This study explored the changing nature of post-secondary students' situational demands and how students of different ages cope with those demands. The study proceeded by tracking episodes of demands and coping throughout an academic year with a sample of 56 students enrolled at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (Canada) in 2-year…

This issue of "Teachergram" addresses media-related issues such as the kind of world picture Canadians receive from mainstream media, the ability of television to describe the complexity of world events, and the claim of distorted and simplistic portrayal of developing nations. Students are encouraged critical perspective--to help them…

Problems of validity and reliability of concept mapping are addressed by using item-response theory (IRT) models for scoring. In this study, the overall structure of students' concept maps are defined by the number of links, the number of hierarchies, the number of cross-links, and the number of examples. The study was conducted with 92 students…

A benefit of using the multifaceted Rasch model is the ability to factor out or control for confounding factors in the estimation of person ability and item difficulty. This study experiments with a variation of the multifaceted Rasch analysis in calibrating the effects of demographic characteristics that are intended to overcome the problem of…

As part of a longitudinal study of the growth of general medical knowledge among osteopathic medical students, a simple, convenient, and accurate vertical equating method was developed for constructing a scale for medical achievement. It was believed that Parts 1, 2, and 3 of the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners' (NBOME) examination…

This paper discusses the competency space approach to diagnosing misconceptions, skill, and knowledge acquisition. In some approaches that combine misconceptions, skill, and knowledge acquisition, the latent ability theta is used more or less as an insignificant element, but in the competency space approach, a multidimensional latent space is…

This book is about teaching and learning the English language and about using children's literature to support that teaching and learning in K-8 classrooms. The book is organized to help preservice teachers first develop a knowledge of language, and then examine the ways in which teachers can teach and children can learn about language. Chapters…

This ERIC/RCS Special Collection contains 10 or more Digests (brief syntheses of the research on a specific topic in contemporary education) and FAST Bibs (Focused Access to Selected Topics--annotated bibliographies with selected entries from the ERIC database), providing up-to-date information in an accessible format. The collection focuses on…

This paper describes the experience of a fourth- and fifth-grade, first-year teacher's participation in the Book Club Project of the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects. The Book Club included the use of high-quality children's literature, opportunities for response to literature in multiple ways, and instruction that…

When students are learning to write, one-to-one teacher-student conversations taking place around the students' writing and writing processes are especially important. Two examples illustrate the multiple and connected processes of reading and writing that are associated with composing in a high school English class. The first conversation, in a…

Item components that might contribute to the difficulty of items on the Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) and the Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) were studied. Subjects providing responses to CPM items were 269 children aged 2 years 9 months to 11 years 8 months, most of whom were referred for testing as potentially gifted. A second…

The problem of discipline has consistently headed the list of concerns of secondary education students enrolled in and graduated from Northern Arizona University's College of Education. To address this issue, the Lee Canter Model of Assertive Discipline was adopted in the preservice training program. This model calls for specific, observable rules…

This article describes how the Problem of the Week Environment at the Math Forum online mathematics resource allows K-8 preservice teachers who are enrolled in mathematics content problem solving-classes to experience the process of reading, evaluating, and replying to young problem solvers' work with thoughtful comments and effective hints. This…

Including only selections that have employed some systematic analysis of readers' responses to literary texts, this annotated bibliography lists 203 research studies. The selections date from 1970 through 1988. The bibliography is divided into sections on the following topics: (1) reader variables (subdivided into orientation, development, and…

This paper provides the groundwork for Active Affective Learning and teaching adapted to the needs of the disadvantaged, at-risk students served by the Accelerated Schools Movement. One of the "golden rules" for the practice of Accelerated Learning, according to psychiatrist Georgi Lozanov, has been to maintain an "up-beat"…