Proposes a "critical mass" explanation for the diffusion of interactive media, such as telephone, electronic mail, or computer conferencing, within communities. Considers two special characteristics of interactive media: (1) that widespread usage creates universal access, and (2) that use entails interdependence, in which earlier users…

Comments upon the role of teachers in breaking down students' resistance to learning, and suggests that teachers become, not all-knowing givers of knowledge in the classroom, but persons who help students become interpreters themselves by separating themselves from their own interpretations. (JC)

An author recommends that young children read good fiction rather than stories in basal readers. Recounts her dismay when one of her books was adapted for a basal reader and the language was changed and simplified. (NKA)

Forty Israeli teachers of normal and hearing-impaired students (grades 3 and 6) ranked relative linguistic complexity for several versions of the same story and from them selected reading texts for their classes. Ranking tasks were performed similarly, but teachers of hearing-impaired students chose a far more limited range of texts. (Author/VW)

Explores responses to fiction reading by students who record these responses in journals. (NKA)

Examines teachers' knowledge and understanding of classrooms in terms of interpretation of nonverbal and situational clues. Two sets of videotapes of classroom episodes, one in Hebrew and one in Dutch, were viewed by both Dutch and Israeli teachers in cross-cultural settings. Analysis of responses yielded insights into the two cultures.…

Results of two experiments revealed a significant correlation between function-word predictability and reader enjoyment and a strong correlation between content-word unpredictability and reader enjoyment. (FL)

By allowing students to enter imperfectly into peer group conversations with their own language and conversational habits and then monitoring their feedback while modeling the type that is most conducive to promoting true exchange, teachers can facilitate successful and satisfying ways of talking about writing. (HOD)

Reactions of preschool children from urban and rural Quebec to several animated and other representational television characters were obtained. Visual elements consistently appealing are identified, and responses are reviewed for sex, cultural, and location differences. Application of results in the production of a televised antismoking promotion…

Provides a case study analysis of two high school teachers' responses to a particular set of writing tasks and suggests an analytical tool that may be used to explore teachers' responses to change. (HOD)

Describes the focus of a freshman literature course: understanding literary meaning, analyzing literary form, and exploring literary value with each of the three one-quarter classes drawing on the resources of a major area within current literary studies, such as hermeneutics (meaning), poetics (form), and criticism (evaluation). (EL)

Two instances of teacher response, shaping, and evaluation of students' texts are analyzed. Although one text is oral, the other written, striking parallels in teacher-assigned task, text structure, and teacher-student interaction are noted. Explanations focus on schools as institutions and on the complex interpretive processes operating in urban,…

Results showed a number of significant developmental changes in students' nonverbal communication as perceived by teachers. (PD)

Explores the role of interpersonal cognitive complexity in the character impressions, story comprehension, response preferences, and literary attitudes of eleventh grade students. Results suggest that interpersonal cognitive complexity predisposes readers toward complex perceptions of literary characters. (HOD)

Discusses a teaching technique used in a child development course to increase education majors' awareness of personal feelings toward children and childhood. Following a brief summary of several related reports and an outline of six historical viewpoints on children, the technique and its results are explained. (DST)