The effect of different instructional variables on students' academic responding time was the focus of the current study. A total of 54 students from 10 classrooms in 5 suburban elementary schools served as subjects. In each school, six students were randomly selected from each of two classrooms, resulting in a group of 22 third graders and 32…

Research studies in science education have revealed that wait-time, the duration of teacher and student pauses in questioning dialogue, is an important variable in teaching. In this study, discussion materials were gathered, from 4 groups of 10 teachers, each week for a semester. The groups were defined as: (1) comparison group; (2) instruction in…

The academic discipline of political science at the University of California's Education Abroad Program (EAP) is examined with a focus on: what academic instruction consists of at selected host universities; how effective did the participants feel the instruction was in increasing their knowledge of the subject; and how the academic and…

The objective of this study was to investigate how classroom questioning and discussion skills, designed to increase scientific literacy and problem solving performance, affects student achievement in biology and chemistry. The two independent variables for this study were the effects of wait time and supportive intervention. The dependent…

Although the physical environment of schools seems to affect the attitude and behavior of students and teachers, there is little scientific proof to support this belief. Two substantial studies have attempted to synthesize available research on the topic. First, an effort by Carol Weinstein has gathered significant data concerning spatial behavior…

Senior medical students at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences were surveyed regarding the value of a program providing regression based predictions of their individual Day 1, 2, 3, and Total Federation Licensure Examination (FLEX) scores and the probability of passing the FLEX for subsequent Arkansas licensure. The prediction formulas…

This study evaluated the design and effectiveness of an interactive videodisc package which was developed at the Open University for a second level course in metallurgy and materials technology. Based on an existing 25-minute television program from the course, the disk put the problem in the form of a court case assessing the responsibility for…

The feasibility of a self-scoring flexilevel test was investigated in terms of practical effectiveness and criterion related validity. The test was administered to over 2,000 students studying secondary school mathematics in Thailand. The study was conducted, and the test administered, in two phases: test development and evaluation. The test was…

This review summarizes and synthesizes the research literature on teachers' thought processes from about 1970 to 1983. The literature is organized under four major headings: teacher planning, teachers' interactive thoughts and decisions, teachers' attributions, and teachers' implicit theories. The paper also includes a theoretical model of the…

Lesson structure (organization in terms of meaningful relationships among ideas or concepts) is a low-inference indicator of lesson organization in that it can be observed and objectively quantified. It affects achievement positively, and students generally rate lessons higher when the structure of the lesson is relatively high. Teachers vary in…

Whole-class peer tutoring programs have been found by some to be an effective way of providing students with a one-to-one instructional setting. This document reports on a study in which a peer tutoring program on mathematics fact acquisition was assessed using a second grade classroom consisting of 21 learners who possessed below average…

This report describes the results of a field test of "Federalism", a program from "The U.S. Constitution", an instructional video program series for secondary school students developed by the Agency for Instructional Technology (AIT) in association with Project '87. The participants of the preview are teachers and students in…

A study was conducted at a rural community college to explore the process by which adult women who had returned to college decided whether to persist or drop out. In-depth interviews were conducted with 17 women who had been identified as exceptional in that they either persisted and graduated even though they had been initially identified as…

The Michigan Department of Education with assistance from the Educational Testing Service has compiled the results of valid educational research studies on specific topics into a report to be used as a guide for developing effective schools. It is intended for use by practitioners to help bridge the gap between educational researchers and…

To examine faculty development activities to improve teaching effectiveness, a midwestern college awarded grants to 17 faculty members for the purpose of revising existing courses and/or developing new courses. The faculty members had from 3 to 23 years of experience and represented all academic divisions. Student evaluations of a total of 27…