Describes a study conducted with a seventh-grade Future Problem Solving (FTS) class in which students work in teams of four to solve problems related to futuristic issues. As a result of increased competitiveness and poor emotional climate in the class, activities designed to promote a more congenial, less competitive classroom atmosphere were…

Suggests that public school education in the last 50 years has been altered most dramatically by the interstate highway system and no-fault divorce. Blames the highway system for destroying the sense of community and capacity for delayed gratification and challenge. Argues that no-fault divorce has resulted in loss of family values and…

The rural population of Chile has been served poorly by the formal educational system, rural educational attainment lags behind that of urban areas, and outmigration and alienation of rural youth are high. In the past decade, popular education has attempted to educate rural people and put them in control of their destinies by drawing on popular…

This paper reports findings of a study that is grounded in the assumption that the ways in which teachers interact outside their classrooms may be critical to the future of school restructuring and the effects of restructuring on students. The paper develops a framework for analyzing professional community within schools, examines school…

International perceptions of Jordanian university students are compared with those of American, Egyptian, and Israeli students. The sample consisted of 50 students from each country; results concentrate on Jordanian perceptions. Assessments were based on the Associative Group Analysis (AGA) which reconstructs perceptions and attitudes…

Quality circles (QCs) have been considered one of the most promising approaches to improving American workers' productivity. The differences of quality circle effectiveness between active QCs (N=36) and inactive QCs (N=17) in a 3-year period were examined in a quasi-experimental field study. The dependent variables examined were the amount of…

This paper reviews the research and theories on ethnic identity development, and draws some implications from these ideas for improving curriculum design for, and instructional effectiveness with, ethnically different students, especially Black Americans. The paradigm of "the developmental stages of ethnic identity transformation"…

Institutional bonding was examined at a public, urban commuter college with exceptionally high attrition and visibly low morale. Changes in bonding and attrition were measured 6 years after a 2-year effort to develop school identity and student feelings of membership. It was found that a simple index of campus morale is provided by level of…

Traditionally, group research has focused on outcome rather than process. In order to provide an efficient means of data collection and analysis in group process, the Automatic Vocal Transaction Analyzer (AVTA) system was developed to generate an objective chronography of conversation vocalizations, pauses, turntaking, switching, and…

This paper discusses the southern approach to education during the period of 1700 to 1860. During this period there developed in the South three culture-specific institutions that helped delay the growth of Common Schools, and later Public Schools. Those institutions were the following: (1) a code of honor; (2) the development of a structured…

The construction of hypotheses concerning blacks in America requires an understanding of two enduring influences on collective black experience: (1) whites' treatment of blacks as slaves and (2) West African culture that helped to shape black adaptation to the conditions engendered by slavery. White racist attitudes and the psychological distance…

The findings and recommendations of five task forces, composed of members of major Latino organizations and experts in Latino affairs, are summarized in this report on the public policy needs of Hispanics. The five areas of concern covered by the task forces are statistical policy and data needs; employment ane economic well being; social services…

A study examined the effects of feedback on the job attitudes and behavior of female sewing machine operators. The control group design involved all 165 piecework operators at the experimental site (a garment factory in a large southwestern city) and a random sample of 54 operators selected from a sister plant of the same manufacturer 10 miles…

This paper hypothesizes the crucial factors necessary for the transformation of rebellion into separatist movements. It examines the Kurds in Turkey, Iran, and Iraq as a case study to test the hypotheses. Separatism is seen to include attempts by an ethnic group to achieve complete independence from the nation in which it resides. It can also…

Issues and knowledge gaps related to race in a pluralistic society were identified and recommendations for further social science research were made by over 200 social science specialists in a 1973 study. Conference presentations, discussions, and interviews are synthesized in this report, focusing on American society, cultural factors in human…