Examines teachers' and young students' perceptions of responses to task difficulty in classroom settings in two studies. Study 1 indicated that teachers' ratings on a questionnaire of appropriate strategies reflect a preference for active, goal-oriented responses. Study 2 showed some disagreement between teachers' and children's beliefs.…

This is an annotated bibliography of: readers, workbooks, conversation books, cultural sources and readings, flash cards, duplicating or line masters, and media kits submitted by publishers as applicable to French second language instruction from kindergarten through senior high school levels. (MSE)

The influence of item arrangement on students' total test performance was investigated. Two hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data. The main finding within the context of this study was that item arrangements based on item difficulties did not influence achievement examination performance. (Author/DWH)

Tests seven- , 10- , and 13-year-olds for developmental differences in processes and strategies involved in geometric matrix solution and the relationship between strategy differences and item complexity. (AS)

The problems encountered by a French teacher in a Danish experimental interdisciplinary secondary education program, and the solutions he tried, are examined. Among the problems were student and teacher prejudices, program articulation, and differences in work methods. (MSE)

A study was proposed to determine to what extent a hierarchical structure exists in music and in tests used to measure music ability. The first research question was whether items in the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale (J. Watkins and S. Farnum, 1954) (WFPS) form a hierarchy, so that early exercises (bars played) are generally easier than later…

A study compared college students' performance on complex multiple-choice tests with scores on multiple true-false clusters. Researchers concluded that the multiple-choice tests did not accurately measure students' knowledge and that cueing and guessing led to grade inflation. (PP)

In an investigation of how different types of topic reinstatements affected second language learners' recognition and recall of sentence topics in lectures, it was learned that repeated structures were more easily recalled and recognized than simple ones, and low English proficiency learners have poorer recall of complex structures. (MSE)

Item difficulty patterns of four groups of nonreferred, average children (ages 7 1/2 and l0 1/2)--Anglos, Blacks, Chicanos and Bermudians--were compared on each of the verbal subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. Item difficulty curves were remarkably parallel. (Author/HLM)

A study of English speakers' acquisition of relative clauses in Chinese, Japanese, Persian, German, and Portugese is reported. Various structures were tested to separate interlanguage features attributable to first language interference from those universal to second language acquisition. Application of an accessibility hierarchy theory and…

A limited attempt to teach and assess the ability of native English-speaking adolescents is described. The concern is not to teach more language but to encourage use of existing language in a formal interview with maximum flexibility and effectiveness. Possible ties into second language instruction are considered. (Author/MSE)

Topics include: (1) the content, style, and level of physics' textbooks; (2) suggestions for in-class use; and (3) recommendations for upgrading current texts. (SK)

Believing that examinee-by-item interaction should be conceptualized as true score variability rather than as a result of errors of measurement, Lu proposed a modification of Hoyt's analysis of variance reliability procedure. Via a computer simulation study, it is shown that Lu's approach does not separate interaction from error. (Author/RL)

Children's occupational choices were scored for complexity using the code numbers of the Occupational Titles. Findings indicated a positive relationship between socioeconomic status and complexity of data manipulation in occupational choices and greater complexity of interaction with things in the occupational choices of boys. (Author/JAC)

The author suggests that the complex educational problems touched on by the television special "Is Anyone Out There Learning?" can only be solved by leadership at the building level. This entire journal issue consists of comments on this CBS news special, aired in August, 1978. (SJL)