This paper reviews the research on use of American Sign Language in elementary classes that do not include children with hearing impairment and also reports on the use of the manual sign language alphabet in a primary class learning the phonetic sounds of the alphabet. The research reported is overwhelmingly positive in support of using sign…

This paper discusses the findings of a study that explored the role of self-efficacy and career decision-making in students with physical disabilities engaged in the career planning process. The relationships of career decision-making self-efficacy to adjustment of disability, severity of disability, and career exploration behaviors were examined…

An individual's school motivation and achievement are products of a complex set of interacting motivational goals, sense of self, and self-concept variables. Motivational goals may be differentially salient to individuals from different cultural backgrounds; and sense of self, including academic self-concept, may vary across cultural groups. This…

This paper provides a background of the development of hypermedia technology and describes a hypermedia system that could be used to teach probability and statistics through a web-based interface. (Contains 30 references.) (Author/WRM)

This study first examined the motivation construct with personal goals, agency beliefs, and emotions in a World Wide Web assisted learning environment. It also investigated the influence of personal goals, agency beliefs, and emotions on the students' learning achievement from fundamental biology courses assisted with Web pages. Finally, it…

This paper explains the importance of disposition as an essential aspect of critical thinking and suggests how instruction can be designed to promote learners' development of the dispositional side of critical thinking. Topics addressed include: (1) the dispositional bottleneck between opportunity and action, i.e., sensitivity to occasion; (2)…

This course introduces students enrolled in an adult high school diploma program to a set of learning strategies that they can use in any further education or training, in job and career training, and in personal learning. The course provides the basis for lifelong learning. The course contains nine lessons, each of which consists of stories,…

Scientific challenges are presented to motivate secondary and college students in creative thinking and scientific problem solving. Student solutions to the "Create-a-Creature" challenge are presented and six new challenges are issued. (PEB)

Developed a motivational distortion scale for the High School Personality Questionnaire. Data from high school students (N=607) showed males and females differed in how they distorted their responses, resulting in the need for two motivational distortion scales. They also differed in characteristics considered to create a favorable impression.…

Data presented on recent changes in student characteristics include matriculation and retention rates, full- and part-time participation, student residence and employment, course changes and perceptions, and attitudes toward personal development, vocational relevance of the curriculum, importance of higher education, and career choice. (MSE)

A study attempting to disambiguate earlier research on personality orientations and second language learning assessed the influence of ethnicity (English v. French), milieu (unicultural v. multicultural), and target second language (French, English, or Spanish) on the emergence of eighth graders' orientations toward the second language learning…

A study of 10 social studies education students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign focused on consequences of pairing student teachers in a field experience program. Most of the findings suggest that the paired student teacher concept may have constructive implications for budgetary considerations and peer support relationships. (FG)

Multiple regression analysis indicated a significant relationship between course entry attitudes and end-of-course ratings for students reporting precourse expectations prior to entry into the course. Different sets of items from the Course Entry Scale were found to predict end-of-course ratings for different groups of students studied. (Author/PN)

If, ideally, reading begins at home, with children listening eagerly to interesting stories, then this experience must be duplicated in the classroom for reluctant readers. Listening to good stories can motivate students to develop reading skills. Activities of the Reading Center (Auckland, New Zealand) are described. (PP)

Advocates development of resource rooms in secondary schools to serve the health and social service needs of pregnant teenagers. Segregating the pregnant adolescent and young mother from the regular school program is costly for the taxpayer and fails to meet the curriculum needs of these students. (Author/LC)