A "social guide" model was used to teach staff of an apartment-based residential program to use a set of "community network strategies" to improve the social relationships of three women with severe or moderate mental retardation. The intervention resulted in increased size of participants' social networks and more frequent social integration…

Discussion of public libraries' information and referral services for culturally diverse communities focuses on a study conducted in southern California that examined the information seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in minority communities. Topics addressed include information and referral models; information sources; the perception…

Describes software, hardware, and devices that were designed to provide students with an environment to experiment with basic ideas of mechanics, including nonlinear dynamics. Examines the behavior of a Lorenzian water wheel by comparing experimental data with theoretical results obtained from computer-based sensors. (MDH)

Extent to which findings derived from 4 approaches to multimethod multitrait analyses (MTMM) were consistent in providing estimates of construct validity related to measurement of 4 dimensions of perceived competence across 4 maximally dissimilar rating methods was determined using sample of 158 eleventh graders in Canada. Four MTMM approaches…

Attempts to define a paradigm that helps shape the African-American studies discipline, and argues that emphasis must be placed on generating practical and emancipatory knowledge. African-American studies is a necessary discipline if Afrocentric scholars are to be generated who have a commitment to being scholar activists. (SLD)

Discusses the problem of finding the amount of fence it would require for the outfield fence of a baseball field of given dimensions. Presents different solution methods for each of the levels from grades 9-12. The different methods incorporate geometry, trigonometry, analytic geometry, and calculus. (MDH)

A study at Humber College of Applied Arts and Technology (Ontario) found 30 percent of freshmen dropped out in the first year. Variables in the student-institution relationship accounted for more variance in persistence and withdrawal than student characteristics, confirming the validity of the person-environment fit dropout model. (Author/MSE)

Reprints an article from a 1964 "Journal of Geography" that defined the four traditions of geography. Proposed a basic nomenclature with associated ideas to confront the pluralism inherent in geographic thought. Claimed that the four traditions offered a pluralistic basis to maintain an alliance between professional geography and pedagogical…

Educational achievement should be intellectually and philosophically divorced from cultural affirmation, which is merely a byproduct of the inclusion of diverse voices in the search for truth. A model based on the relationship between the valuation of oneself by others and by oneself is presented to explain differential effects of schooling on…

Following a brief historical review of the mechanism of mathematical modeling, examples are included that associate a mathematical model with given data (changes in sea level) and that model a real-life situation (process of parallel parking). Also provided is the rationale for the curricular implementation of mathematical modeling. (JJK)

Described are student/consultant reports, turned in as homework, that reflected their abilities to distinguish useful from irrelevant information, solve the underlying calculus extremum problem, and reconcile the individual mathematical solutions with the ethical considerations surrounding the moral dilemma of the hypothetical consulting client.…

Factors which influenced the success of a New York staff development program designed to improve student writing included district commitment, voluntary participation, in-district training workshops, on-site support, principals' support, parents' understanding, and continuous followup. Teachers learned the importance of seeing content first and…

A theoretical model for predicting medical student achievement (HE 528 467) is reviewed and found to be a significant improvement over previous predictive studies, to well illustrate the use of structural equation modeling in medical education research, and to offer an approach to practical research problems with potential to increase the…

Describes a quantitative study that examined the effectiveness of interactive video (IV) instruction by using a meta-analytic research review of the literature from 1978 to the present. Effect size as a function of study variables is examined, and test of homogeneity on effect sizes is discussed. (25 references) (LRW)

Reports the results of an observational study concerning mathematical word problems to provide direction for others contemplating analyses of student difficulties from a theory base. Finds that most students experience difficulties in applying past experience, knowledge, and the language of mathematics to form internal world models. (PRA)