In the school, concern about individual differences is still reserved almost exclusively for students, while professional personnel are being limited by assigned role functions, role expectations, performance, and criteria. One reason for this situation is that a power elite model of decision making is prevalent in today's schools. Another reason…

Patterns of cautiousness in a prose learning task were examined in three age groups of adults representing three levels of educational experience. Types of instruction, order of material presentation, sex, and educational experience level were varied for all groups of the 90 adults participating in the study. The main findings were as follows: (1)…

Thirty-four preservice teachers listened to children's tape-recorded responses to selected questions. The children were rehearsed to present either relevant and logical (high quality) responses or irrelevant and illogical (low quality) responses. The children also were rehearsed to verbalize either responses that contained selected nonstandard…

All learning takes place through the unification of body and mind. Within the realm of motor skill learning, the term mental practice has been used to explain this phenomenon. It has been found that individuals can use their imaginations to learn and to improve upon their performance. Mental practice can be used by teachers who have too little…

Several approaches have been used to teach basic counseling skills to beginning trainees. A cognitive self-instructional modeling approach was employed with a student pre-practicum class. The treatment group (N=9) received 6 hours of training by observing counselor models, formulating their helping responses aloud, practicing the asking of focused…

It is argued that the sexes get different feedback from the culture, and from teachers in particular. The hypothesis is explored that teachers are less responsive to and interested in girls than boys, and that the feminine strategy of withdrawal and avoidance of assertiveness develops in response to these teacher behaviors. Subjects were eight…

This paper presents the background and development of the Crisis Intervention Simulation Survey, (CISS), a written simulation instrument designed to assess police officers' knowledge of effective crisis intervention skills and the awareness of their emotional responses to selected crisis intervention situations. It summarizes the recent history of…

To determine the effects of active student-initiated response lessons as an alternative to teacher-directed strategies for increasing reading comprehension, third grade children were placed into either an experimental or a control group. The experimental group received a series of lessons based on active student-initiated responses. These included…

This paper discusses a series of three studies investigating the influence of infants' characteristics and signaling behavior on parents. Videotapes of either smiling/cooing/gurgling or crying infants were used to elicit parents' physiological and affective responses. Measured physiological responses included skin conductance, heart rate, and…

The same techniques of behavior modification that can be used by teachers to manage student behavior in the classroom can also be used by supervisors to alter the behavior of teachers. In both cases, it is necessary for the supervisors and teachers to focus primarily on the individual's behavior itself, rather than on what causes that behavior. To…

This paper presents a brief description of a token reinforcement system developed for a kindergarten language class in the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP). Visual reinforcers (colored plastic tabs) were placed next to the names of individual children (each time they made a correct response) on a large chart in the front of the room. Five…

The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) was administered to over 200 third graders to investigate the effects of using consumable test booklets versus non-consumable booklets which require a separate answer sheet. It was hypothesized that there would be no significant differences in CTBS scores between students using consumable booklets and…

The influence of angle, approach, and sex of subject on the personal space distance needs of the elderly person was examined. Subjects were 20 females and 20 males, age 65 or older, living in the same retirement housing unit. The behavioral measurement technique showed acceptable test-retest reliability. A significant three-way interaction effect…

During Spring and Summer 1978, the basic mathematics lab course offered at Miami-Dade Community College began to use the college's Response System with Variable Prescriptions (RSVP) to assist in individualizing instruction and record-keeping. The RSVP computer software package permits the maintenance of a record on each student, which includes…

A study was carried out to discover if readers responded affectively to the connotative meanings of certain words and if better readers were more or less responsive to these connotations than were average or poor readers. A total of 120 students in five intact eleventh grade classes completed semantic differential scales to measure both individual…