As a result of the recent publicity given problems of physical and sexual child abuse, society now expects teachers to be fully informed, to educate both children and parents, and to actively intercede in abuse cases. Guidelines are given to help middle level teachers cope with these and related developments. (DCS)

Reports observations of the storytime of preschool children at home and in schools. The results indicated that children's responses were similar in type whether at home or at school but that children tended to respond to literature more like the adult in the situation than like the other children. (HTH)

Studies how children negotiate the meaning of literature by examining how they responded when given the opportunity to retell a story directly after hearing it. (DF)

A comparison of the actual final grade distribution with what the grade distributions would have been had only the true/false components or the short-answer components been used is presented. The responses to a course evaluation survey that asked students to compare the two types of questions are summarized. (MLW)

Describes a study conducted to determine training needed by teachers and upper elementary children to operate videodisc player and remote control unit, assess appropriateness of an experimental videodisc, and determine teachers' and children's attitudes. Also describes an observational study of four classes using the videodisc in a laboratory…

Presents comments by authors of children's and adolescent literature about qualities of good writers, which include being a good reader, caring about language, being well educated, being an alert observer, being a good story teller, and being a compulsive writer. (EL)

Argues that different kinds of response statements, focusing on issues from cultural, historical, phenomenological, and structuralist approaches to reading texts, can be assigned to help students learn about more demanding kinds of information and, hence, can make students stronger, more informed, and more self-conscious readers of literature. (EL)

This explication of the role of cognitive processes in fright reactions to mass media stimuli focuses on past experiences as a possible--and important--component in the fear response. Research is reported on development of a measure of the nature of these past experiences. Implications for use are discussed. (MBR)

Discusses "critique" in an analysis of the relationship between discourse, text, and subjectivity, particularly as it relates to the teaching of poetry. Stresses how to make students more aware of the power of the text and to comprehend more fully the nature of their own responses. Illustrates with student responses to Blake's poem, "The Rose."…

Reports on a study of how older, Black women coped with racial and sex prejudice and/or institutional discrimination. Suggests that selected situational variables and personal factors interact and determine coping style, and that in some contexts, a less direct coping strategy may be more effective. (Author/ML)

A newly introduced approach, rule space, can represent large numbers of erroneous rules of arithmetic operations quantitatively and can predict the likelihood of each erroneous rule. The new model challenges the credibility of the traditional right-or-wrong scoring procedure. (Author/PN)

Studied viewpoints of 12-year-old Finnish students concerning the relation between man and nature and their own relation toward the natural world. Examined the cognitive level of thought processes, emotional considerations, and experiences shown in pupils' opinions. Found social, socio-economical, ecological, and ethical considerations had greater…

Reports on the reading processes of seven research physicists using data gathered from a series of interviews and observations. Reveals reading processes permeated with individual purposes and schema. (FL)

Concludes that structure of topic makes a difference in writing quality, fluency, and total error but not in any error ratio. Suggests that, for placement testing, educators should first decide which types of students they wish to identify, because each topic structure distinguishes low, average, and high ability students differently. Topic…

Describes dialogue journals, which provide natural, functional experiences with both reading and writing. Suggests guidelines for both their classroom implementation and for teachers' responses to children's journal entries. (FL)