Examines the theoretical underpinnings of situation cognition and derives implications for the design of situated learning environments. Highlights include a discussion of the four basic issues of the conceptual framework of situation cognition; these include the role of content, context, facilitation, and assessment. A table summarizes the…

Discusses the results of a content analysis of fantasy books for children and young adults that was conducted to determine the similarities, if any, that exist among recent fantasy books. Characteristics examined include type of main character, type of conflict, setting, presence of magic or the supernatural, and point of view. (11 references)…

Reports on a content analysis study of 25 novels about youth facing death and dying to determine whether death and grieving are realistically portrayed in young adult literature. Describes the evaluative instruments developed and discusses findings, concluding that young people can be informed and comforted by these realistic novels. (38…

Reports on a study in which computer-mediated communication (CMC) messages obtained from two public access, educationally oriented electronic bulletin boards (BBSs) were categorized according to board type and intent and analyzed for structure, length, complexity, and readability. The potential for CMC in the educational environment is considered.…

Provides a knowledge representation frame for describing walking directions on a university campus. Directional and nondirectional content of messages that were sent by either electronic mail or voice messaging are examined; sublanguage techniques used to analyze messages are explained; and future work is discussed. (nine references) (LRW)

Finds clear patterns of differences in nature and number of commercials during children's programs on three different types of television channels: broadcast networks, independent stations, and cable networks. Examines themes/appeals employed in commercials, disclosures/disclaimers used, and other content attributes. (SR)

Outlines a theoretical framework to help students seek patterns in the diverse content and styles of American Indian literary works. Describes four elements: differentiation, or the "signs" of Indian culture; investigation, evoking the reader's sense of history and cosmos; affirmation of Native American identity and communal values; and…

This study compared the content categories listed in the ANSI/ISO (American National Standards Institute/International Organization for Standardization) abstracting standards to actual content found in 120 abstracts from the chemistry, psychology, and history literature. A lack of correlation between the standards and history literature was found.…

Examined criteria that college students (n=130) use to select employment referents. Content analysis of college students' rationales for selecting employment referents revealed that students valued familiarity with employment most when choosing referents, suggesting that their choices do not always match with what employers value in reference…

Analyzes the content of extension bulletins directed to farmers' wives and of their responses to it. Finds that the women generally accepted the recommendations of the "Cornell Reading-Course for Farmers' Wives" (offering an ideal vision of literacy tempered to suit women's life on farms) but valued reading mainly as a diversion from work. (RS)

Content analysis of 1,773 articles published in three journals specializing in gifted education from their first issues through 1989 revealed (1) the volume of articles on gifted education increased significantly; (2) there is a trend toward more female authorship; (3) the literature is dominated by university personnel; and (4) non-research-based…

PhD and EdD dissertations were compared for research design, statistics, target populations, significance of results, age of subjects, and other characteristics. Analysis of 1,007 PhD and 960 EdD dissertations found PhD dissertations had more multivariate statistics and wider generalizability. EdD dissertations were more prevalent in educational…

Discussion of recall and precision of index terms focuses on an information-theoretic measure of term specificity. Term weighting schemes are described, including the inverse document frequency (IDF) and signal-noise ratio (S/N) approaches; term weighting by specificity is explained; and the need for experiments with test document collections is…

Defends the importance for media study of a descriptive and evaluative scholarship grounded in old-humanist perspectives. Uses the television miniseries "Lonesome Dove" as a case study to argue that media texts, like literary works, can and should be evaluated according to the criteria of "formal mastery" and "intellectual coherence." (SR)

Discusses the typical form and content of 40 theoretical scientific papers chosen from the most-cited papers in the "Science Citation Index." Demonstrates that the form of these papers is similar to that of experimental and methods papers but that the content differs substantially. (HB)