A survey of 1,793 students at nine state universities found cheating was influenced by a number of characteristics of individuals, including age, sex, and grade point average, and contextual factors, including level of cheating among peers, peer disapproval of cheating, fraternity/sorority membership, and perceived severity of penalties for…

Given the important role of the affective variables in the process of learning, this paper examines ways of overcoming negative effects (i.e. anxiety, boredom) of the contextual factors. Exemplifying the uses of humor through context-specific, purpose-driven jokes, it maintains that humor can be utilized to produce a resourceful, encouraging and…

This study explored the usability of learning stage data using the M. B. Baxter Magolda (1992) model for identifying and understanding differences among students and their perceptions of their academic experience at a midsize public community college. The study sought to: identify a dominant learning stage (either absolute, transitional, or…

Two groups of Japanese students, 40 university students (aged 18-25) and 34 high school students (aged 13-15), assessed their own English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) after having lived in an English-speaking country for at least a year before returning to Japan. This evaluation was compared with objective listening…

Metacognitions about study activities and strategy use were assessed in 166 fifth and sixth graders (54 percent female and 39 percent African American), 108 seventh and eighth graders (55 percent female and 32 percent African American), and 168 college students (60 percent female, 10 percent African American, and 10 percent from other ethnic…

This report reviews a theoretically inspired empirical investigation of individual differences in knowledge, abilities, and nonability traits as part of an ongoing effort to better understand adult intellectual development and to develop more accurate measures of adult intelligence. Twenty Knowledge Scales were constructed, drawing on…

This book describes how a journalist turned college professor faces the students of Generation X at a community college in California. He discovers a culture war between generations--a culture wave between college teachers, typically Baby Boomers and members of Generation X. This cultural divide is between the modern and postmodern worlds and the…

This report describes the development and validation of the Unisex ACT Interest Inventory (UNIACT). In contrast to other interest inventories in common use, the UNIACT contains scales on which males and females receive similar scores. In the development of the UNIACT, more than 200 potentially sex-balanced items were administered to 10,211 people,…

A study identified demographic, academic, and social differences between black students entering a predominantly white, urban university as either freshmen (n=63) or transferring to the institution (n=109). Results indicated differences in age, marital status, choice of individuals influential in the student's persistence, and participation in…

A case study of second language development in a college student focused on comparative changes in the development of oral and written skills over a period of two years. The subject was a Russian student of English as a second language who had recently arrived in the United States. Errors and syntactic maturity were analyzed in writing samples…

A study investigated the nature and extent of African American interest in African languages. Data were gathered in (1) an informal telephone survey of selected universities having an African American studies department and/or a sizeable number of Black students, and African-centered public schools, and (2) a survey of 234 African Americans and…

The understanding of children and adults regarding four component properties of the arithmetic mean was studied. The component properties were: (1) the mean is a data point between extreme values of a score distribution; (2) the sum of deviations about the mean equals zero; (3) when the mean is calculated, any value of zero must be taken into…

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…

While it is commonly assumed that teaching children is unrelated to teaching at the advanced level, the two kinds of teaching are closely related and mutually effective. The experience of teaching young learners can benefit the instruction of college students of English as a second language. In both cases, providing motivation is a challenge.…

This paper contains the results of a drug use questionnaire given to undergraduate and graduate students in various fields of study, in September 1967. The results are listed according to numerous considerations, among them, sex, age, marital status, study area, domicile, and type of drug used. The roles and policies of the University in education…