Compared truant and nontruant comprehensive school adolescents (n=932). Compared to nontruants, truants had more solvent use, soft drug use, and involvement with hard drugs; were significantly more involved with other problematic behavior; scored higher on all negative social indices; and scored lower on measures of knowledge about drugs and human…

Seven children with phonological disorders were analyzed for imperceptible acoustic distinctions for seemingly homophonous word pairs, and treatment was applied. Results indicate that productive knowledge of sounds and contrasts facilitates rapid learning of those sounds in treatment, and presence of an acoustic distinction for a contrast does not…

Discusses the promises and pitfalls of comparing teachers' work with work performed in other occupations. Comparison reveals teaching to be a complex form of work that requires high levels of formal knowledge for successful performance. Educational reforms can professionalize teaching as they make the work more complex. (SLD)

A survey was conducted of 1,368 professionals in a course on identifying and reporting child abuse and maltreatment. Substantial numbers of professionals had limited knowledge of indicators of abuse and even less knowledge about legal obligations and procedures for reporting. Teachers were no more knowledgeable about indicators of abuse than were…

Groups of first, third, and fifth graders were interviewed 12 months, 6 months, and 1 month prior to national elections to examine changes in their conceptions of the American presidency and of presidential elections. Differences among grade levels disappeared at the last measurement, as first and third graders' knowledge of the presidency and…

Three experiments in the framework of Activity Theory explored the relationship between the questions of 104 male and 88 female adult learners (college students) and subsequent comprehension in a tutorial learning session. Questions asked during knowledge implementation aid comprehension more than do those asked during acquisition. (SLD)

Provides a test for counselors to determine their current level of knowledge concerning suicide. Also provides methods of determining the potential suicide risks for persons as well as strategies for suicide intervention. Intended for counselors who deal with suicidal behavior on an occasional basis. (Author)

Evaluated six-week support group for six preadolescent siblings of children with mental or physical handicaps. Comparison with five nonparticipants revealed that group had significant effect on participants' perceptions of social support. Parents indicated some improvements in participants' behavior toward siblings. Found no significant…

Used Children's Depression Inventory to compare depressive symptomatology of 37 third and sixth grade students whose parents were divorcing with symptomatology of 37 children from intact homes. Found no significant differences in level of depressive symptomatology between groups. Two additional studies examined parent and teacher knowledge…

The hypothesis defended is that negative data and explicit data result in a type of knowledge that is not to be equated with linguistic competence. The specific claim is that only positive data can effect the construction of an interlanguage grammar comparable to the knowledge system characterizing the results of first-language acquisition. (60…

African-American adolescents (n=195) completed measures on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) knowledge, condoms, health locus of control, vulnerability to human immunodeficiency virus, peer sexual norms, sexual behavior, and contraceptive preferences. Girls were more knowledgeable about AIDS, reported fewer sexual partners, held more…

Studied sexual knowledge among Norwegian adolescents (n=1,855) aged 17-19 years. Found knowledge gaps among adolescents on sexual physiology and anatomy, sexually transmitted diseases, and fecundation/contraception. Level of sexual knowledge was higher among girls than boys and increased with increasing age. Sexual knowledge did not predict…

Authentic achievement relies on three restructuring criteria. Students construct meaning and produce knowledge, use disciplined inquiry to construct meaning, and aim their work toward producing discourse, products, and performances possessing value beyond school success. Five standards for rating instruction involve degrees of higher order…

This paper discusses the two important domains affecting the success of learning strategy training for students with learning disabilities or other mild handicaps: students' knowledge of critical skills and information potentially related to strategy use, and students' motivation to learn and use the strategy. The paper presents an eight-stage…

Used 1988 Australian national population survey to examine drug information needs. Results indicated almost one-half of respondents believed that they had an adequate amount of information about drug and alcohol services available. Drug users expressed greater desire for information and willingness to use variety of welfare and social support…