The objective of this paper is to review and synthesize two interrelated topics in the adult metacomprehension literature: the bases of metacomprehension judgment and the constraints on metacomprehension accuracy. Our review shows that adult readers base their metacomprehension judgments on different types of information, including experiences…

This study investigated the accuracy of classroom teachers' judgments of the reading progress of their low-performing students. Participants were 36 second grade teachers and students in their lowest reading groups (n = 150). Student progress was monitored weekly using reading-curriculum-based measurement (R-CBM) procedures. After 6 weeks,…

This article outlines the planning towards a research design to learn about leadership as it is constructed, experienced and developed in schools. It is intended that the research would go beyond an individual's account to gain an insight into the relationships and social dynamic within the organization. The hypothesis is that the degree of…

Festinger's (1954) theory of social comparison holds that in the absence of objective standards, people use the attitudes or judgments of similar others to determine the correctness of their own positions. More recent studies have suggested, however, that people often prefer dissimilar comparison targets. A study was undertaken to examine the…

Examines the relationship between autonomy and religiosity. Argues that the latter does not necessarily exclude the former. Outlines a theory regarding the development of religious judgment. Describes basic characteristics of religious education. Discusses questions concerning the universality of religion and the role of atheistic attitudes within…

Confirms the hypothesis that young children can make relatively realistic judgements about future performance if their attention is directed to past performance information. Sixty four-year-olds predicted performance outcomes for themselves or for another child after a series of failures. Results depended on rewards and the salience of past…

Compares second-, fifth- and eighth-graders' reasoning about their relative ability and that of another child (who applied more or less effort) with their reasoning about the relative ability of two others (who differed in effort). Responses to specific questions may be more sensitive to situationally induced motivational influences than responses…

Hammond's Cognitive Continuum theory posits that certain task features induce distinct processing modes (e.g., intuitive or analytic) and thus result in qualitatively different decision performance. Although the theory suggests the relation between task features and performance characteristics a priori, the validity of these predictions requires…

Male and female subjects asked to evaluate six candidates for a management training program responded more favorably toward female and Black subjects, in a manner suggesting a "reverse discrimination" effect in their final decisions. (DM)

Observers are known to form inferences about an actor on the basis of the actor's behavior, regardless of the external forces contributing to that behavior. Two studies were conducted to determine whether this inferential error would also occur at the level of group activity. In the first study, 70 undergraduates read about a decision made by a…

Uses the balance scale task to assess the development of compensation across versions of the task. Shows that fully reversible thinking may not be typical even in college students; many subjects used the compensation operation inconsistently. Preschoolers tended to use the given information in a way that was opposite to that required for correct…

This discussion of some of the research literature that is relevant to the issue of teaching thinking provides descriptions of hypothetical, ideal thinkers, and problem solvers; considers the problem of teaching thinking and problem solving; and explores the issue of evaluating programs so that they can be revised and improved. Following Bransford…

Despite recent emphasis on the communicative function attributions may serve, little is actually known about the reactions of observers to individuals' causal statements regarding their own or others' behavioral outcomes. To rule out perceived accuracy as an alternative explanation of the effects of concordance of causal understanding on…

Examines the factors influencing the use of a plan by four- and five-year-old children to judge the relative number of two sets by one-to-one correspodence. Results suggest that most children have one-to-one plans in long-term memory by age four. (Author/RWB)

This commentary on EC 603 695 argues that significance testing is a necessary but insufficient condition for positivistic research, that judgment-based assessment and single-subject research are not substitutes for significance testing, and that sampling fluctuation should be considered as one of numerous epistemological concerns in any…