Examines tasks provided for students in most literature textbooks used in the United States, noting that these tasks typically control students' responses to literature. Relates these tasks to current theory and research on the reading process. Describes activities from literature texts used in Canada that facilitate literary response. (MM)

Outlines the importance of a literature-based curriculum that encourages higher-order thinking skills. Discusses the reader-response approach to language arts teaching as a valuable instructional process, that emphasizes the connections between what is in a text and the reader's previous knowledge and experience, thus fostering higher-order…

In a study of student response to feedback, data were collected by two questionnaires reflecting the actual feedback and wider attitudes. Results suggest that feedback procedures and their rationale must be made more explicit, and that techniques for producing permanent change must be explored. (Contains 23 references.) (Author/LB)

Examines the way that value mediates the construction of meaning, how the active processes of constructing meaning are molded around value. Explores how a description of the writing process in terms of value might inform classroom practice--how it might affect teacher perceptions of what students are doing in their writing and how teachers comment…

Compares time-block scheduling efforts at two Pennsylvania high schools. The small-town school chose a semester-block system; the small rural school chose a trimester arrangement. Despite setbacks arising from changing leadership in one school and changing programs (mastery learning) in the other, the intensive time scheduling projects will…

Summarizes results of a 3-year national study of performance assessments' effects on teaching and learning, based on visits to 16 schools implementing these assessments. Performance assessments marginally affected curriculum, but substantially influenced instruction and teacher role. Changing assignment and assessment format will not increase…

Administration of 2 affective tests to 89 students with learning disabilities (LD) in grades 4-8 revealed that subjects perceived the school environment and academic tasks as 2 separate factors. LD students, compared to nondisabled students, exhibited more positive attitudes toward the school environment than for academic learning tasks. School…

Discusses teacher participation in curriculum development from the South African perspective. Views from Soweto teachers are presented; they explain that while a minimal lack of participation does exist, for pedagogical, political, and modernization reasons, participation is vital. (GR)

Teacher evaluation is problematic because it combines two conflicting tasks: improving instruction and judging performance. A Boston elementary principal gradually devised an informal supervision/evaluation system involving brief, random, and frequent classroom visits followed by praise, affirmation, suggestions, and constructive criticism. Even…

A New Zealand mail survey (n=1,376) and interviews (n=497) evaluated the long-term impact of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse of female children surveyed as adults. Similarities in outcomes among the three forms of abuse were more apparent than differences, though sexual abuse was particularly associated with sexual problems, emotional abuse…

Analysis of interactions during 55 videotaped interviews of high-risk sex abuse cases found no support for the assumption that a credible disclosure of abuse must include the display of emotion by the child. Some behavioral differences between preschool and school-age children were found, but no gender differences. (Author/DB)

This study investigated "redirects," a procedure in which a teacher redirects a child's communication from the teacher to a peer, as a means to facilitate initiations to peers. Use with four preschool boys with specific language impairment found that most of the redirected initiations received conversational responses from peers. Generalization to…

Explores culture and gender differences in response styles using those of 1,717 children from 5 countries. Responses from the Self-Description Questionnaire-1 were analyzed for inconsistent responding, negativity or positivity bias, lack of profile variation, and social desirability. Relatively substantial country and country-by-gender differences…

The Adolescents' Media Practice Model is proposed and discussed. The model emphasizes a dialectical process in which the media are important cultural agents with influence on audiences that is amplified and restrained by individuals who interact with the media from their own positions. The model is grounded in "room culture." (SLD)

Studies the problem of rural Iowa school personnel classifying students according to a "folk" classification of risk rather than research-derived risk factors. The authors construct a "cognitive map" for these teachers of at-risk students. The implications of the content of this map for meeting the needs of at-risk students are…