The paper discusses theories and ideologies that paved the way for the Nazi treatment of the handicapped, national socialist health and racial policies regarding deviance, the use of propaganda to support national socialist policy, legalization of the sterilization of deviants, and the role of special education under national socialism. (JDD)

The study attempted to identify activities performed by 47 job developers that positively or negatively influenced job placement. Variance in job placement was influenced by marketing activities, available job development time, use of specific client assessment procedures, frequency of use of trial job placements, and gender of the job developers.…

Four students (ages 10-14) with moderate mental retardation learned chained tasks with constant time delay and with the system of least prompts. Both strategies produced criterion-level performance; however, constant time delay was more efficient than least prompts in terms of number of sessions, percent of errors, and direct instructional time to…

Six preschool children with moderate mental retardation were placed in dyads to study their reciprocal interactions. Following a teacher-mediated intervention procedure, children displayed noticeable increases in the number and length of interactions during instruction, but generalization to free play varied among participants. (Author/JDD)

Analysis of data from direct observations of 12 special education teachers found that, compared to simply providing children with opportunities to play, consistent implementation of specific teaching, planning, and monitoring procedures to promote social interaction resulted in greater increases in children's interactions during free play.…

Client satisfaction of 57 mentally retarded adults living in 12 group homes was examined in relationship to measures of their managers' competence and program normalization. Satisfaction with group home placement was related to manager competence and to the degree of community use for group home residents. (Author/JDD)

The relative effectiveness of 3 instructional procedures (sight word, fading, tactile-kinesthetic) in teaching 32 students (age 9-20) with moderate to severe mental retardation to read a series of monosyllabic words was investigated. No one experimental condition was superior to the others, and no skill acquisition differences were found in…

Three adolescents with moderate mental handicaps were taught bedmaking skills through a technique which involved dividing the entire chain into sections, teaching the first section in a total cycle fashion, and adding instruction on subsequent sections in a forward chaining manner. The technique promoted skill acquisition and substantial…

The study evaluated the effects of enabling two profoundly, multiply handicapped adults to select leisure items with which they wanted to interact. Results showed that when individuals were able to make choices, their rates of interacting with leisure materials increased, compared to interaction with instructor-selected items. (Author/JDD)

The article and response to a critique (EC 232 395) discuss how cooperative learning (emphasizing group goals and individual accountability), the limited use of acceleration by extremely able learners, and differentiation within classes can reduce tracking and separate enrichment programs while meeting the needs of gifted students in the regular…

In response to Slavin (EC 232 394), the article examines the research on cooperative learning with academically talented students and considers the potential for abuse of cooperative learning as an educational provision for this population. Limitations of cooperative instruction such as use of grade level materials and evaluation primarily on…

The emphasis of middle school philosophy on heterogeneous grouping is examined in relationship to the needs of gifted learners. Arguments supporting such grouping based on developmental needs of young adolescents, social discrimination, and the need for positive role models are considered. Cooperative learning is seen to be an unproven…

Implications of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' program of voluntary teacher certification for excellent experienced teachers on the field of gifted education are considered. Noted is the importance of determination of competencies for both teachers of the gifted and classroom teachers serving the gifted in the regular…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM), a system intended to nurture behavioral giftedness without reliance on gifted identification procedures. The study found SEM positively influenced the attitudes of elementary school students (n=1,935) in six middle class schools. SEM may provide schoolwide benefits…

Technological tools (e.g., electronic data bases, computer-aided instructional software, interactive video systems, spreadsheets, simulation and modeling software, graphic calculators) can work toward making learning more independent, individualized, interactive, interdisciplinary, and intuitive. (DB)