Provides a basis from which to critically examine contemporary identity research, by offering a definition of identity, a constructive criticism of the subject approach, and an empirical approach to studying sense of identity. The empirical approach is based on conceptually sound ideas and leads to important questions about identity modes and the…

Explored student and classroom factors that place children at risk for referral to special education. One teacher-nominated at-risk student and one teacher-nominated not-at-risk student were observed in each of 24 regular primary education classrooms. Results indicated significant differences between at-risk students and their peers on academic…

Discusses two philosophies of reading instruction--the measurably stated objective philosophy and the idea-centered reading curriculum philosophy. Suggests that, whatever philosophy is used to teach reading, teachers need to guide each student to achieve optimally in reading and that individual differences in reading achievement need adequate…

Of five approaches to studying older workers (chronological/legal, functional, psychosocial, organizational, and life span), the life-span approach accommodates individual differences in career patterns. Middle-age and older adult workers need to be considered as individuals in terms of career choices and employment policies. (SK)

The Paideia School Model was inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler's belief in a high-quality, single-track, liberal arts education to prepare students for work, citizenship, and lifelong learning. This article describes how Chattanooga (Tennessee) parents and educators worked to develop and implement a holistic, rigorous Paideia curriculum. (MLH)

A theory of personality is proposed to reconcile paradoxical findings on the invariance of personality and the variability of behavior across situations. Individuals are assumed to differ in the accessibility of cognitive-affective mediating units and the organizations of the interactions of these units and situations. (SLD)

A modal model of information processing was defined, and nine tasks that could be completed by persons with mental retardation were developed to operationalize the model. Results showed that individual differences in higher mental processes are highly dependent on basic cognitive abilities and can be predicted from them. (Author/JDD)

Twenty-two college students from each of three different epistemological groups--dualistic, multiplistic, and relativistic--completed both a syllogism and ink blot problem-solving task. Findings indicated that the three epistemological groups reliably differed in how they mentally organized the ink blot stimuli but not the syllogism problems.…

Discusses the history of the hierarchical epigenetic systems view as applied to human development and offers examples of its implementation. Notes the agreement by many authors that the multilevel systems view is the right model for developmental psychology in both human and animal studies. (BC)

In "The First Year of Teaching: Real World Stories from American Teachers," editor Pearl Rich Kane collects 25 stories probing male-female differences, moral classroom dilemmas, and teacher training deficiencies. In "A Lifetime of Teaching: Portraits of Five Veteran High School Teachers," Rosetta M. Cohen examines outstanding teachers' passionate…

Recent study found that high-achieving African Americans ran the risk of both physical and verbal abuse from peers. With help from staff, principals can remove or weaken excellence-alienation link by raising community awareness, providing opportunities for new knowledge and skills, and offering support and resources for change. Principals must…

Two studies examined college students' ability, when presented with two sequential adjectives, to make relatedness judgments and antonym and synonym judgments. The studies found that judgments were fastest for direct antonyms, even when compared to synonyms of similar relatedness. (Contains 17 references.) (MDM)

Instead of issuing boilerplate announcements of superintendent vacancies, school boards must be specific about district needs and wants. Boards hunting superintendents should decide what is important, publicize their decision widely, communicate district needs to search firm, interview only candidates who meet these criteria, use community and…

Reviews research on lexical access (the process of getting information about a word from a mental dictionary). Discusses implications for comprehension development. Suggests that individual differences in comprehension depend on speed of lexical access as well as on speed of decoding. (SR)

The relationship between general intelligence and the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli appearing in the same visual field as an attended target was studied for 167 college students. Results indicate that psychometric intelligence does not tap visual focused attention. (SLD)