Educators have realized the importance of engaging students in learning. Teachers often see participatory behaviors like "hand raising" as evidence of students being engaged in an activity. These indications of engagement do not capture motivational factors behind true engagement. A research team developed a five item scale to easily…

A checklist of 26 behaviors is offered to help elementary level teachers determine where students are experiencing organizing or sequencing difficulties. Eight remediation suggestions for promoting organized behavior in learning disabled students are offered. (CL)

Stages in developing mentally handicapped children's pretend play are outlined and techniques for assessing a child's play development are described. (SBH)

A revision of one published in April 1985, this checklist yields useful information for preparing self-study reports. Questions are categorized as follows: data on community and institution; goals and priorities; curriculum; faculty; teaching; students; operational activities; and resources. (Contains one reference.) (LB)

Discusses the growing use by educational psychologists and teachers of developmental and academic behavior checklists. Identifies the minimum criteria necessary for checklists and criticizes their use as many fail to meet these standards. Describes the limitations, misuse, and narrow focus of behavior checklists. (GEA)

A checklist/safety quiz from the National Fire Protection Association examines individual knowledge of how to escape if a home fire breaks out. The organization recommends that every household develop a fire escape plan and practice it at least twice a year. (SM)

Designed for the evaluation of the reading ability of handicapped students, the reading style checklist (RSC) is presented along with lists of abilities a student would need in order to learn to read using different reading methods. (PHR)

Presents a checklist of core behaviors for use in assessing students' strengths, weaknesses, and changes in thinking skills. Lists persistence, decreased impulsivity, flexibility, metacognition, checking for accuracy, problem posing, drawing on past knowledge and experience, transfer of skills to new situations, precision of language, and…

Describes how an institution seeking to improve its course quality can conduct a collective self-evaluation based on an internally designed checklist. The article maintains that this self-evaluation may be used to prepare for an external inspection or built into the institution's on-going program of staff development. (nine references) (Author/CK)

Highlights the importance of a positive first visual impression of a childcare center to prospective clients. Provides a facility assessment checklist with 44 questions in the areas of: (1) building and landscape; (2) entrance; (3) hallways and common space; (4) classrooms; (5) playground; (6) children's communications; and (7) staff…

This article presents a comprehensive model of daily, classroom informal writing assessment that is constantly linked to instruction and the characteristics of proficient writers. Methods for promoting teacher, student, and parent collaboration and their roles in dialoguing, conferencing, and reflection are discussed. Strategies for including…

In Neenah Joint School District, the Team Functioning Checklist is used as a general survey for examining the attitudes and perceptions of staff members, and in a "pre- and post-test" manner to judge the effects of some team-promoting procedure or organizational change. Areas of common concerns could be identified. (Author)

A literature review identified behaviors representative of the normal stages of communication, cognition, and vocalization in children's prelinguistic period. Results were organized as a checklist for assessment of at-risk infants. The checklist is recommended for monitoring infant development, supplementing formal screenings and diagnostic tools,…

Reviews strengths and weaknesses of check lists for the evaluation of computer software and outlines consequences for their practical application. Suggests an approach based on an instructional design model and a comprehensive framework to cope with problems of validity and predictive power of software evaluation. Discusses prospects of the…

Presents 15 teachers' viewpoints on discipline; parent, teacher, and student thoughts on the causes of discipline problems; a federal discipline policy statement; a list of common discipline problems; eight questions to ask when exploring practical solutions; and approaches to discipline problems. (AH)