School students' conceptual frameworks in astronomy and students' levels of knowledge and conceptualization were examined for 130 students in grades 2 through 12. Knowledge and conceptualization increased with school age. A test administered to 892 students in 7 schools demonstrated that schools contributed little to education in astronomy. (SLD)

A study at Illinois Benedictine College compared the advising of freshmen with that of upperclassmen. Upperclassmen rated advisers highly on academic dimensions such as knowledge of major courses and graduation requirements. Freshmen saw advisers as concerned about their college adjustment, helpful with referrals, and interested in their general…

Compares the exercise attitudes, knowledge, and habits of 1,833 alumni from 4 colleges, 3 of which had varying degrees of required conceptually based physical education. Results indicate that physical education programs with a required concepts of physical activity course appear to affect alumni values and attitudes about exercise. (GLR)

This study found differences between out and closeted lesbian and gay (LG) students in their perceptions of the campus climate and experiences on a Midwestern college campus. Eighty LG students responded to an 87-item survey; 44 were categorized as the "low out" (closeted) group and 36 as the "highly out" group. The study was primarily…

Part of the response of many development cooperation agencies to the challenges of globalisation, ICTs and the knowledge economy is to emphasise the importance of knowledge for development. This paper looks at the discourses and practices of ''knowledge-based aid'' through an exploration of four agencies: the World Bank, DFID, Sida and JICA. It…

This study was designed to explore an expert teacher's model of thinking and teaching as it occurred within the social and cultural context of the classroom. The model was then compared with instructional systems design (ISD) to identify similarities and differences between them. To accomplish these goals, the study focused on the process and…

This study explored the effect of experiential and experience-based approaches to learning and instruction on transitional first grade students' (a) acquisition and use of economic concepts and (b) economic reasoning ability as indicated by the presence or absence of misconceptions about economic concepts. A pretest-posttest control group design…

This study examined reasons why novice physicians, even after 6 years of medical education, are apparently unable to utilize a patient's contextual information (age, sex, profession, previous diseases, operations, and medical therapy) in the same accurate manner in disease diagnosis as their more experienced colleagues. Sixteen family physicians,…

The study determined whether Navajo parents of handicapped students reported similar knowledge of legal and educational information related to special education in comparison with Anglo parents, and the extent to which both cultural groups had knowledge of their handicapped childrens' educational rights. Twenty-two Anglo and 19 Navajo parents…

The effects of rule knowledge were investigated using Braille inkprint pairs. Both recognition and recall were studied in three groups of subjects: rule knowledge, rule discovery, and no rule. Two hypotheses were tested: (1) that the group exposed to the rule would score better than would a discovery group and a control group; and (2) that all…

This field experiment begins to build a theoretical framework for exploring the effects of media characteristics on subjects' understanding and integration of information. Students in two eighth-grade science classes wrote term papers with one class using a print encyclopedia and the other an electronic encyclopedia to conduct their research. A…

The distribution of knowledge in society tends to parallel the distribution of other social and economic resources. Currently four major socioeconomic trends point not only to widened knowledge gaps in the future but also to greater divisions between higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) groups. First, a long-term trend toward a more…

The relationship of verbal skills to performance on the National Teacher Examinations Core Battery Test of General Knowledge was examined, using data from the June 1986 national administration. Differences in General Knowledge scores for self-identified Black and White examinees were found and were shown to interact with levels of achievement on…

The "Test of Economic Literacy" was used to assess the economics knowledge of students enrolled in five Kentucky vocational high schools. The test was to determine if economics instruction should be instituted in vocational schools. Neither age group nor gender was found to be a significant factor in student achievement, but the number…

Two contrasting kindergarten reading programs (book-focused and letter-focused) were chosen for a study that evaluated the ability of the Early Reading Test to probe children's knowledge of stories as well as letters, sounds, and words. The test also evaluated the kinds of strategies children use to attempt reading tasks and, through interview…