This book defines and explains some 40 key concepts in adult education and training, and it presents an analysis of the more than 150 concepts that can be made by combining core and qualifying concepts. The concepts have been grouped into seven chapters, with the following core concepts discussed in chapter 1: adult, education, and training, plus…

Social penetration has been described by S.W. Littlejohn (1992) as "the process of increasing disclosure and intimacy in a relationship." The phrase "social penetration" originated with I. Altman and D. Taylor, the foremost researchers in this area. From other theories, Altman and Taylor developed a unified theory which…

Two meanings of the word "discourse" are distinguished. The first treats discourse as conversation (D1), and the other refers to different ways of understanding (D2). Rather than seeing the two kinds of discourse as different, they are seen as having an important connection, particularly in classroom communication. Examples are drawn from the…

A study examined the concept of the "hero" in a qualitative manner. It aimed to synthesize the subjects' personal definitions of the concept in a "consensus" definition and to compare and contrast stated heroes/heroines across generational lines for notable trends or patterns. Subjects, 80 persons (40 males and 40 females) who…

Two studies examined children's misunderstandings in using dictionary definitions to comprehend the meaning of a new word. Subjects in the first study, 38 male and 22 female fourth-grade students from four classes in a medium-sized midwestern town, were given two similar judgment tasks: (1) students were given a definition for a new word and asked…

Even though the importance of critical thinking skills has been recognized and studied by experts in several fields, the research has not yielded a clear definition, nor has a clear explanation been proffered of how writing can foster critical thinking. This article reviews the literature on the various definitions of critical thinking and…

This fact sheet offers general information about traumatic brain injury. Information includes a definition, incidence, individual characteristics, and educational implications. The fact sheet notes that the designation of traumatic brain injury as a separate category of disability signals that schools should provide children and youth with access…

This booklet was prepared as a point of reference for the delegates to the White House Conference to familiarize them with the meanings of library and information science related acronyms and terms. The first of three sections of the booklet provides a list of selected acronyms and their meanings. A glossary of selected terms related to library…

This paper describes the process used by the Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Program (MIHOW), a program of the Center for Health Services at Vanderbilt University, to develop its program evaluation with limited evaluation resources. The evaluation addresses the empowerment of grassroots participants in two projects: the MIHOW Pre- and…

This document defines terms related to outdoor recreation: (1) outdoor recreation includes activities that occur outdoors in an urban and man-made environment as well as those activities traditionally associated with the natural environment; (2) outdoor education is education in, about, and for the outdoors; (3) environmental education is an…

Most of the ordinary words in a language do not mean; rather, they act as rigid designators, referring to the same object in all possible words in which the object exists. Most words are names that are used as rigid designators of kinds--natural kinds (species, genre, and so forth), artifacts, physical and social magnitudes, and sorts of…

A national sample of 118 teachers of learning disabled (LD) students described their school districts' criteria for identifying LD students and indicated their agreement or disagreement with the criteria. Four basic categories of definitions were reflected in the categories provided by the 118 teachers: ability-achievement discrepancy, achievement…

Providing a framework for a symposium exploring the influence of physical attractiveness on the socialization process, this paper (1) offers a working definition of physical attractiveness, (2) reviews stereotypes associated with attractiveness, and (3) discusses a social network perspective on the influence of attractiveness. Physical…

Over 30 journals, books, and articles on the subject of educational technology published between 1967 and 1983 as well as relevant organizations are listed in this bibliography. Included are a list of seven major professional organizations, six most frequently read journals, three major comprehensive references in the field of educational…

The capabilities and potential of videotex, a two-way interactive communication and information retrieval service, are briefly described in this fact sheet. Videotex refers to a two-way linkage between databases and individual consumers in home or office. It is currently being used for information retrieval, transactions (e.g., bill paying,…