Describes the use of the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire to identify personality correlates of competitiveness among debaters, novice debaters, and nondebaters. The study suggests that the differences in competitiveness are attributable to the type of person attracted to debate rather than to traits learned in debate. (JMF)

The article describes an international conference comprised of 180 gifted schoolchildren who participated in groups of four at three grade-level divisions (4 to 6, 7 to 9, and 10 to 12). The program which sponsored the conference was created in 1975 and focuses on future problem solving. (PHR)

Discusses two causes of newspaper monopoly and their legal implications: anticompetitive economic practices, particularly the use of combination rates; and government intervention in the media marketplace through the Newspaper Preservation Act. (JMF)

First- and third-grade children, together with either a friend or a nonfriend, were exposed to cooperative and competitive goal structures. Children's performance was rewarded sequentially as follows: Phase 1, shared rewards; Phase 2, winner take all or proportional rewards; and Phase 3, shared rewards. (JMB)

Historically black colleges and universities need subject expertise and aggressive tactics to win Department of Defense research contracts, despite Pentagon efforts to target black colleges. The colleges compete with institutions whose minority group populations, alone or combined, are a majority of total enrollment. Several approaches useful in…

Examines the role of interjurisdictional competition among school districts, using 1970 California school districts and controlling for various educational inputs. Achievement scores rise as the local market becomes more competitive, until a threshold is reached, beyond which districts have no effect on achievement. Three to four districts per…

Competitive grading stresses judging over learning. Assigning competitive grades adversely affects teachers by turning them into students' opponents, justifying inadequate teaching methods, trivializing course content, encouraging evaluation methods that misdirect and inhibit student learning, and rewarding teachers for punishing students. High…

Describes the development of "Online" magazine, considers the impact it has had on its target audience of online searchers, and discusses changes in the online information field during the last 20 years. Topics include growth of the Internet; price competition; quality of information; and user interfaces. (LRW)

Given that competition can motivate students to perform better on high-stakes tests, this article ponders what might be done to help students take the relatively low-stakes National Assessment of Educational Progress tests more seriously. So far, offering intrinsic and extrinsic rewards has yielded mixed or questionable results. (MLH)

This keynote address encourages urban and metropolitan universities to be courageous and creative in meeting new social and economic challenges. Explores why universities, products of the Age of Reason, must now face the competitive pressures arising from a collapse of the Authority of Reason. (EV)

Colleges and universities are finding that improvements in the guaranteed student loan process are making it more attractive than direct lending. In its third year, the direct lending program's total loan volume remains at 33%, well below the 50% goal set in originating legislation. Even some of its strongest supporters fear the program will have…

Information on writing competitions for elementary and secondary grade students is provided including the Future Problem Solving Program, the Scenario Writing Program, the Ann Arlys Bowler Poetry Contest, and the "Kids Are Authors" contest. Summarizes four references for young authors on getting published. (DB)

Examines the relationship between market concentration/competition and black employment in urban centers, using Equal Employment Opportunity Commission data. Overall, black employment positively relates to greater market concentration, not competition. There is little support for the contention that economic forces at work in competitive markets…

Correlational analyses of data from 126 Chinese business students in 32 learning groups showed that groups with cooperative goals engaged in more constructive controversy. Those with competitive or independent goals had fewer open discussions. Groups engaged in constructive controversy rated themselves as more innovative and loyal. (Contains 31…

Asserting that state control over Ontario's higher education has been strengthened with the use of market mechanisms, outlines seven major higher education policy changes that make use of market mechanisms while enhancing state control. Suggests that marketization is a compromise between privatization, academic autonomy, and blatant state control…