Ninety Swedish teenagers and adults with varying levels of formal education were interviewed about their own learning experiences and techniques. Subjects were then asked what they actually meant by learning. The concept was variously defined as: (1) an increase in knowledge (merely a synonym for the word learning); (2) memorizing; (3) an…

On the basis of the grammatical theory developed by Noam Chomsky, it is reasonable to presume that the different parts of a sentence may not all be understood with equal facility and speed. One purpose of this study was to determine whether some of the grammatical relations within a sentence were understood more readily than others. Sentences of…

A test of problem solving behavior which provides information about the mastery of the prerequisites of the problems has been developed for fourth grade children. Each problem solving question is preceded by two other questions which assess the child's understanding of the information contained in the actual question, and an application question…

Four statistical methods for identifying biased test items were used with data from two ethnic groups (1,691 black and 1,794 white high school seniors). The data were responses to 150 items in five subtests including two traditional tests (reading and mathematics) and three nontraditional tests (picture number test of associative memory, letter…

In order to develop a scientific theory of curriculum, a method for measuring the curriculum-related planning activity of teachers is proposed. This choice of focus is based on the assumption that a logical connection can be made between the level of teacher planning, the quality of the resulting actions, and the corresponding goal attainment by…

This paper reports a pilot study of ecological variables in a kindergarten play area. Behaviors in ten complex categories were recorded for all children present in the area. The level of experimental control was similar to the level of control that the teacher would have in the manipulation of the normal classroom environment. Subjects were 20…

This technical report is in three parts. Part I is a conceptual treatment of communication in which the human being is viewed as a goal-attainment system. The goal-attainment problem is defined as a discrepancy between the current state of the system and a specified goal state. Several forms of the communicative relationship are outlined. Part II…

A series of studies was performed to explore the possibility of substituting listening for reading requirements, with special reference to marginally literate Category IV personnel. Time-compressed speech was evaluated as a means of producing listening rates comparable to silent reading rates. The results indicated that, for both average and low…

The effectiveness of the Delphi Technique is evaluated in terms of immediate and delayed controlled information feedback (feedback within 5 seconds as compared with a 24-hour delay); and the relationships that exist among measures of integrative complexity, estimations about the time of occurrence of future events, and time delay between task…

Creative products submitted in response to a contest were examined to discover whether creativity was related to the sex and socioeconomic status of the respondent and whether characteristics of the objects could be specified which would predict their level of rated creativity. No sex difference was found, but socioeconomic status was…

The study investigated which addition facts children and preservice teachers view as being difficult, whether it is possible to determine facts which are difficult for all children, and whether children and adults agree on which facts are difficult. Results indicated that children and adults disagree about the difficulty of facts. (PK)

Assessed the level of cognitive demand inherent in the manner in which students were held accountable for activities and tasks in seventh grade life science classes. Notes that most tasks placed minimal cognitive demand on students, as they involved copying or simple step-by-step procedures. (SKC)

Proposes that the study of basilectal and acrolectal Singapore English can contribute to a better understanding of second language acquisition and use, emphasizing the operation of the monitor and specifications of the hierarchy of difficulty in the acquisition of syntactic structures. (Author/CB)

To estimate reading difficulty of items on a sentence repetition task, a study had 50 adult English as a second language (ESL) students repeat each of 26 sentences immediately after two presentations. High-difficulty items were derivationally more complex than low-difficulty items, and the most difficult items involved the processing of…

Reports an experimental investigation of the influence of linguistic factors on linguistic performance. The factors studied were interpretive complexity and surface length. Results show an interaction between types of linguistic complexity and type of linguistic performance. (Author/SED)