A first-grade teacher reflects on a new student in her class one year. The student was from a disadvantaged home and had few appropriate social skills but was very eager to learn and responded to the teacher with great affection. The teacher explains how much the experience affected her. (SM)

This study compared the effects of trial repetition (1 response within 5 trials per word) versus response repetition (5 response repetitions within 1 trial per word) on sight-word acquisition for 3 elementary students, ages 9 and 12, with learning disabilities in reading. Trial repetition resulted in more words mastered. (Author/SW)

Uses a diary format to describe the author's development as a teacher between May 1982 and Spring 1993, focusing on personal experiences affecting her delivery of composition and literature courses. Describes the author's shift from a text-centered to a student-centered curriculum and efforts to include women writers in the curriculum. Includes…

Examined children's feelings about, and emotional reaction to, violent and distressful television programs. Suggests that coping with distressing experiences, in this case with television, involved making sense of them. Children used complex knowledge to do this, related to the media and to their own experience. When this processing led to…

Presents strategies for coaxing students into insightful book discussions. The strategies include creating a comfortable environment, choosing groups that work together, being a good leader, picking meaningful books, following the students' leads, spinning conversational threads, lighting the conversational fire, and examining different angles on…

Describes New College of California's implementation of the year-long Elementary Teacher Credential program, a broad multicultural vision with extensive pedagogical goals. The article focuses primarily on innovative aspects of the program designed to provide teachers with the skills and understanding needed for the culturally diverse twenty-first…

Determines possible relationships between parental recall of a child's postassessment conference with background variables (e.g., socioeconomic status). Also collected parent's/psychologist's postassessment conference ratings of persuasiveness and satisfaction. Parents' recall of postassessment was unrelated to child or parental background…

Assessed ways attachment styles affect young adults' reactions to stressors associated with four-month combat training. Results show that, compared with secure trainees, ambivalent trainees reported more emotion-focused coping, appraised the training in more threatening terms, and considered themselves less capable of coping with the training.…

Used a general model of affective aggression to generate predictions concerning hot temperatures. Results indicated that hot temperatures produced increases in hostile affect, hostile cognition, and physiological arousal. Concluded that hostile affect, hostile cognitions, and excitation transfer processes may all increase the likelihood of biased…

Examined the effects of perceived control and close alternative outcomes on counterfactual generation (thoughts of what could have been). Subjects played a "wheel of fortune" game in which they controlled one of two wheels. Results supported the idea that people generate counterfactuals about events over which they have perceived…

Examined impact of outcome controllability on counterfactual thoughts (thoughts of what could have been). Two studies showed that outcome controllability affected counterfactual direction: thoughts on how things could have been better were more frequent following controllable outcomes, and thoughts on how things could have been worse followed…

Perspectives on facilitated communication are presented in this transcript of a conversation between an educator and the mother of a 16-year-old son with severe disabilities. Issues discussed include the impact of facilitated communication on the parent, and the parent's preference that educators inform parents prior to making service changes. (SW)

Prior to and following general physical and colposcopic anogenital examinations, interviews were conducted with 43 mothers and daughters (3 to 15 years) referred because of allegations of sexual abuse. There was no evidence that children were retraumatized by the examination. Children did not judge the exam as painful. Children were significantly…

Explored whether the links of depression, eating problems, and body image that apply to women also apply to men. A study of 234 male and female college students showed depression was higher in those with negative body image for both men and women. Depression accounted for significant variability in eating problems only in women. (GR)

Explored the relationship between causal explanations or attributions that caregivers form regarding children's aggressive and rebellious behaviors in their classrooms and the caregivers' behavioral responses to the misbehaviors. Findings suggest that encouraging caregivers to reflect on why children misbehave could influence their responses to…