The cornerstones of special education law are the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504), and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). One of the main purposes of these acts was to provide a national mandate to eliminate discrimination against disabled students in the workforce and in an…

This study sought to determine the effects of prior knowledge on the achievement of undergraduates in an economics course at the Open University of the Netherlands (OuN). A total the four law and seven economics students were given four instruments to test prior knowledge of economics, presented with a learning unit from the course "Economics…

A study examined employees' knowledge of the causes of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), its prevention, and their legal rights after being diagnosed with CTS. A 24-item questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 30 Chicago-area employees who had been afflicted with CTS. Of those surveyed, 99% considered their CTS injury related to their…

The Elaboration Theory of Instruction offers guidelines for several patterns of simple-to-complex sequencing that were developed primarily from cognitive theory, especially schema theory, although there has been relatively little empirical research on the theory. This study helps fill this void by conducting "formative research" to…

This document reports on a study to analyze the success of a revised health/wellness course at Gettysburg College (Pennsylvania). The research focused on two questions: (1) what increased knowledge and behavioral change students report once they have completed their health course; and (2) after a period of time, what students will say about the…

The nature of the researcher-participant relationship in narrative inquiry is explored by reflecting on the researcher's own experience in such a relationship. It is argued that the researcher who wants to make a difference in the lives of participants must be open to change in return. Personal involvement with participants is an essential…

The ways in which experience and academic training influence the types of questions therapists ask of their clients were studied. Psychologists and psychology students of varying degrees of expertise (n=138) were provided an artificial intelligence program that simulated a date rape client's responses to typed questions and were asked to conduct a…

Practicing physicians must assess their own knowledge and skills continually to ensure that they are current with new medical procedures and advances. The ability to assess one's own performance was studied for medical students, who were asked to estimate their performance on course quizzes. An item that asked students to estimate their correct…

This review of the literature on disabilities considers: (1) their effect on individuals, families, and society; (2) their causes; and (3) their prevention. Individual subsections address such aspects as defining disabilities; causes of disabilities at various stages of the life cycle; emotional, social, legal, and practical aspects of effects of…

In this study, the relationships between simple learning by accretion and various cognitive ability variables were explored. Computerized tests of five sources of individual differences were administered to a sample of 714 Air Force recruits, along with a trigram-English word paired-associate task, which was presented as a foreign language…

Alabama high school students (N=309) with mild mental retardation completed a questionnaire concerning their knowledge, attitudes, and sources of information about human immune deficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Students demonstrated some basic knowledge of HIV/AIDS, and expressed some concern about getting AIDS. They…

This study examined what psychology students know about clinical psychology as most students with declared majors in psychology state that they have career plans to work in applied psychology. A five-item questionnaire was administered to 162 undergraduates in three introductory and upper level psychology courses. The questionnaire asked students…

The construct validity of content standards is addressed in terms of their representative coverage of a construct domain and their alignment with the students' cognitive level of developing expertise in the subject matter. The construct validity of performance standards is addressed in terms of the extent to which they reflect increasing levels of…

The rate of sexual activity among adolescents has been rising steadily in the last 10 years, and adolescents are initiating sexual activity at younger ages. It has been widely assumed that parents can have an effect on their adolescent's sexual behavior and attitudes. This study was designed to investigate how parent-adolescent communication…

The goal of the Quality Improvement Program Plan (QUIPP) for Special Educators, developed by New York City Public Schools in New York, was to improve the quality of instruction for students with disabilities by expanding the knowledge and instructional abilities of special education professionals. The program, available in elementary and…