Discusses software metrics and describes a study of graduate students in Hong Kong that evaluated the relevance of using software metrics as a means of assessing students' performance in programing. The use of four basic metrics to measure programing skill, complexity, programing style, and programing efficiency using Pascal is examined. (13…

Elementary teachers can interest their students in U.S. geography by having them plan a cross-country concert tour for a rock and roll band. The project develops research, writing, and critical thinking skills as students learn about U.S. geography. The article includes a listing of state tourism agencies. (SM)

Elementary teachers can use folktales to teach story structure. After students read a folktale, they can brainstorm for story ideas, create and revise outlines and drafts, edit their stories in pairs, complete a final version, then construct and illustrate a book. A student page teaches how to plan a folktale. (SM)

Discusses techniques to use in helping children write more concisely. Minilesson techniques are presented that guide children in making effective writing revisions and deletions as well as explaining why these techniques are useful. (GLR)

Provides instructional techniques, using samples from evergreen trees, to explain to school children the concept of adaptation. The techniques help children develop skills in observation, classification, communication, inferring, and predicting. A teacher's reproducible is included. (GLR)

Examines middle and high school students' views of instructional practices teachers use to facilitate reading of difficult textbooks. Finds differences between students' perceptions of the desirability of textbook adaptations (high) and their perceptions of the frequency of teachers' use of adaptations (low). Discusses the disparity between…

Compares the effects of two prereading instructional treatments on students' comprehension of narrative and expository texts. Indicates that the teacher-directed condition is more effective than the interactive condition at promoting comprehension, and that both treatment conditions are superior to no prereading instruction at all. (MG)

Explains why the author, a staunch disciple of teaching writing as a process, teaches a primarily product-oriented technical writing course. Describes how he incorporates process theory into the course. Defends the emphasis on the process approach in graduate programs for writing teachers. (SR)

Just as testing generally is not the answer to the multifaceted problems facing contemporary American education, performance assessment is no panacea. Before embracing this new evaluation method, educators should assess the movement's claims, costs, and characteristics. At present, both goals and costs are uncertain. (30 references) (MLH)

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…

Four blind adults explored the spatial layout of landmarks in a large-scale space utilizing a microcomputer simulation of the environment and a tactile graphic aid of a similar environment. Although subjects learned the landmarks' locations faster using the tactile graphic aid, the accuracy of their spatial knowledge was equal with both…

This study examined effectiveness of a constant time delay (CTD) procedure in teaching social studies and health facts to five adolescents with learning or behavioral disorders. Students were given praise with and without additional information. Results indicated CTD procedures were reliable and effective, and students acquired nontargeted as well…

A review of a 1920 issue of the journal "Modern Language Review of New South Wales" provides insight into the post-World War I language teaching field, teachers' perceptions of their roles in promoting international tolerance and understanding, the comparative effectiveness of traditional and more innovative approaches, and the use of…

HyperPharm, a computer program consisting of about 1,500 faculty-prepared questions designed as a study aid in pharmacology, was found to be popular with medical students and easy to use, but not as effective as predicted in improving student (n=162) performance. (MSE)

Observation in 281 elementary and junior secondary classrooms and interview with teachers found large variation in communication behaviors of Botswana teachers, related to subject matter, presence of a textbook, and school size. Much class time was spent on choral recitation, which was positively related to expatriate staff and pupil persistence.…