This two-part paper offers some guidelines for training in observation skills. Part one describes nine guidelines for observers. Part two delineates 10 tasks in observing and identifies ways of accomplishing them. Tasks include identifying goals of the learning task; gaining evidence of teacher's planning; determining student motivation level;…

This paper presents an analysis of the task characteristics of various academic areas. Multidimensional scaling was performed at the University of Illinois on 168 scholars' judgments about the similarities among 36 academic task areas, and 54 scholars at a small western college judged similarities among 30 areas. The method used in the study was…

The authors review the rationale for task analysis, discuss five guidelines for using task analysis with handicapped children, and describe six methods (such as brainstorming watching someone perform the task, and working backward from the terminal objective) for its application. (CL)

Depending on the type of behavior one wants to measure, competency tests are either written or performance oriented. Information and cognitive processing are best measured by written demonstrations of the knowledge. Skills ability is best measured by performance testing. (Author/JOW)

The author reviews the research on quality of tasks set by 35 secondary teachers for their pupils and notes that the majority of tasks fell into the category of low cognitive demand. Preliminary results from a second study point out the importance of seeing task-setting as a critical teaching skill. (CL)

Action research is an umbrella term referring to research by practitioners for the purpose of improving their practice. Action research in higher education is being conducted by a growing number of practitioners whose formal training is outside of the discipline of education research. This has precipitated a need for faculty development and…

A discussion on university reform is presented. Student and faculty views are given. (CK)

A description of the second phase of a project which attempted to gather task statements and related data about people who were involved in instructional media. (AK)

A discussion of task analysis is the third and last section of a report on a British research project conducted with the assistance of the Engineering Industry Training Board. Photo, six figures. (LY)

Describes a study in which handwriting production was viewed as an oscillatory process arising from two orthogonal joints and in which this model was tested by synthetic production of humanlike cursive script with a mechanical arm under computer control. (Author/GT)

An approach to task analysis is described and illustrated that emphasizes organizational function, job and task accomplishments, a model of job function, performer prerequisites, and multiple purpose job analysis. (JEG)

In an orally presented vowel length categorization task with both word and nonword stimuli, a group of 10-year-old German speaking poor spellers performed less accurately and consistently slower than a group of formal spellers of the same age. The spellers level of performance was comparable to that of a group of 8-year-old inexperienced…

Suggests that phonological short-term memory (STM) tasks are influenced by both lexical and sublexical factors inherent in the selection and construction of the stimuli to be recalled. Examined whether long-term memory influences STM at a sublexical level by investigating whether the frequency with which one-syllable nonwords occur in polysyllabic…

Discusses task analysis as a step in instructional development and presents an alternative method for instructional applications called Knowledge Analysis of Tasks (KAT). Results of KAT are used to produce a model of tasks in terms of Task Knowledge Structures (TKS), which represent the knowledge people possess about tasks they perform.…

In 5 experiments, the authors investigated the costs associated with repeating the same or a similar response in a dual-task setting. Using a psychological refractory period paradigm, they obtained response-repetition costs when the cognitive representation of a specific response (i.e., the category-response mapping) changed (Experiment 1) but…