Discourse can be organized in many different ways, two of these being comparison and a collection of descriptions. These two discourse types correspond to schemata that vary in their organizational components, and these differences can be expected to produce differences in the processing of text. For example, research has shown that for young…

With increasing numbers of nontraditional students (25 years or older) enrolling in college classes, it is important for educators to understand how these students' perceptions of teaching effectiveness may differ from those of the more traditional university population. To discover the categories traditional and nontraditional students use in…

The report of the National Longitudinal Transition Study presents initial findings on the educational experiences since 1985-86 of more than 8,000 youth (ages 13 to 23) with disabilities. The report addresses three questions: (1) What educational programs and other services are provided to secondary special education students? (2) How well do…

Demographic and economic characteristics of Spanish Americans in North Dakota in 1980 are presented, using data from the Bureau of the Census. Statistics show 3,902 Spanish Americans were living in North Dakota (0.6% of the state's population): 59.4% were Mexican; 6.3% Puerto Rican, 1.5% Cuban, and 32.8% of other Spanish descent, with more males…

Several studies were conducted to investigate the nature and development of creative social problem solving among older and younger children in Sweden and the United States. First, the behaviors of older children were investigated formally in a large-scale experimental study of California 10-year-olds. Results indicated that children receiving…

Two articles are presented in this research bulletin. The first, entitled "Acculturation in Puerto Rican Families," assesses the degree of acculturation of 100 sets of married children of 100 Puerto Rican families living in New York City. Attitudes toward language, identity, and values are used as criteria. The specific values the study…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: children's ability to read their own dictated oral language; adjunct structure and reading comprehension; learning and comprehension of simultaneously presented stimuli in children of…

Based on the current definition for farm population (all persons living in rural territory or places which in the reporting year had, or normally would have had, sales of agricultural products of $1,000 or more), an average of 6,051,000 persons, or 2.7% of the total population lived on farms in the United States in 1980, a drop of 190,000 below…

Two studies conducted at the University of Maryland during the 1973-74 academic year evaluated the efficacy of programs designed to meet the needs of women and sought to determine whether the provision of a supportive learning environment, rather than individual or group counseling, would influence women's life styles. In the first study 36…

The progress of students under 21 years old at the United Kingdom's Open University (OU) was compared with a sample of mature students, using sociological and psychometric research methods. The research goal was to consider whether the OU's teaching system originally designed for adults is suited to the needs and circumstances of students in the…

FOUR PAPERS WERE PRESENTED ON WORK DONE IN THE FIELD OF SELECTION OF OLDER WORKERS (OVER 45) FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING. IN SOUTH BEND, INDIANA, A PROGRAM WAS DESIGNED FOR THE EDUCATIONAL REHABILITATION OF 100 HARD-CORE UNEMPLOYED WHOSE GATB SCORES DISQUALIFIED THEM FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINING. THE U.S. EMPLOYMENT SERVICE HAS UNDERTAKEN A PROGRAM OF…

Language arts teachers participated in an inservice program, The Writer's Clinic, and evaluated their students' improvement in writing ability using holistic essay scoring techniques. Seventh and eighth grade students were administered an essay composition pretest in December; the same essay topic was given as the post test in May. Students were…

The Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP) Test Comfort Scale was administered and test results were studied in terms of student achievement and correlates of achievement. Using the revised, seven-item scale, it was determined that: in grade 4, there was no main significant effect for sex or ethnic differences, although Orientals and…

In an attempt to determine the basis of the farm wife's involvement in farm tasks, hypotheses regarding farm size and type, family cycle and wife's age, off-farm work of husband or wife, and family educational levels were tested in a 1978 random questionnaire survey of 532 Wisconsin farm families. As expected, wives were more involved with farm…

The Science Reasoning Level Test (SRLT) was developed and administered to elementary school students in Poland and the United States, in order to determine whether a multiple choice test based on a Piaget model of the development of thought processes could be used to study the development of scientific reasoning. The relationship between reasoning…