Staff of special schools are increasingly exposed to violent behavior, in the absence of policy directives from local education authorities and through ambivalent social attitudes in a society which demands that these children be contained and controlled but judges staff responses to the children by the same yardstick applied to mainstreamed…

Critiques Joy Reid's treatment of the concept of "appropriation" by teachers in their responses to student writing and disputes Reid's analysis of the type of influence exerted by both process- and writer-oriented research. The article also warns against extremes of contrastive rhetoric. A response by Reid is included. (Contains 14 references.)…

Reports a study comparing instructional behaviors of physical education teacher education majors across planned and unplanned teaching conditions. Researchers observed teaching behaviors, teaching environments, and learner involvements. Planning positively affected some teachers' instructional behaviors. Planning was important to the employment of…

Describes the fruitful and sometimes challenging collaborations within a small K-8 school district transforming its literacy practices, from the points of view of a fifth-grade teacher and a fourth-grade teacher in two different schools. Discusses the resulting development of literature-based and integrated units in their classrooms. (SR)

Presents four articles addressing various aspects of violence in the context of children's everyday life: video game violence, gun play, violent children's television programming, and war play. Proposes possible developmentally appropriate solutions. Urges teachers, parents, and the community in general to actively work to provide a safer, saner…

Includes "Introduction" (Rakes); "From a Narrow to Expansive Worldview" (Heppner, Duan); "Coping with the Emotions of Job Transition" (Doerr); "Applying Customer Service Strategies to Career Services" (Carter); "Enrollment Management and Career Services" (Heinzen, Rakes); "Career Centers and…

Biases that can influence the validity of tests are discussed, such as (1) cultural biases affecting students from ethnic minorities, and (2) biases that affect students with disabilities including those related to test content, instructional format, motivation or cognitive arousal, competition, and physical access to testing materials and…

The standardization approach to comprehensive differential item functioning is described and contrasted with the log-linear approach to differential distractor functioning and the item-response-theory-based approach to differential alternative functioning. Data from an edition of the Scholastic Aptitude Test illustrate application of the approach…

Two studies evaluated college student response rates to mail surveys. One found that enclosure of raffle tickets improved response rates but only for students living in campus housing. The second study showed that nonrespondents who were telephoned before receiving a second questionnaire mailing were more likely to respond. (Author/MSE)

Assesses beliefs of 32 male and 35 female middle-class preschool children about the frequency and intensity with which girls, boys, women, and men experience anger, sadness, and happiness. Children's beliefs are complex; they vary as a function of the target person's age and sex and of the specific emotion. (SLD)

Early results from the Vermont Portfolio Project, which evaluated the progress of fourth and eighth graders in reading and mathematics using samples of student products, suggests that improvement is still needed in both subjects. Many factors will influence this pilot project's future direction, including availability of resources and development…

Discussion of computer anxiety focuses on a study of undergraduates in an introductory psychology course that assessed the effects of relaxation and coping skills training on their anxiety and performance as they learned to use a spreadsheet program. The influence of the computer's user friendliness was examined, and treatments for the…

Addresses the relationship between reader response and culture. Presents portraits of a teacher and her Black students and White students as they studied a series of African American literary texts, including Virginia Hamilton's "House of Dies Drear" (1968). The reading of this text marked a turning point for the teacher and students.…

Describes a course that integrates U.S. literature and history around key social issues to sensitize students to the need for a more just society and a higher quality of life for all citizens. Discusses the poetry unit that focused on contemporary U.S. poets of color, the teaching methods, and examples of the students' poetry. (PRA)

Investigates the modes of acculturation and response tendencies of 133 adolescents from biethnic families in Athens (Greece) compared to 113 homoethnic Greek adolescents in Athens and 80 homoethnic Greek adolescents living in Germany and The Netherlands. Patterns of acculturation of values differ for adolescents from biethnic and homoethnic…