A theory of the components of verbal intelligence is developed and tested in this series of experiments. After reviewing alternative theoretical frameworks for understanding verbal intelligence, a componential theory of verbal comprehension is proposed. This theory specifies the information-processing components, context cues, and mediating…

Upper elementary and secondary students, teachers, and parents were surveyed to measure their attitudes toward nationalism and students' knowledge of world affairs. Teachers were also questioned about their travel experiences and inservice activities. Results of the survey indicated that the students, in general, were against war, realized that…

Computers are changing the lives of millions of people, but schools are still not producing many computer literate students. Rapid improvements in hardware technology and major progress in the development of software have put computers within reach of everyone. Computer literacy must now be treated as a functional tool similar to reading, writing,…

Current approaches to inservice teacher education emphasize process and do not adequately address the maintenance and development of teachers' subject area expertise. It is possible that a well-documented curriculum can furnish adequate teacher renewal for content updating. However, how teachers will judge, select, and use appropriate materials…

Participants in a working conference on changing teacher practice made recommendations for future research. Two broad classes of recommendations were sought: findings from research on teaching most amenable to translation into staff development activities, and how that translation might occur so as to be most useful in bringing about desired…

Reports from the American Association of Medical Colleges' Project on the General Professional Education of Physicians and College Preparation for Medicine are presented. The 3-year project assessed the present educational approaches and developed recommendations to improve instructional programs and learning. Broad discussions about medical and…

A Car Passenger Safety Curriculum was developed for Grades K-6 and pilot tested in 10 elementary schools. Five schools served as treatment schools, five as comparison schools. The curriculum included materials at K-1, 2-3, and 4-6 grade levels. Observations were made of belt usage by students, and knowledge tests were administered to students…

This study addresses the baseline assessment of pupil composing competencies at age 11+. It asks whether it might be possible for these to be evaluated by the use of a whole-class listening task. A rationale for this proposal is discussed. Results from a pilot study which administered an original audiated puzzle-task to a cohort of pupils,…

A seat belt education campaign conducted in Canada to dispel myths surrounding seat belts and promote a better understanding of their functions was evaluated. Two telephone surveys, each comprised of 4,000 respondents, were conducted. The first was done immediately before the campaign and the second immediately succeeding the campaign. Also, a…

Concepts of measurement in physical education are presented in this college-level text to enable the preservice physical education major to develop skills in determining pupil status, designing effective physical activity programs, and measuring student progress. Emphasis is placed upon discussion of essential statistical methods, test…

This report presents and compares the results of the first and second art assessments conducted by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in 1974-75 and 1978-79. The achievement and attitudes of approximately 7,500 9-year-olds, 11,000 13-year-olds, and 13,500 17-year-olds were surveyed. The report consists of an introduction to the…

The effect of passage topic and task demands on elementary school students' monitoring of their own comprehension was examined. Second, fourth, and sixth grade students read a short passage about a well-known event (playing checkers) or one about which they had little existing information (making lye soap). Half of the students in each grade were…

A project, using a longitudinal survey, seeks to describe the cognitive content of the professional competence developed within the field of engineering, psychology, economics, and medicine. With the aid of several empirical studies, the project will hopefully clarify when and how changes occur in students' perceptions and patterns of thought,…

This paper investigates how people acquire knowledge from maps. Emphasis is placed on heuristics--defined as the procedures that people use to select, combine, and encode map information in memory. The objective is to develop a theory of expertise in map learning by analyzing differences between fast and slow learners in terms of differences in…

Based on the view that text-specific concept and vocabulary knowledge affect the processing and recall of text and that a measure of this knowledge might assist teachers in determining whether a reader possesses adequate background to successfully comprehend and recall a particular text, a study was conducted. Its purpose was to develop a measure…