This study builds on previously established attribution-affect linkages in an effort to better understand teachers' evaluative reactions to student success and failure. As predicted, the affective reactions of teachers indicate that they are more willing to accept personal responsibility for certain kinds of student outcomes than others. (Author)

Discussing research on the effects of developmental differences, task characteristics, teacher feedback, and classroom management and organization on children's perceptions of their abilities, this article speculates on whether and how these perceptions influence children's behavior. (Implications of this research for classroom practice are also…

A critical analysis of theoretical and methodological issues in research on learned helplessness is presented. As studied in achievement settings using achievement tasks, learned helplessness is perceived as maladaptive behavior. It has not been studied as an adaptive response to situational demands. New directions and educational implications are…

Examined educational goals and personal characteristics (values and attitudes) of academically successful and unsuccessful men and women engineering students. Confirmed the college-fit theory: If the values, goals, and attitudes of a student correspond to those of an institution, the student is likely to remain at the institution. (PAS)

Discusses prevocational education in Saudi Arabia: separate schools for boys and girls, primary school curriculum, factors contributing to academic failure and dropout rates, prevocational training centers, educational facilities, program restructuring, and curriculum revitalization. (CT)

Male and female preschoolers and third graders (N=192) were asked to explain the success and failure of girls and boys on feminine and masculine tasks by choosing among four causal factors: ability, effort, task difficulty, and luck. (CM)

Reports the findings of a study to determine what procedural protections are afforded students at public colleges and universities who are faced with disciplinary or academic dismissal. The data are from 62 of the 85 public postsecondary institutions asked to provide published procedural guidelines. (Author/MLF)

A questionnaire survey of a statewide sample of 469 Massachusetts teachers found that role conflict was significantly related to two aspects of teacher burnout, those of emotional exhaustion and negative attitudes toward students, and that role ambiguity was significantly connected to a third aspect, that of feelings of lack of personal…

Discusses five components of a basic suicide syndrome. Examines gender differences in suicidal behavior through an analysis of male and female roles. Components include failure, commitment, rigidity, shame, and isolation. Considers the concept of autonomy in relation to sex differences in suicidal behavior. (RC)

An abbreviated battery of eight screening tests was administered to 407 White first-grade boys. Discriminant analysis showed that 75 percent of those identified as being at high risk of reading failure did exhibit severe or mild comprehension problems in third grade. (Author/SJL)

The purpose of this study was to examine children's cognitive-attributional and affective response patterns within competitive and individualistic goal structures. Findings showed that effort attributions covaried with outcome in the individualistic structure, whereas luck and outcome covaried in the competitive structure. (Author/GK)

In this study, re-entry students expressed difficulty with time management, fear of failing, admision procedures, fear of not being smart enough, ability to study and learn, and fear of dulled memory. The longer the interruption, the more concern was expressed over academic difficulties. (Author/BEF)

Examples showing how educational practices can result in students' reading difficulties are taken from the problem areas of: classroom atmosphere, reading attitudes, parental reactions, dull or difficult reading materials, limited reading resources, teaching practices, overemphasis on skills, and the individual needs of students. (JN)

Explanations are discussed for the apparent failure of teacher improvement programs. Focus is on the suggestion that a teacher can resist improvement by making it appear that his not improving is due to factors outside his control when, in fact, they are under his control. (JMD)