The focus of this study was on the expectations that first-grade teachers have of the mathematics skills of their incoming first-grade students. At the end of one school year and at the beginning of the next school year, first-grade teachers (n=64) in rural and urban settings completed the Mathematics Skills Expectations Survey (MSES). The MSES…

The gap between policymaker enthusiasm for the uses of student assessment and expert caution is analyzed by examining new forms of student assessment as an education policy strategy. The study is based on interviews with 34 national and state policymakers and focuses on their differing expectations of what assessment policy can accomplish and how…

This research study was based upon a national survey in March 1992, conducted to assess the economic literacy of the U.S. public. The survey data were used to measure the economic knowledge of the public, to identify factors that affect economic knowledge, and to evaluate the influence of economic knowledge on public opinion about current economic…

This article examines distance learning from a gender perspective. In any new area of enterprise, expectations have an important effect on planning, implementation, and evaluation. When it comes to distance learning, a variety of images of what this exciting new technology will look like and what it can empower us to achieve will determine how we…

Several studies converge in the finding that marriage is a salient transition event in the future expectancies of mid- and late adolescent females. Marriage figures more prominently in the future expectancies of late adolescent females than do other transition events, and more prominently in the future expectancies of adolescent females than does…

A speech communication professor informs his students of implicit classroom rules by using a humorous handout. Now and then, the professor elaborates on items in class using stories of classroom encounters that led to the handout's creation. Some of these "tongue-in-cheek" rules (there are 22 in all) are: (1) try to arrive at class a few…

This study examined whether and to what extent the characteristics of mental models derived from the identical text, which is known to produce a certain type of mental model, are influenced if the subjects are given different task expectations before the reading session. Seventy-one undergraduates read one of the two text genres, descriptive or…

The influence of culture on the English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher, student, and curriculum is examined. The assumption is that if acknowledgement is given to: (1) the influence of culture; and (2) ways that cultural assumptions of teachers and students differ, then adjustments can be made that permit a more rewarding and enjoyable…

A study was made to determine whether there exists a group of overpersisting children who are considered mastery-oriented because of their persistence but who actually demonstrate characteristics of learned helplessness. Subjects were 71 females and 84 males from fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade classrooms. Children's scores on the Intellectual…

In this article the author maintains that high school counselors are pressured by their colleagues, students and parents and by their own standards but that all who apply the pressure must share in the accountability. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the National Association of College Admissions Counselors, Atlanta, Georgia, October…

This article examines the attitudes of college teachers toward adult students. Results show that faculty desire to have older students in the program correlates positively with the number of years that the faculty member has been teaching. (Author/EJT)

Raters viewed a videotape of an interview with a patient after having read one of three types of pretherapy information about the patient. Raters then completed scales regarding patient's level of adjustment, psychic distress, amount of change, and success of therapy. Only ratings of pretherapy to posttherapy patient change varied. (Author)

In their recent article, "Materiality and Genre in the Study of Discourse Communities," Devitt, Bawarshi, and Reiff maintain that genre analysis can enable outsiders to a discourse community "to connect what community members know and do with what they say and how they say it--their language practices" (542). Genre analysis,…

Suggestions from behavior modification and Personalized Systems of Instruction (PSI) research concerning some subtle variables affecting course success are presented. Variables of interpersonal relationship and of expectancies on the parts of students, proctors, and instructors are delineated. (Author/JR)

Helping students take active responsibility for their education may depend on how well educators link their classroom goals with the goals students hold for themselves. Goals are not fixed, but change as individuals change. Helping students revise their goals and improve their control of behavior are valid educational goals. Most institutions…