It is commonplace to lament the lack of knowledge about world issues and events exhibited by U.S. citizens. Communication scholars criticize the mass media's poor coverage of world affairs and stereotypic portrayals of distant lands and leaders. Despite sophisticated communications networks, U.S. mass media provide only a limited window on the…

A study investigated how American learners acquire the pragmatics of Kiswahili greetings in a foreign language context. Subjects were 16 beginning, 12 intermediate, and 4 advanced students. After an initial month-long observation period, the following hypotheses were formed: (1) learners do not readily initiate greetings; and (2) most learners may…

The General Accounting Office reviewed 18 relevant studies and analyzed existing data from the High School and Beyond Survey of 58,728 students to determine students' and parents' knowledge of federal financial aid for postsecondary education. It was found that students and parents knew very little about financial aid and held erroneous views…

This report describes alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among 715 University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) students. The report focuses on drug use at the higher frequency levels, rather than reporting proportions who have ever used various drugs. The separate classes of drugs distinguished are alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, marijuana, and…

The number of Hispanic school-age children with hearing impairments in the United States is rising. Hispanic parents who discover that their baby has a hearing impairment lack basic information about deafness and experience guilt feelings about the cause of their child's hearing loss. They often do not know how to obtain information or medical…

This research explored the effects of a number of factors derived from extant intention-behavior models on a general behavioral intention to engage in protection against Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and a specific behavioral intention to use condoms as protection in vaginal sex. Data pertaining to beliefs, knowledge about AIDS, fear…

A study investigated the effects of direct instruction in the process of revision on students' knowledge of the revision process, their ability to make revisions on paper, and the quality of their writing. Subjects, 30 sixth grade students, were divided into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received instruction in the…

The General Academic Assessment (GAA), an instrument designed to measure students' knowledge of the liberal arts, was developed by the Center for the Study of Community Colleges for use by community colleges to informing decisions about curriculum modifications and estimating institutional outcomes. The instrument, which includes 29 demographic…

This practicum addressed the expressed need to improve the knowledge and expertise of the teaching staff employed at a child-parent center, which served 170 preschool and kindergarten children attending classes in an elementary school in an economically depressed community. Specifically, the in-service intervention aimed to immprove staff…

The process of recruiting and selecting college faculty at a new college, the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, is discussed. The university was established in September 1973 to serve students who would complete 2 years at community/junior colleges in the Permian Basin area. The school's mission and the two towns near the college are…

One goal of science educators is to help students to understand the nature of scientific knowledge and reasoning. Reported are ideas related to what junior high students do, can and should know about the nature of science and the use of technology in imparting such knowledge. The studies reported in this document are designed to probe junior high…

Students in a college introductory statistics class were evaluated with conceptual and computational tests and the relationship between their levels of knowledge on the two forms of testing was assessed. There were significant correlations between their abilities to perform computations and to answer more conceptual questions on individual tests…

A study was conducted in Cuyahoga Community College's (Ohio) Principles of Economics classes to determine: (1) whether microcomputer-assisted instruction using tutorial/drill programs would significantly increase students' learning of economic concepts as measured by pre- and post-tests; (2) the relationship between demographic variables and pre-…

A study investigated the impact of sex education on current high school students and high school alumni. Studied were the views of current students and alumni, about the achievement of 33 program outcomes, at two high schools (one in the East and the other in the Midwest) identified as having exemplary sex education programs. The Sex Education…

Predicting that when presented with a general context children and adults would produce different specific inferences, a study examined children's and adults' script representations of a common event and the use of representation in comprehension. In the first phase of the study, 23 fourth grade and 48 college students were asked to generate…