In an effort to assess community college students' knowledge of the liberal arts, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges developed and field-tested a student survey and General Academic Assessment (GAA) instrument. The GAA was completed by a sample of 8,024 students at four large, urban community college districts. The scores were cross…

The report documents evaluation by the Office of Educational Assessment of implementation by the New York City school system of the State Incentive Grant to Improve Pupil Performance which provided training to 5,000 teachers and 3,400 paraprofessionals serving handicapped students in elementary, intermediate, and junior high self-contained…

A study is presented of 67 first-time, low-income fathers' perceptions of their knowledge of the development and care of infants. Pregnant women from a low-risk and a high-risk pregnancy clinic helped to recruit their male partners into a prenatal program. The men were randomly assigned either to a control or experimental group. Interviews and…

An inquiry attempted to build an agenda for research that would result in a cognitive theory of instruction capable of informing educational practice and extending the limits of knowledge about how people learn and develop. What would such a theory look like, how close are we to having one, and what directions must be followed to further its…

This paper explores the readiness of student affairs professionals to utilize adult development knowledge in everyday interactions with college students. Four types of knowledge about the adult development process (cognitive-developmental, psychosocial, person-environment interaction, and humanistic-existential) are briefly defined, with…

A study investigated the thinking processes of 14 Anglophone students of French performing challenging reading and summarizing tasks in their first and second languages. Individuals proved to use equivalent higher-order problem-solving strategies while writing and reading in both languages. Strategies varied with the individuals' levels of…

This study was designed to assess preservice elementary education teachers' knowledge of the functions of the U.S. Government. The "High School Subject Tests: American Government," developed by Scott, Foresman and Company for use with high school students, was elememtary education teachers' knowledge of the functions of the U.S.…

A theory of learning based on recent insights from sociology and semiotics is explicated. Building on the work of Vygotsky, Dewey, Halliday, Barnes, Deely, Eisner, and others, this sociosemiotic model of learning is used as a frame of reference for thinking about the process by which texts are created from sensation. It is argued that the process…

A study was conducted to test a model of relational competence that consisted of three components: motivation, knowledge, and skill in interaction for both participants in a conversation. The model is based on the assumption that the additive combination of these components for both participants will be significantly predictive of several…

A self-administered survey was given to 152 college students to test their knowledge and understanding of some basic health facts and terminology commonly found in printed materials affixed to or accompanying common over-the-counter (OTC) drug preparations. The results indicated that 96% of the sample had used OTC medications as college students.…

In the answer-until-correct mode of multiple-choice testing, respondents are directed to continue choosing among the alternatives to each item until they find the correct response. There is no consensus as to how to convert the resulting pattern of responses into a measure because of two conflicting models of item response behavior. The first…

The Minnesota Sea Grant Education Sub-program provided funds to the University of Minnesota in 1980 to develop aquatic education materials (dealing with freshwater systems) for grades 5-9. The project resulted in the development and classroom testing of 13 instructional modules. A second grant (1982) funded workshops to introduce Minnesota…

The document reports on a series of 18 regional workshops for school psychologists on assessment of visually handicapped students. Workshop topics are summarized, and materials indexed in an appendix are cross referenced for each topic: background information (social attitudes regarding vision loss, developmental implications); assessment (use of…

Student performance on the 1983-84 Michigan Educational Assessment Program's social studies assessment test is examined. The purpose of the test was to collect statewide sample data on how well public school students in Michigan are learning, based on a selected set of social studies objectives. A random sample of each type of school community in…

Telephone interviews with 389 people were conducted by undergraduate students to test the hypothesis that attention to economic news in the media would result in more beliefs about the economy, and that both news media attention and beliefs would lead to the holding of stronger attitudes toward the current administration's economic policy.…