Written by a noted Soviet demographer, this issue provides a translation of his recent work on the social maturity of Soviet school graduates. Includes tables of basic demographic data on population trends, attitudes toward work, and family life. (JDH)

Introduces a collection of papers presented at a symposium on the situationally-specific character of problem-solving practices. Reports that findings provoke speculation about relations among social contexts, knowledge and activity, and relations between school-learned problem-solving techniques and those used in other settings. (KH)

When 32 mentally retarded adults who had been transferred from large institutions to new small units were tested 5.5 years after the transfer, tests indicated that they had retained or regained adaptive behavior skills but had declined in psycholinguistic abilities. (Author/CB)

Discusses the evaluation of "survival texts" for immigrants in terms of the accuracy of the texts' portrayal of immigrants' reality and the extent to which they shape reality. Examples show that frequently the materials' content and communicative structure do not reflect authentic interaction and that they emphasize subservient social roles. (SED)

Notes that appropriate materials are hard to find for refugees of marginal reading ability in English as a second language programs and describes teacher-made exercises that use the students' prior knowledge and experience. (HOD)

Emphasizes understanding the social psychology of individual and community resistance to schooling in classes of adult students in job training programs. Points out that basic unit of educational organization should be the group of teachers, that classes should be organized as work groups which should share the tasks of education and everyday…

Presents results from ethnographic study on children's everyday life in Finnish daycare centers. Raises question of the relationship between play and real life, and analyzes play and playfulness as communicative resources used by children in creating everyday routines. Argues play is not a separate children's world; by using play, children also…

This study examined the views of 176 kindergarten teachers regarding those skills children need to be successful in kindergarten. Teachers ranked 149 skills within 5 domains: gross motor, fine motor, general knowledge and school readiness, language, and social. Findings indicated that items related to academic readiness were not seen as critical…

A mother of an adolescent daughter with blindness and learning disabilities focuses on how she helped her daughter improve reading and writing skills by finding a meaningful purpose for those skills in daily life. This article discusses early signs of learning problems, the learning environment, talking books, books in braille, technology,…

A rehabilitation teacher at the Kansas State School for the Blind describes her job. Her main responsibilities are to teach a transition class to older high school students and to be at the local community college to assist students to be successful in that setting. Students are taught cooking, cleaning skills, and skills for independent apartment…

Presents a model--consistent with formulations in developmental psychology and psychopathology--that extends attachment theory to late adolescence. Discusses attachment in the context of life-span development, stress, coping, and adjustment. Favors addressing methodological challenges in order to validate attachment-based developmental and…

This survey found that regular education teachers (n=312) felt that friendships between students with and without disabilities are possible, should be facilitated by adults, and are beneficial to all students. The survey also identified educational settings in which friendship, functional life skill, and academic skill development were most likely…

Educators have forsaken public education's goals and their responsibility to parents and the community by substituting standardized test scores, college entrance requirements, varsity sports, and academic competition for helping young people prepare for life. Schools must involve the community in helping all students learn major life roles,…

Three classes of variables were used to predict three indices of intervention outcomes for children with handicaps and developmental delays. Results suggest the important role of nonprogram variables in determining outcomes in programs that train parents to teach preacademic, communication, social, self-help, and motor development skills.…

The article describes the modification and implementation in Saint Bernard Parish (Louisiana) of the Adult Performance Level Curriculum with mildly handicapped secondary students. Major skill areas are coordinated with areas of functional competency, with the goal of achieving competency in 42 specific areas of adult life. Field experiences…