The goal of this investigation was to explore the role social competence plays in peer group relations. Social competence, as based on exchange theory, was "operationalized" as including high levels of interpersonal positiveness, and accuracy in perceiving one's social status. Also explored was the extent to which satisfaction is a…

A study investigated the relation of text structure to information retained by readers. The premise investigated was that memory for the central facts of a passage will be enhanced by the presence of related information as theorized in the encoding elaboration model (developed by Anderson and Reder in 1979). This model states that comprehension…

This paper describes the acquisition of basic economic concepts by two fifth-grade classes in an elementary school through the use of a school store. The paper contains: (1) a review of the literature relating to economics education and the use of simulations; (2) a discussion of two teachers' approaches to teaching economic concepts; and (3) a…

The relationship between expert teachers' classroom behavior and their subject matter knowledge is an area of research that has not been examined extensively. To begin that study, one topic, fraction knowledge, was explored in depth as it occurred in natural teaching settings. Fractions are one of the more difficult topics in elementary…

Fluctuations in problem solving and classroom behaviors during the school day for 43 hyperkinetic intermediate students with attention deficits were examined. Ss were observed with the Stonybrook Observation Code and tested with the Stroop Color-Word Test, Matching Familiar Figures, Porteus Mazes, and Digit Span. Data were collected in…

A study examined the effects of training in a self-generated learning strategy on students' ability to comprehend text and self-monitor their understanding while engaging in strategic text processing. The study also explored the extent to which grade level and passage difficulty interacted with training to produce treatment effects. Subjects, 36…

A study examined whether a writing style called "dialogue writing" would allow children to use conversational cues to write longer papers in the same amount of time as free writing. Subjects were 54 sixth graders (about 12 years old) in 3 classrooms in rural neighborhoods--one class consisted of children with learning difficulties.…

Richards, Gaver, and Golicz (1984) found that, in contrast to peers whose grades were accurately predicted from performance on aptitude tests, both extremely underachieving and extremely overachieving fourth-graders had negative academic attitudes. The present study aimed to replicate and extend these findings. Subjects in the replication study…

The study attempted to further clarify the relationship between speed and memory span by directly examining whether slower identification of item information is the source of span difficulties in learning disabled (LD) children. Forty-eight sixth grade boys participated in the study, 24 LD and 24 non-LD. The method involved pretesting each subject…

A study investigated the effects of sentence combining instruction on the reading comprehension and writing maturity of fifth grade children. The sample consisted of an experimental and a control group with 25 children in each group. For 6 weeks the experimental group received instruction in sentence combining, defined for purposes of the study as…

Twenty-four sixth grade students participated in a study that adapted earlier reading research to determine whether students would demonstrate sensitivity to the presence or absence of a relevant schema in a passage and whether skilled readers would show more use of the schema than would less skilled readers. Six skilled and six less skilled…

The report presents the findings of a study of the effects of 2 years of using the Orton Gillingham tutorial program with 128 middle school (grades 5 through 8) language disabled students. Students were seen in 45 minute tutorial periods from three to five times a week with some students (the self contained group) receiving instruction in both…

Prepared as part of a continuing study of the instructional practices that make up the process of schooling, this paper concentrates on the practices that comprise reading comprehension instruction. The paper focuses on four skills commonly taught and assessed as part of many widely used reading comprehension instruction programs in the…

In translating perception into written language, a child must learn an encoding process which is a continuation of the process of improving sensing of the world around him or her. To verbalize an object (a perception) we use frames which name a referent, locate the referent in space and time, identify its appearance and behavior, and define terms…

When 74 sixth-grade special education students were tested on the fifth-and fourth-grade levels of the 1977 California Achievement Test, their scores dropped significantly, although converted to in-level norms. Test validity, measured by the number of students scoring at floor level, on the in-level versus below-level norms, was subtest dependent.…