Article attempted to show that new findings are emerging that may bring the study of probability learning closer to the mainstream of research on human memory and information processing. (Author/RK)

In a study of 637 students enrolled in 17 classes, cognitive dissonance was shown to be an applicable but weak conceptual framework for understanding course evaluations. Results of this study are similar to those of an earlier investigation by Canter and Meisels. (LBH)

A multifaceted study using both qualitative and quantitative methods examined the expectations of college life of first-time freshmen and then checked 4 years later at their graduation to determine how well they felt those expectations were met. Incoming freshmen wrote an essay detailing expectations, and shortly before graduation wrote another…

Community colleges are open-door institutions serving many students with academic, economic, and personal characteristics that can make college completion a challenge. Their graduation rates are low, but community college students do not always have earning a degree as their goal. While individual students may feel that their experience at a…

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to develop a working model to explain medical specialty decision-making. Using Social Cognitive Career Theory, we examined personality, medical specialty preferences, job satisfaction, and expectations about specialty choice to create a conceptual framework to guide specialty choice decision-making.…

Each state is going to set its own education standards, but unless state leaders talk to each other, there are going to be huge unexplained differences in state performance standards for student achievement. What states say they want their students to be taught is quite similar, but they appear to have very different standards for what students…

Community-based social service agencies working in low-income communities increasingly function with inadequate support and encounter numerous oppressive external and internal conditions that compromise organizational and staff well-being. Working with many such agencies, WestEd identified stressors that included funding problems, unrealistic…

This study examines the relationship between girls' body size and their intellectual abilities as perceived by their classroom teachers. The study aims to show that girls' body size has a negative relationship to teachers' perception of their intellect, even in the earliest grades where puberty has not yet become a factor in children's…

This paper explains that an in effective classroom discipline program, students are taught self-discipline, students know what the classroom standards are, and teachers' standards for behavior fit the occasion and environment. It offers eight steps for teachers having problems with an entire class (e.g., look at oneself, talk to the department…

This study examined teacher authority in the classroom. Researchers spent one semester in a college composition class observing each class session, taking field notes, and tape recording the classes. Data collection also involved: interviews with five students throughout the semester; two anonymous background surveys of the class; an instructor…

The expectancy-value model of achievement motivation, first described by J. Atkinson (1957) and refined by J. Eccles and her colleagues (1983, 1992, 1994) predicts achievement motivation based on expectancy for success and perceived task value. Cost has been explored very little. To explore the possibility that cost is different from expectancy…

Previous puzzling inconsistencies in results of experimental comparisions of paired-associate anticipation with recall (study-test) methods are indicated by Izawa's 1971 data to reflect longer inter- and/or intratrial intervals in experiments showing marked superiority of the recall method. (Editor)

Four studies are described to demonstrate that low-level expectations of student ability become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Adult educators inherit students whose self-concept may have been formed by oppressive, self-destructive expectations and are cautioned against perpetuating discrimination and destructive labeling practices. (AG)

The present research effort was directed toward exploration of the formulation of teachers' biases. (Author)