The paper, originally given at a 1986 Ethnic and Multicultural Symposium, discusses the continuing underrepresentation in gifted and talented programs of Black and Hispanic children and the need for early identification and nurturing of gifted Black and Hispanic students. The Program of Assessment, Diagnosis, and Instruction (PADI) is described.…

This chapter describes current research in cognitive psychology and considers how this work may be applied to the design of instructional materials. The nature of knowing--and of meaningful knowing--are examined, and findings from psycholinguistics and pattern recognition are integrated to provide an understanding of concept and memorization…

This study describes the evaluation of a model science teacher education program developed with support from the National Science Foundation from 1970 to 1980. This program, named the Undergraduate Preservice Science Teacher Education Program (UPSTEP) was designed to develop science teachers who have a research-based rationale for teaching…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined the feasibility of assessing the quality of the federal civilian work force, focusing on professional and administrative staff. The agency developed a measurable definition of quality centered on attributes of the individual and the match of the individual's capabilities to the needs of the job. It…

Motivation is a rather persistent problem in guiding students to read well. If a student lacks motivation, a low energy level will be available for learning to read. Through motivation, a learner is encouraged to achieve definite goals in reading. Attention and retention by the student are important in recognizing new words whether the approach is…

This paper is concerned with the importance of argumentation in the classroom, especially in relation to the social sciences. Issues of argument and argument evaluation are considered. The paper analyzes the nature of such reasoning and indicates its importance in subject matter learning. Three situations are described in the paper in which…

Teachers of public speaking need to provide the educational leadership necessary for students to become responsible for their presentational interaction. Several instructional practices can help students re-position themselves in what they do with their presentational interaction to make it meaningful. For example, teachers can respond to student…

The booklet was developed from experience in presenting lectures and workshops for those working with children having emotional and behavioral difficulties. The text is organized around activities individuals can do to better understand themselves and their work with such children. Activities and related information cover such alternative…

This guide discusses the Philosophy of Teaching Scale (POTS) which was developed to define the physical setting of participants' classrooms, and participants' orientation on six philosophical dimensions. The six dimensions are: (1) learning environment and experiences; (2) curriculum; (3) grouping; (4) instructional style; (5) discipline; and (6)…

Three methods of appraising student achievement are discussed: (1) the measurement movement (MM); (2) problem solving (PS) in the curriculum; and (3) decision making (DM) in the curriculum. MMs in education emphasize: verification of student achievement results; objective procedures; alignment of learning opportunities with test items; teaching…

The study compared the effects of on-going versus short-term training on attitudes, knowledge, and practice of two groups of 40 early childhood teachers. A review of the literature suggested the superiority of the on-going training approach. It was hypothesized that preschool teachers receiving on-going training would have more positive attitudes…

The study evaluated the System of Multicultural Pluralistic Assessment (SOMPA), an approach to nondiscriminatory assessment, with special emphasis on its impact on educational decisionmaking and on educational planning for exceptional children. Initial chapters focus on the SOMPA's theoretical framework contrasted to traditional assessment…

Graduates' perceptions of their education and their success in the marketplace can provide measures of institutional effectiveness. To assess graduates' attitudes towards their education and to determine their career status and vocational success, 1,213 University of Houston graduates were sent a survey questionnaire. An analysis of the results…

Wheeless' trust and solidarity scales are examined under conditions of positive and negative target person. Valence of stimulus is shown to have a strong influence on the performance of the scales. The problems on Wheeless' scales were not detected in the original validation studies because of the normal validation paradigm. That paradigm…

Vocabulary development, operationally defined as the isomorphism between an individual's store of concepts and the labels society uses to represent those concepts, is akin to concept development. Therefore, vocabulary development can be facilitated if presented in clusters of related concepts. One approach used to reinforce such basic concept…