A study showed that the acquisition of voting knowledge in a civics class positively influenced ninth- and tenth-grade students' attitudes toward voting. Teachers should give students a solid foundation concerning the electoral process and encourage students to participate in the political process. (RM)

This study showed that the coverage of energy varies considerably among secondary schools in Great Britain and that British students lack a clear knowledge of energy issues in general and nuclear energy in particular, are indifferent to conservation, and are reluctant to accept nuclear power. Energy education must be given greater emphasis.…

Describes two experiments comparing how children evaluate three types of uninformative messages (ambiguous, incomplete, inconsistent) and whether and why the speaker's age affects the evaluation of each. (HOD)

Examined the influence of age, social class, and maternal employment on changes in nutrition knowledge and dietary quality following a nutrition education program for 10- to 13-year-olds. Results indicated that nutrition knowledge but not dietary quality were increased by the program. (JAC)

Delineates four basic components appropriate to serials librarianship which are generally inadequately stressed in library education: knowledge of capabilities of computers and telecommunications systems; knowledge of scholarly communication; complementary quantitative skills for decision making; and knowledge of basic economic principles.…

Views of teaching assistants (TAs) concerning the significance and impact of the job are considered, along with their interactions with the college and students. Teaching competence, knowledge, facilitating learning, TAs' responsibilities to the student, and feedback to TAs are also covered, including first person comments of three TAs. (SW)

Randomly sampled librarians were asked to rate 56 categories of baseline knowledge and skills according to their importance and degree to which respondents considered themselves knowledgeable. Highlights include areas of knowledge; library education effectiveness; and the importance of knowledge and experience, the library position, and the…

Results of this study confirm discrimination of the intensive time-series design and indicate that it can be used to distinguish differences in learning (comprehension and knowledge) between eighth-grade earth science students (N=95) having formal cognitive tendencies and those having concrete cognitive tendencies. (JN)

The tests used in the identification of learning disabilitis and the extent of knowledge specialists have regarding the technical aspects of tests were assessed. All groups of specialists tended to overrate the tests they used, and generally indicated a lack of familiarity with the psychometric properties of commonly used tests. (Author/SW)

Geographic literacy pre- and posttests administered to 19 community college students in an introductory regional geography course showed that many students, including education majors, are functionally illiterate in geographic concepts and skills. Ways that teachers can increase their geographic literacy are discussed. (RM)

In 1944, noted conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote: "Acts of conservation without the requisite desires and skill are futile. To create these desires and skills, and the community motive, is the task of education." Almost sixty years later, in January 2003, the National Science Foundation released a report of its Advisory Committee for…

In this report, we review current scientific knowledge on the topic of youth mentoring, including what is known about relationships and programs, and their interface with organizations and institutions. Two primary conclusions can be drawn from this review. First, mentoring relationships are most likely to promote positive outcomes and avoid harm…

In 2003, the legislature and governor enacted House Bill 1909 to create a pilot project on competency-based transfer between two--and four--year colleges and universities. The legislation directed the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) to select institutions to define transfer requirements in several disciplines on the basis of students'…

Since public libraries contain copyrighted works in the form of print, electronic or audiovisual sources, librarians and library paraprofessionals need to possess sufficient knowledge of United States copyright law to meet the information needs of patrons successfully and legally. A literature review revealed that minimal works address this topic.…

With the increased use of computerized adaptive testing, which allows for continuous testing, new concerns about test security have evolved, one being the assurance that items in an item pool are safeguarded from theft. In this paper, the risk of score inflation and procedures to detect test takers using item preknowledge are explored. When test…