Feedback effectiveness and efficiency were studied using 120 college students practicing 40 difficult vocabulary items in 4 experiments. The significant impact of immediate feedback was seen in immediate and delayed posttests. Conditional probability of feedback as a corrective function is discussed via a limited model of general working memory.…

Describes a joint story writing session in which remedial English students and their teacher thought through, pondered, and revised a narrative text that was based on their previous reading of a novel. Argues that such an activity offers students opportunities for reflection and literacy development. (RS)

An examination of the use of parent-child communicative acts found that 12 autistic children (aged 4-12) had more incidents of no responses and produced less turn-taking vocalization and gesture than 25 language-matched nonautistic comparison children. Parents of autistic children exhibited a greater amount of initiating and use of imperatives.…

Describes a case study exploring the personal change process of one science teacher, examining the tools used for describing and changing practices and investigating how the change experience fit into the context of his life at school. Indicates that both cognitive and cultural dissonance make even individually desired change a difficult process…

Approaches to the practical problems of finding former offenders and making them want to participate in a study are described for a study of desistance from crime. In the example, a success rate of 78% was achieved for a sample of 50 former offenders. Attention to individual circumstances is critical. (SLD)

This study examined the effects of mastery learning on college students' achievement in a nonsequential course in curriculum and instruction. Students participated in either classes with conventional teaching, enhanced cognitive entry behavior plus conventional teaching, or feedback/corrective procedures plus the other methods. Using a combination…

In most schools, restructuring involves a fundamental, comprehensive reformulation of school operations accompanied by intense scrutiny of everyday activities. This article traces a high school social studies teacher's growing bitterness and feelings of powerlessness as mandated restructuring efforts progressed at his school. A transition plan is…

Examines the role of emotions in teaching, noting the significance of teacher emotions to classroom management. The paper focuses on one teacher's experiences teaching a ninth-grade class at a local public high school, examining how his emotions affected his teaching decisions and behaviors and his classroom management techniques. (SM)

Summarizes findings of the Television Violence Study indicating that the context of much television violence is dangerous to viewers, perpetrators go unpunished in the majority of programs, negative consequences of violence are often ignored, guns feature prominently, and presentation of violence differs greatly across networks and across…

Studied reading comprehension demands in a seventh-grade social studies classroom to reveal existing classroom cultures and complexities surrounding expository text comprehension. Found that in the particular classroom, the textbook determined knowledge exploration and had a damaging pedagogical effect on the students' literacy practices.…

Discusses ways in which a teacher new to teaching ninth-grade English and new to the school district lured her "reluctant" readers into a true community of readers. Describes a trip to a local bookstore, building the reading community, writing in response to reading, graphic responses to reading, and oral responses to reading. (RS)

This study found that the responses of 40 institutionalized adults with moderate mental retardation to the tasks of discriminating emotions and expressing empathy were poor in contrast to those with mild mental retardation. Of individuals with mild mental retardation, those with no chronic challenging behaviors scored better than those with…

Simulated data are used to assess the appropriateness of using separate calibration and between-fit approaches to detecting item bias in the Rasch rating scale model. Results indicate that Type I error rates for the null distribution hold even when there are different ability levels for reference and focal groups. (SLD)

This article reviews aspects of normal affective development and the accompanying language of feelings, explains how children with behavioral and emotional problems diverge from normal patterns, and describes relevant intervention programs for early childhood and the primary and intermediate grades. (Author/JDD)

Maintains that both traditional and computerized scholars face problems when they attempt empirical research on women writers and women readers using currently available computational tools. Discusses factors that have inhibited empirical research and uses examples from research on 18th century English poetry. (CFR)