Papers generated for a symposium entitled "Effectiveness of Stallings' Use of Time Training for Teachers in Washington, D.C." are presented. The intitial presentation, "Academic Learning Time: The Current Status of the Stallings Training" (Geraldine Williams Bethune), reviews the Stallings research and describes the Academic…

The overall purpose of this project was threefold: (1) to gather task descriptive data concerning engagement rates of students across grade levels, abilities, classrooms, contextual factors, subject areas and task structures; (2) to link various teacher behaviors with student engagement rates, focusing on correlational results between a number of…

Sixty students in 10 classrooms in 5 high schools were extensively observed over a 10-week period during the fall semester of 1982. Based on pre- and posttests to measure achievement gain on algebraic objectives and change in attitude, the study investigated the relationships between student achievement and variables of student behavior,…

A study examined the effects of different teacher styles on one variable related to classroom learning production. Subjects, 34 first grade middle- and lower-middle income students in a Catholic school matched by ability and randomly assigned to either an authoritarian, systematic, ordered, and controlling teacher or to a "laissez faire"…

The project described in this report was designed to render an in-depth analysis of what has happened to doctorate completion times since 1967, to provide a time-series data base for the period 1967-1986, and to develop a model that explains some of the factors that have caused an elongation to occur. Chapter 1 begins with an examination of how…

Direct observation procedures were utilized in assessing the social interactions of 37 adults with severe disabilities in 18 employment programs, representing 3 different supported employment contexts (individual, enclave, and work crew). The data gathered focused on: (1) job engagement time; (2) extent of interaction with work supervisor, human…

Six mildly and moderately mentally retarded adults with chronic and severe emotional/behavioral problems participated in a study of the assumption that aggression and conduct disorders reflected self-managed coping skills deficits. The study was conducted in a vocational training workshop setting located in the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation…

An examination of definition, causes, variables, and strategies of implementation suggests the kinds of data necessary for measuring school effectiveness. By focusing on students who first enter school below grade level standards and by understanding that student learning is embedded in a system of key elements or variables that, over time, are…

The study examined the impact of varying student-teacher ratios on task completion and success, student instructional time, and quality of instruction in special education classes for mildly handicapped students. Subjects were 139 mainstreamed elementary students (grades 1-6), most of whom were categorically labeled as learning disabled (n=114).…

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of several techniques for teaching reading to students with mental disabilities. Basic considerations include the following facts: (1) the effectiveness of the teacher is more important than the teaching method used, and (2) the teacher's view of reading should match the reading approach…

This practicum was designed to reduce the frequency of disruption occurring in a class of emotionally disturbed students, aged 6-10. Objectives were to have the students remain on task and attentive to teacher instruction during 80 percent of a morning classroom session and to reduce the need for crisis intervention outside the classroom. Three…

High and low level questions as determined by a panel of evaluators were combined with corrective feedback and attribute isolation feedback to form four versions of a computer-based science lesson. The sample consisted of 154 high school chemistry students in a suburban high school. The primary hypothesis was that students who received high level…

Several years ago, a coalition of Chicago civic groups met to determine the scope of the urban dropout problem and develop strategies for dealing with it. The resulting research program rejected both attrition and survey analysis approaches in favor of direct examination of all student records for three graduating classes (1982, 1983, and 1984)…

Cognitive research of the 1970s has shown that both content factors (topical world knowledge and knowledge about textual organization) and process factors (attention, encoding, inference, retrieval, and executive monitoring) influence comprehension. Classroom research during the same decade has shown that the greater the proportion of time…

The relationship between teachers' statements about classroom tasks and the degree of subsequent student engagement were studied to test the influence of teachers' expectations. Task presentation statements made by teachers in 6 reading and mathematics classes for the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades were classified according to 18 categories of…