A combination of behavioral and motivational theory is proposed to deal with the problem of violence in schools. Characteristics of persons effective in dealing with violent or aggressive students include intelligence, positive attitudes toward students, and high expectations for students. Other personal qualities that are related in general to…

A pilot study examined teacher expectations and how expectations are manifested in student participation in class discussions. Subjects, 10 third-grade student teachers, were observed as they led a discussion of a story following silent reading and participated in a self-monitoring process. Using a seating chart, the university student teaching…

The purpose of this booklet is to relate significant research pertaining to student achievement. Each section defines one of eight research-based variables associated with greater academic achievement and includes some practical applications within school settings. According to the first two sections, high principal and teacher expectations are…

Many researchers have demonstrated that student expectations of teacher competence can affect student performance outcomes. The artificiality of laboratory paradigms used in past research, however, may severely limit the generalizability of findings. A field study was conducted to test the idea that students' expectations regarding their teacher's…

To determine what students expected their speech teachers to be like, students in introductory speech courses at two universities were asked to complete a questionnaire on the first day of class, prior to meeting their instructor. The students were told their instructor was male or female, but otherwise were given no information about the teacher.…

This article discusses the role of perceived self-efficacy during classroom learning of cognitive skills. Self-efficacy refers to personal judgments of performance capabilities in a given domain of activity. Students enter classroom activities with various aptitudes and prior experiences, which affect their initial sense of self-efficacy for…

The focus of this paper is the degree to which school effectiveness characteristics are alterable from a measurement perspective. The basis for measurement was the Connecticut School Effectiveness Questionnaire. The sample included seven schools which took the questionnaire for the first time between January and June of 1982 and for the second…

The objective and subjective determinants that influence the way elementary school teachers grade students were explored. A longitudinal study was made of 213 students in 6 elementary schools as the students progressed from the first to the third grade. Possible determinants for assigning grades included student acquisition of valuable skills as…

As part of the evaluation of the High School Improvement Project (HSIP), a survey was conducted to measure staff perceptions of school and instructional effectiveness behaviors and activities at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan. The questionnaire used was an abbreviated version of the School Effectiveness Questionnaire developed by…

A teacher training program, Gender Expectation and Student Achievement (GESA), seeks to produce equal interest and achievement in mathematics, reading, and language arts in boys and girls. The training model is designed to increase the achievement of both sexes and to reduce teachers' gender-stereotyped behavior. It includes teacher workshops,…

This report of a study describes in detail attempts to change one kindergarten teacher's procedures for teaching reading. The aim of the study was to learn how practices observed in earlier classroom research could be improved. The more specific goal was to identify factors that facilitate or impede change. Subjects were a kindergarten teacher in…

This study examined the phenomenon of student teachers' practical knowledge of what constitutes a successful classroom lesson. One student teacher's personal orientation of practical knowledge and implicit understanding of what is needed to make sense out of the experience of success in classroom lessons was explored before and after the student…

Mexican American college students' views about the context influencing their decision to persist or leave the university were studied. Two sociologies of everyday life, symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, guided the inquiry. Perceptions of college-going behavior before and during the freshman year were obtained from 18 students and…

A method for translating the achievement gains in Normal Curve Equivalents (NCE) to a more conceptually understandable index of academic growth is described. This method calculates "Expected Growth (EG)" and expresses the relationship of observed achievement gains. The method is shown to be easily applied and well suited to local…

A statewide telephone survey of over 1,500 household heads in 58 Massachusetts cities and towns, conducted soon after the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 in November 1980, sought to discover why voters favored the law and what public services they wanted. Proposition 2 1/2 not only restricted Massachusetts property taxes but also reduced automobile…