This study examined students' active roles in constructing knowledge when learning new information in the domain of biological evolution. A computer-based connectionist methodology was developed to provide a way to present students with new information while the experimenter provides probe statements congruent with or contradictory to the…

The first purpose of this study was to identify significant factors affecting the first benchmark in retaining students in college--the decision to enroll in the first fall semester after orientation. The second purpose was to examine enrollment decisions at the second benchmark--the decision to re-enroll in the second fall semester after freshman…

To ascertain the current status of Holocaust knowledge and attitudes of prospective teachers and to inform the development of a web-based educational resource for teachers of the Holocaust, an exploratory analysis was conducted at a public university in Florida. Data were obtained from prospective teachers (N = 464) who completed a knowledge test,…

After progress towards achieving major income security goals during the 1960s and 1970s, economic slowdown and public reaction against "the welfare state" have curtailed direct intervention by the federal government for these purposes. Absolute poverty and welfare dependency have increased in the 1980s, especially among the young. Major…

Formal definitions are one example of "decontextualized" language use, in which reliance on background knowledge shared with the interlocutor is minimized, and use of conversational devices is avoided. Definitions of English nouns by 137 second- to fifth-grade children, about half of whom were non-native English speakers, were analyzed…

An examination was made of what determined women's opportunities to participate in the United States labor force from 1940 to 1978. Using a model drawn from ecological and competition theory, the data examined suggest that the expansion of the economy, the relative proportion of women in the population, female tertiary education, and governmental…

Normal black adolescents were given neuropsychological tests of brain damage, and the interpretation of these tests was reviewed with respect to culturally relevant data. Subjects were 50 male and 50 female black students, aged 12-13, with no history of central nervous system trauma, and average scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for…

Findings from the Student Attribute Study, a two-year investigation designed to identify student characteristics and behaviors related to teacher expectations and attitudes are reported. Children in grades two through five who received consistent teacher rankings over a two-year period on one or more of 13 bi-polar scales describing student…

Recent investigations have demonstrated greater variance in change in intellectual performance between different generations or age groups than is true for generalized developmental change across chronological age. Such findings have led to a careful investigation of certain environmental factors which might account for such change. A new…

This study addresses two questions: (1) Why do fourth grade students in Rhode Island perform better on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) than eighth grade students?, and (2) Why do Rhode Island parochial students perform better on the ITBS than public school students? The examination of both questions focused on three areas: school setting…

In order to clarify the complicated relationship between the onset of puberty and the transition from elementary to junior high school, a controlled study was designed that compared the transition of grade 5 elementary school students to grade 6 in an elementary school with the transition of grade 6 elementary school students to grade 7 in a…

In order to determine why course enrollments in the SUN (State University of Nebraska) program, which is the University of Mid-America's course delivery system in Nebraska, were markedly lower than expected over a two-year period, a telephone survey with a stratified sample of approximately 1,200 adults was conducted. The survey questions provided…

Two rural villages with similar characteristics were selected in Punjab (northern India) in order to study attitudes towards planned socio-economic development programs. All household heads (married males) in Bhagpura (123) and Khaira Bet (116) were interviewed; other data were derived separately. Program acceptance (modernism) in both villages…

A model of self concept in children was examined by conducting a construct validation of a self concept instrument, the Self-Appraisal Inventory (SAI). The SAI was an 80-item instrument with four subscales: General, Family, Peer and Scholastic, all of which were based on behavioral objectives. The model was made more useful for a school setting…

A series of studies and analyses to develop brief, reliable measures of intelligence and achievement motivation that would be feasible for use in a cross-sectional sample is summarized. One measure of intelligence meets these criteria. It is a 13-item test of sentence completion skill, which correlates effectively with other measures of…