Describes a study that investigated the effect of curiosity on learning art education facts and concepts by first and second graders in computer-based interactive learner-controlled environments with and without advisement. Results are compared with a previous study on learner control and advisement, and implications for instructional design are…

Examined the effect of puberty on the parent-adolescent relationship in association with ethnicity, parental psychopathology, and chronological age. Found that puberty effects on parent support and parent-adolescent conflict differ for Hispanic and non-Hispanic white boys. Parent alcoholism did not moderate the effect of puberty, and puberty…

Analysis of French used in teleconferences between American and French university students, relative to technical and discursive dimensions and learners' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), found much of the language used was beyond these learners' capability, due to heightened classroom anxiety and differences in language varieties used by…

A study compared the performance on a national licensing examination of University of Southern California dental students in problem-based learning (PBL) versus those in conventional educational tracks. PBL track students scored significantly higher in all four discipline-based portions of the exam and also in the aggregate, and scored well in…

Study using Association of American Medical Colleges data investigated relationship between medical school admission practices at public and private institutions and proportions of matriculants at each school interested in general practice, rural practice, practice in socioeconomically deprived areas. Results show public schools and those with…

Describes a quasi-experimental study at Western Kentucky University that compared a traditional required, for-credit class in library skills with a Web-based course. Discusses skills level, satisfaction, and demographics, and includes a copy of the student survey used. (LRW)

Compares Queensland teachers' conceptions of communicative language teaching with those held by 11 Japanese junior high school teachers of English, interviewed in 1997 as part of a s part study on the development of language teaching in Japan. (Author/VWL)

Academic disciplines with soft paradigmatic development have greater affinity for practices designed to improve undergraduate education than do hard paradigmatic disciplines. A study extends this hypothesis to the seven principles of good practice, garnering empirical support for four principles: encouragement of faculty-student contact;…

This case study compared behavior of 6 Level 3 students with severe learning difficulties in a school for pupils with severe learning difficulties with that of six similar students in a mainstream primary school. Observations and teacher interview findings indicated site differences in students' social maturity, student-teacher relationships, and…

The purpose of this study was to examine how various living conditions impact the context within which low-income African American women engage in a diverse range of high-risk behavior that increases their risk for HIV infection. The study, based on 2 years of ethnographic fieldwork, analyzed the living conditions of 45 African American women at…

The designation of district central-office administrators to operate as boundary spanners among the central office, schools, and community agencies can help with the implementation of challenging policy demands. However, educational research teaches little about central-office boundary spanners in practice. This article addresses that gap with…

A comprehensive, quantitative evaluation of an educational intervention program designed to reduce the attrition of minorities from the biological sciences was undertaken to ascertain whether such efforts adequately address the problem. Program participants had greater odds of persisting in basic math and science courses, and of graduating in…

Supporters believe that the flexibility granted these new public schools allows them to be more innovative and responsive to student needs than traditional public schools are. But do students in charter schools learn more than their counterparts in traditional public schools? In order to answer this question, the authors have analyzed established…

Several schools that eschewed the middle school model and remained K-8 discovered anecdotally that their students showed fewer behavioral problems and higher academic achievement than many students enrolled in middle schools. On the basis of studies that verified these observations, school district leaders in Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Philadelphia…

Spelling competence in English L2 is not the result of specific teaching and training. Two questions are discussed in this article: How do Dutch learners manage to gain control of this complicated system? And what spelling knowledge is acquired? Because beginning learners lack the necessary prerequisites for a phonological strategy, it is claimed…