A widespread perception about falling standards prompted Margaret Thatcher's government to pass 1988 legislation mandating a national curriculum and accompanying testing system. The worst-case scenario feared by many British teachers is coming to pass: a test-driven curriculum without significant attention to teachers' assessments of student…

Discusses the influence of radio on the social history of the United States between the world wars. Describes early broadcast programing as a mix of culture, education, information, and some entertainment. Addresses the role of radio in the Depression and through the beginnings of World War II in Europe. (DK)

Results indicated significantly more stress behaviors in children in developmentally inappropriate classes than in children in appropriate classes. Stress behaviors differed according to activity. Males exhibited slightly more stress behavior than females. (BC)

Among 148 college students taking a self-adapted computerized test of basic algebra skills, higher self-confidence and lower test anxiety were related to choosing more difficult first items but were not related to later choices. Overall, examinees chose items of moderate difficulty relative to their ability level. (SV)

Examines research methods and data related to television audiences in the United Kingdom. Topics addressed include defining the concept of an audience, time spent watching television and on other media activities, programs watched, audience composition and program scheduling, ways programing addresses audiences, audience research, audience…

This paper reviews parents' emotional reactions following the birth of a cleft lip/palate child. It examines when parents were told of the deformity and discusses the duties of the speech-language pathologist and the psychologist in counseling the parents and the child. (Author/JDD)

Study examined how second-language readers filter information from second-language texts through culture-specific background knowledge. Korean graduate students with advanced English read stories and answered questions. A think-aloud protocol assessing their understanding and inferences indicated an effect of culture-specific schemata and…

Advocates using literature logs and literature discussion groups as an effective way to develop a community of readers. Looks at the different kinds of comments and questions that a class of fifth graders wrote in their literature logs. (SR)

This article describes addition of a "learn a routine" procedure to functional visual assessments of children with severe neurological and physical disabilities. The procedure capitalizes on the child's interest of the moment and provides information on the child's patterns of responses, ability to accommodate to variations of a stimulus, and…

Argues that students embody multiple ways of knowing and learning, all of which can theoretically and practically be fostered in the literature classroom. Discusses various ways (especially choral reading and Readers Theater) of including different kinds of intelligence other than merely the verbal in the interpretation of literature. (HB)

Two studies involving 151 male and 103 female college students tested the hypothesis that women are more likely than men to focus on themselves and their moods when in a depressed mood, leading to longer periods of depressed mood. Results support the hypothesis. (SLD)

Several methods for determining a passing score on an examination from individual raters' estimates of minimal pass levels were compared through simulation. The methods used differed in the weighting estimates for each item received in the aggregation process. Reasons why the simplest procedure is most preferred are discussed. (SLD)

Educators (n=84) were randomly assigned to one of two groups reading either an ecological assessment report or a developmental assessment report written for the same student with severe disabilities. Analysis indicated that educators reading the ecological assessment had significantly higher expectations for student accomplishment than those…

Examined children's visual self-recognition. Lower-SES maltreated children did not differ from lower- or middle-SES comparison children in the development of self-recognition. Differences between the samples in the quality of affective reactions to mirror self-images were observed. (BC)

It is argued that reading aloud to children in school is an important vehicle for developing a child's feelings and their correlative values. In response to possible charges of indoctrination, the author draws a parallel between first-language learning and the learning of a repertoire of feeling. (seven references) (Author/LB)