision to drop out of school. A major hypothesis was that the impact of reference groups on this decision will be a function of the extent to which an individual identifies with that group. Consequently a major effort was…