This fourth edition of a review and synthesis of agricultural education research concentrates on the period from 1978 to 1984. The review covers research published in papers and bulletins, compilations of abstracts, proceedings of regional and national agricultural education research meetings, material in the ERIC database, masters' theses, and…

A comprehensive guide to the use of environmental assessments for understanding and improving student and faculty life is presented. Environmental assessments are examined as tools for academic decision-makers in understanding the extent and quality of the communication among its members, their sense of community, their emphasis on academic rigor,…

The relationship between attribution processes and academic self-concept is studied among students from four ethnic groups in inner-city high schools, and an explanation as to why low achieving minority students do not report low academic self-concepts is sought in this paper. Questionnaires eliciting self-conceptions and responses to hypothetical…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined selected experiences that six government agencies implemented to help empower or involve frontline employees. The agencies reviewed were as follows: the Federal Aviation Administration; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; the Internal Revenue Service; the Office of Personnel Management; and the…

Annotations of ERIC literature on the learning environment are presented in this document. Materials were selected for inclusion from the ERIC catalogs Resources in Education (RIE) and Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE). The 10 publications are as follows: "School Is for Teachers: Enhancing the School Environment," by Buck Adams and…

This paper demonstrates how educators can improve student learning, increase resources available to schools, and make the teaching profession more attractive without spending additional tax funds. Section 1, "The School as Community Center," analyzes sharing school facilities with community organizations and easing fiscal constraints…

Examines 1,213 Tennessee elementary teachers' responses to 6 organizational indexes to determine effects of school organization and administrative support on teacher commitment. Finds novices needed organizational support for behavioral management and boundary tasks, midcareer teachers needed autonomy and empowerment, whereas veterans' commitment…

The study reported in this monograph, which was conducted jointly by the Australian Council for Educational Research and the Education Department of Victoria, investigated the organization and curriculum of government secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, and how those factors influence what teachers do and what views students have of the…

In the face of fiscal crisis, today's education reform measures must be both cost-efficient and classroom effective. Experience shows that successful measures incorporate lessons gained from the growth years of the 1970's. New teaching practices, for example, can be transferred from site to site; schools can use to their advantage past efforts of…

This paper reports on the development and use of several tools designed to sensitize caregivers to the fact that infants are very different from one another and that caregiving needs to be tailored to the styles and needs of each child. Four approaches were used: (1) having caregivers rate the infants regularly on a small number of rating scales…

The study by Eurydice on the teaching profession, which has been the subject of four reports published in the "Key topics in education in Europe" series, examines the position of teachers in lower secondary education in 30 countries. The first report considered how the initial training of teachers prepared them for their occupation along…

These proceedings contain the texts of 29 papers presented at the ninth Annual Agricultural Education Research Meeting. During the five sessions of the conference, various areas of agricultural education were addressed, such as inservice education, job satisfaction and morale, teacher concerns, national issues, program improvement, preservice…

The following papers are included in this proceedings of a conference on agricultural education: "Misuse of Statistics" (Miller); "Significance of Doctoral Research in Agricultural Education" (Moore, Bailey, Burnett); "Identification of Science-Related Competencies Taught in Vocational Agriculture Programs in…

In spring 1978 National Education Association Research surveyed a national sample of college faculty to obtain estimates of their professional activities, working conditions, characteristics, and opinions. The findings reported here are based on responses from 803 faculty members, or 56.2 of those sampled. Among the findings: the median age of…

Teachers are alienated and dissatisfied with their jobs and often "burn out" because they must work in a bureaucratic structure in which all or most decisions are made by administrators and are expected to be carried out by the professionals, rather than being made by the professionals or in collaboration. This pyramidal structure or organization…