The idea that "breaks from experience" are necessary in teacher learning is a response to the fact that teachers come to their preparation with set ideas about their work that tend to fit with the given. This paper examines justifications for such "breaks" centering, first, on the limitations of what teachers learn through experience and, second,…

The Houston (Texas) Independent School District's teacher induction program utilizes the services of both mentors and teacher scholars. The mentors provide a variety of support services for the inductees at the building level, focusing on the pedagogical, emotional, and social adjustment needs of the inductees. The mentors receive a total of 12…

The character of internalization as a continuous phenomenon was explored, with particular attention given to children's movement from heteronomy to autonomy. (The term "internalization" refers to the process by which an individual acquires an attitude, belief, or behavioral regulation from external sources and progressively transforms it…

Indicating that the essence of social psychology is social influence, this inaugural lecture discusses social psychological dimensions of education. Particular attention is given to the topics of teaching styles and the impact of the student's personality and social learning outcomes on school achievement. It is pointed out that recent research on…

In Glasgow, Scotland (September, 1954), children massed in a graveyard to hunt for a vampire with iron teeth said to have slain and eaten "two wee boys." This incident was linked to a campaign for stricter censorship of children's reading, especially so-called "horror comics." While evidence connecting the vampire hunt and…

At the 1986 American Educational Research Association (AERA) convention, findings were presented from 14 schools that had implemented the "Reaching Success through Involvement" (RSI) strategy, which requires (1) the use of a comprehensive school assessment process; and (2) formal and informal participation of student leaders. The present…

An investigation was made of the role of parents in children's acquisition of pragmatic language skills (in other words, their ability to use language appropriately in social contexts). A total of 49 middle class adults completed questionnaires; 9 were parents, 15 were teachers, 9 were both teachers and parents, and 16 were neither. The first part…

Control over environmental events has been shown to reduce the behavioral and psychological impact of environmental stress. To assess the effect of residence hall judicial policies on attitudes toward rule violating behavior, 93 college freshmen (36 males, 56 females, 1 unreported), randomly assigned to one of four dormitories (social contract or…

Previous research has found that males perform better than females on the pursuit rotor. To examine whether males and females with different sex role orientations would perform differently on a motor task, 120 students (classified as androgynous, traditional sex role, cross-sexed, or undifferentiated, based on scores on the Personal Attributes…

A cohort analysis of data gathered in three national election surveys (1956, 1968, 1980) was used to study the effect of media use on political knowledge, which was divided into knowledge of issues, personalities, and political parties. Knowledge levels were calculated by creating indices from open-ended questions about why a person liked or…

Acknowledging fears of electronic church critics that audiences will adopt the conservative political messages espoused by evangelical broadcasters, a study was conducted to determine the political and social issues that best predict attendance to religious broadcasts. A secondary analysis was conducted of existing data from a statewide telephone…

The purpose of this study was to explore the sociological forces which have been identified in teacher development and to inquire into their role in teacher evaluation. To that end, a series of teacher development intervention programs and teacher interviews were conducted. This report describes the programs and interviews and highlights the most…

The effects of the West German peace movement over the past 30 years have led to the development of a new concept of political participation in that country. Since 1950, a proliferation of protest movements has reflected a wide range of ideological, social, and geographic perspectives. Pacifist Protestants and the German Trade Union began sporadic…

This brief biographical sketch of Maria Montessori focuses on her philosophy of learning and her methods of teaching. Her holistic approach to education is discussed in the light of its impact on educational theories and practices in the early 1900s. Included in this discussion is a description of her theories, such as the developmental stages of…

Drawing on a social cognitive understanding of the relationship between television and viewers which suggests that adolescents will seek media content consistent with their already developed notions about the sexes, a study surveyed 1,613 adolescents (aged 12 to 17). Respondents were drawn from 10 standard metropolitan statistical areas that are…