Does homework work? Homework is the cause of more friction between school and home than any other aspect of education and becomes the prime battlefield when schools, families, and communities view one another as adversaries. This comprehensive third edition tackles all the tough questions: What's the right amount of homework? What role should…

Since the late 1960's, researchers have been concerned with the influence of teacher expectations on student performance. Teacher expectations generally can be categorized into three types: assessments of ability, predictions of progress, and natural discrepancies between teacher estimates and actual student performance. Expectations can have the…

This paper examines the research on how student-to-instructor ratio effects influence schooling, with particular attention to how the research relates to low-achieving children. It also summarizes the conclusions of several existing reviews of literature on: the effects on schooling outcomes of class or instructional group size; and scheduled,…

The process of research synthesis is examined in this paper. The results of a case study of what happens to the attitudes of six experts in the field of school desegregation and black achievement when they interactively review the relevant research literature are presented. The impact of these subjects' resulting reviews on the attitudes of a less…

A taxonomy for literature reviews in education and psychology is presented. The increased use of the descriptor "literature review" in ERIC and Psychological Abstracts documents between 1969 and 1983 is cited as creating the need for categorization. The taxonomy categorizes reviews according to focus, goal, perspective, coverage,…

Theoretical and practical implications of the proposition that teachers' differential behavior toward high and low expectation students serves a control function were tested. As predicted, initial performance expectations were found related to later perceptions of control over performance, even when the initial relationship between expectations…

The concept that teacher beliefs about future student achievement may actually influence the subsequent performance of students provides the basis for a model of teacher expectation communication which uses attribution theory as explanatory links in the communication process. These model links were tested in a two-year study involving 16 third-,…

The hypothesis that teachers criticize low-expectation students in order to control reinforcement schedules was tested. Teacher expectation, teacher perception of control, criticism of students, academic behavior, and student perception of teacher response to student effort were examined in six primary grade classes. Implications concerning…

Research review is conceptualized as a scientific inquiry involving five stages that parallel those of primary research. The functions, sources of variance, and potential threats to validity associated with each stage are described. (Author/PN)

Research on the effects of teacher expectations on student performance is reviewed. A model is proposed, based on previous research, or, where more speculation is involved, on identifiable hypotheses. (MH)

The effects of record-card-type information on performance expectations were examined. Expectations based solely on preobservational information (standardized tests, previous teachers, family, physical characteristics) were positively related to the quality of the reported performance. Implications for the public concern over record card…

Extensive research has been conducted examining the effects of teacher expectations on student performance, revealing reasonably consistent patterns of differential behavior by teachers toward high and low expectation students. Few theories which integrate isolated research findings into a causal sequence have emerged, however. One such model…

Fourteen classrooms were grouped according to environmental format (open/mixed/traditional) and differences in teacher-student interaction patterns and perceptions of responsibility for outcomes assessed. As predicted, open classrooms showed the highest percentage of dyadic interactions. Also as predicted, open classrooms tended to show the lowest…

Teachers' perceptions of personal classroom control with high- and low-ability students were examined, using five hypothetical classroom contexts. Results indicated that high ability students were perceived as more controllable than low-ability students, and teacher-initiated interactions as providing more control than student-initiated…