Student objectives do not always coincide with curricular labels that reflect statutory language or the public's agenda for community colleges. Studies show that nearly half of the students enrolled in so-called transfer curricula may have no intention of transferring, and that sizeable percentages of students enrolled in occupational courses go…

Reported at a symposium generally concerned with values and adolescents are discussions of (1) socialization issues and the impact of values on adolescents, and (2) dimensions of Asian youths' confrontation with the problem of modernization. In the first study (by Jan de Witt), the conceptual shift in socialization research to a focus on…

This paper provides an up-to-date review of the relationship between item response theory (IRT) and (nonlinear) common factor theory and draws out of this relationship some implications for current and future research in IRT. Nonlinear common factor analysis yields a natural embodiment of the weak principle of local independence in appropriate…

Given what is known about cognitive development, how well prepared are 4-year-old children to succeed in school? This paper addresses the question by describing three areas in cognitive development, highlighting major themes in the research, and suggesting implications for teaching practice and social policy. Classical and contemporary views of…

Current U.S. policies toward Central American nations motivated this examination of the presentation of the region in 12 social studies textbooks. In order to determine if each text's treatment of Central America was representative of the entire book, three regions, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean were selected for comparison purposes. The…

The needs assessment literature has not systematically addressed the special problems involved in evaluating the mental health needs of children. In an attempt to provide a low-cost, comprehensive approach to assessing these needs, a multi-modal design, which sampled the impressions of parents and key informants, along with agency and government…

Believing that an individual's development is strongly influenced by the way the person perceives his or her environment, Kurt Lewin had a strong influence on the theoretical foundations of social-emotional climate research. Lewin's theories may be compared with the following basic theoretical foundations of social climate research: symbolic…

Fifteen teachers who have conducted group or individual action research projects were interviewed to identify factors which promote and, at times, limit teachers' efforts to conduct action research studies. Interviews which ranged from 45 to 90 minutes focused on teachers' definitions of research, their involvement in research projects, support…

Because self-directed learning behaviors are inherently interwoven within a foundation of lifespan cognitive and contextual characteristics, researchers must examine the theory and application of self-directed learning not just as an externally-defined or self-perceived process but also as an internal process of continual development grounded in a…

Initial difficulties in the process of teaching 6 first-grade teachers to use reciprocal teaching in their classes, and the disappointing outcomes of the instruction, led researchers to several conclusions. Researchers realized that the beliefs teachers held about the nature of knowledge and the process of knowledge acquisition had a powerful role…

The relatively simple question of whether sex differences exist has evolved into the more theoretically interesting question of why sex differences occur. This transition has come about because of the meta-analytic investigations of sex differences in social behavior which established sex difference trends in a variety of social behaviors. Many…

In a longitudinal study, subject attrition constitutes a potential threat to the usefulness of data collected from subjects remaining in later waves of the study. If attrition is selective, then the sample at later waves of the study may be representative of a different population than that represented at the outset of the study. This study…

In response to a frequently articulated call for "ecological" validity from instructional communication investigations, this paper reports on methodological issues which evolved during the development and application of a coding scheme for content analyzing teacher compliance-gaining messages. Starting with a consideration of the…

The paper states that quantification is neither ethical nor unethical, but is ethically neutral. It is the behavior or intent of the human being that is clearly a matter of ethical concern. Like numerology and the sects of inumerates and qualitatives, there is not so much an unethical practice that is supported as there is a lack of vision and…

A review of studies on effective principals reveals that a number of methodological problems have prevented the accumulation of findings adequate to producing well developed models of instructional leadership and its effects on school outcomes. Problems of measurement and research design in the existing literature are reviewed and suggestions for…