Underprepared students deserve targeted instruction and practical content to develop communication skills. To implement a narrow, traditional approach in teaching these skills would be shortsighted and ultimately disastrous. (Author/LBH)

A problem with current methods for teaching and evaluating interpersonal skills is addressed: the failure to include a wide range of behaviors reported in the literature as contributing to patient dissatisfaction and noncompliance. A comprehensive interpersonal skills training program and pretest-posttest evaluation are described. (Author/LBH)

MARC (Methodical Assessment of Reports by Computer) is a report-marking program which enables teachers to provide individualized feedback on reports written by engineering students. The MARC system is objective in its consistent application of the same programed criteria, but also allows individual markers to supply their own comments as required.…

Examines the socialization of student question-asking behavior. Documents students' self-initiated questions in an attempt to determine whether high- and low-potential students learn different questioning skills. Findings generally support the authors' passivity model, which claims that students learn to become passive in classrooms because of…

Five ideas for class activities at different levels and for various audiences are described. They include a card game, exercises on French wines, a personalities game, and study of a Baudelaire poem. (MSE)

Shows how clusters of short sentences found in basal readers can be combined into more complex structures, reinforcing reading skills as children write. (FL)

A teacher describes the development of and preparation for a "French Day" for secondary school students. The event focused on modern technological development and involved student projects such as videos, writing, computer activities, and reading sessions. (CB)

Questionnaire responses of Israeli headmasters (N=110) on the introduction of microcomputers in their schools for handicapped children revealed a common emphasis on cognitive skill training and basic skill development with the hope that the computer's characteristics (clear-cut goals, feedback, adaptable pace, high response rate) would facilitate…

Presents results of a survey that suggests that high school journalism courses help students gain language arts skills better than required or elective English courses. (JC)

Explains the Every Teacher a Researcher (ETR) program and invites teachers to participate in classroom research on students' problem-solving abilities. Reviews previous approaches taken to investigations of problem solving in science. Identifies characteristics of successful and unsuccessful problem solvers. (ML)

Reviews recent studies that examined blood-lead levels and childhood learning problems. Study findings involving Edinburgh school children suggest that body burdens of lead can diminish the cognitive ability and learning skills of children and that asymptomatic levels of lead can be neurotoxic. (ML)

Introduces some activities to help children develop their processing and inquiry skills with a substitute teacher as well as regular teachers. Illustrates 25 kinds of skills. (YP)

Reviews research and empirical evidence to refute three first language acquisition myths: (1) comprehension precedes production; (2) children acquire language in a systematic, rule-governed way; and (3) the impetus behind first language acquisition is communicative need. (Author/CB)

The effectiveness of using nonmedical personnel to evaluate medical students' performance on medical history-taking and physical examination was studied at Mercer University School of Medicine. Advantages in using nonphysician observers were that they were more available, economical, and attentive. (MLW)

The importance of student teaching and the impact the cooperating teacher has on the student teacher's experience leads to the formulation of guidelines for the cooperating teacher: (1) outline expectations; (2) provide for early and continued successes; and (3) communicate with the student teacher. (JL)