Reports on a survey designed to find out why young people feel an antipathy to poetry. Finds that many students who dislike classroom poetry discussions write good poetry themselves and concludes that this discrepancy results from teachers attempting to explain too much and taking the joy of discovery in the reading of poetry away from the…

Concludes that "Life Magazine" failed to show Black Americans in scenes of everyday life during its 35-year history. (FL)

Describes the structural and content characteristics of actual employment rejection letters (sent following job screening interviews) and analyzes their impact on applicants' feelings about themselves and about the letters. Concludes that few of the letter characteristics affected applicants' feelings about themselves, but that a number were…

Reports findings of a study that analyzed approximately 2,000 selections from basal readers to determine the nature of their content. Concludes that only 57.7% of the selections had subject matter content, none had functional ("knowing how") content, and none had ethos ("knowing to") content. (FL)

Discusses aversions toward the disabled that still prevail and reasons why they exist, surveys literature showing negative stereotypes of the disabled, and literature in which such characters are realistically portrayed, and presents criteria for selecting reading materials in which nonstereotyped characters are depicted. (FL)

Twenty-seven social psychology textbooks were rated for Flesch readability, student readability, Flesch interest, student interest, and student recommendation. (ND)

The intent of this study is to explore how WAP (wireless application protocol) technology mediates online discussions. The focus of this research is on the implications of WAP technology for online discussions, and the types of discussion topics that are most suitable for WAP-based discussions and the finding of the combination of WAP- and…

Val Rust, Aminata Soumare, Octavio Pescador, and Megumi Shibuya's article, "Research Strategies in Comparative Education" is a very important piece of scholarship in the field of comparative and international education. Historically, there has been much scholarly debate regarding the theoretical approaches found in the field and, on a smaller…

Television is an integral part of American culture, and has the ability to play a major role in shaping belief systems, particularly for the youngest and most impressionable viewers. This study is the third annual study of diversity of characters in prime time television programming. The study examined the first two episodes of each prime time…

This paper addresses issues related to the possible inclusion of items in the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) to measure instructional practices and teaching effectiveness. The SASS is a national survey of schools and teachers conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. This report explores the purposes that can be served by…

This paper reports on the analysis of an instructional text on the basis of M. Bakhtin's (1986) notion of speech genres, which is used to theorize the different influences on the writing of an instructional text. Speech genres are used to reveal the multiple voices inherent in any text: the writer's, the reader's, and the text's. The…

Technology alone will not improve educational quality, but when integrated with curriculum and instruction, it is a powerful tool. This digest reviews how educators can evaluate technology-based curriculum materials for use in classrooms. Authenticity is key to evaluating technology-based curriculum materials. To promote authenticity, learning…

This paper analyzes the interesting narrative structure of the hero-quest myth contained within the 1999 film, "The Matrix," and explicates the implications of this message upon the audience. Initially, the relevance of myth to movies and the format of Joseph Campbell's hero-quest is illustrated. This format is then applied to "The…

Some programs in journalism and mass communication have been forced to incorporate limited enrollment strategies, as undergraduate interest in these programs continues to grow. After 4 years of moderate growth, undergraduate enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs increased dramatically in the year 2000. Some of the limited…