This paper provides a general overview of a major study of student absenteeism as well as a narrower look at the problems associated with measuring student absences. The study data came from questionnaires completed by students, teachers, and administrators at six high schools in two urban districts in the western United States; interviews with…

Advertisements can be used in many ways to facilitate the teaching of a commercial language. If reproduced as slides or other visual aids, they serve as a visual warm-up exercise for each class period, either reinforcing previously discussed topics or introducing new ones. Catchy headlines in commercials promote rapid expansion of vocabulary and…

The Learning Strategies Questionnaire (LSQ) was developed to assess students' declarative knowledge of strategy utility. Goals were to develop a reliable survey that: (1) could be administered for fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders in a group setting; (2) would provide a profile of children's declarative knowledge of strategies for classroom…

Participation in recurrent education and the financing of recurrent education are discussed from the experiences of countries belonging to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Recurrent education encompasses lifelong learning. The influences of socioeconomic and technological change on recurrent education and employment are…

Assessment of student learning and development has become a national issue. The status of local campus initiatives was considered in a national survey designed to determine (1) the extent to which assessment programs have been developed or are being developed, (2) the objectives and source of initiation, and (3) assessment techniques. Emphasis was…

The routinization and ritualization of school reflects, in part, an emphasis on acquisition of knowledge and technical mastery of skills rather than understanding and the ability to apply information to new situations. A societal environment needs to be created that promotes learning as more than an aggregation of facts and answers to test…

The School Program Addressing Non-attendance (SPAN) is an alternative program in Morton, Illinois, East High School addressing the needs of students removed from their regular classes for excessive absenteeism. Materials and activities used in the SPAN English program are both highly motivating and general enough to benefit students when they…

Recognizing the differences between reading and writing is as important as recognizing their similarities for improving current methods of teaching composition. Environment and motivation are two areas in which these differences are most noticeable. Since motivation is a preexisting quality that can only be fostered and not implanted, environment…

A study of the high school experiences and performance of Asian Americans found them to be performing well in school, with average test scores in math and science as high as those of White students. The data showed the Asian Americans to be more committed to academic excellence. Compared to other students, they took more academic courses, spent…

The conventional notion of the term "literacy" is rather narrow. Harvey Graff's work demonstrates that literacy in Western society not only means the ability to read and write, but also takes in a profusion of values and beliefs including empathy, innovativeness, and achievement. By contrast, a term such as illiterate comes to represent social…

Research indicates that skills in listening to and motivating people need to be emphasized more in undergraduate business communication courses. Three theories of motivation--Maslow's hierarchy of needs, McClelland's achievement motive, and Hersberg's motivation-hygiene theory--can introduce students to the systems perspective, an approach…

The introduction of nontraditional teaching techniques into a solid framework of traditional teaching can greatly increase student motivation and attention. Nontraditional methods involve students as dynamic actors in the educational process in three ways: by increasing student motivation, maximizing the level of subtlety or detail achieved, and…

Research studies on classroom questions and on learning models can provide information on how art criticism can be integrated into art education so that students are involved in exploratory experiences that tap higher levels of thinking. First, teachers need to be trained specifically in art criticism questioning formats in which there is an…

A study sought to determine factors and conditions which distinguish effective and less effective staff inservice training. Over 1000 teachers and administrators, who participated in 112 staff inservice projects, were the study subjects. Data was gather by pre- and post-workshop questionnaires. This report presents a summary of the findings on:…

A study examined the course structure and educational practices used by National Home Study Council (NHSC) member institutions. To gather data for the study, researchers mailed questionnaires to 60 members of the NHSC. Based on data from the 51 usable responses, the researchers determined that the average age of students enrolled in programs…