Offers recollections of boarding school experiences that encouraged students to think negatively about their own language. Highlights efforts at Sinte Gleska University to integrate language and culture in training Lakota linguists and teachers. Presents recommendations and warnings about Lakota language instruction in public schools. (DMM)

Underscores the need for specialized native teacher training programs, describing university and community college programs fulfilling this need. Discusses the necessary anthropological, sociological, and historical foundations of Native American education. Highlights instructional methodologies for native students, including culturally responsive…

This study found that, in the early stages of joint participation in community recreation activities, 19 nondisabled adults expressed cautious yet optimistic attitudes toward developing "friendships" with people with mental retardation. Such friendships are often perceived to be based partly on obligation and/or altruism. (DB)

Twenty-two children (ages 5-8) with mild mental retardation who received learning set instruction on unidimensional classification and seriation improved on these precursors to concrete operations; 22 children who received more conventional instruction did not. Improvement on classification and seriation was accompanied by improvement on measures…

Comparison of 80 "good" and 80 "poor" readers of either average intellectual ability or with mild mental retardation found relatively consistent differences between "good" and "poor" readers in each sample. The "poor" readers in each sample met the discrepancy standard for learning disability. (Author/DB)

This article describes the development of special education in East Germany from the close of World War II through the cold war period, and examines the problems and challenges currently facing special education in a reunified Germany. These include a lack of infrastructure, economic needs, staffing problems, and needed curriculum changes. (DB)

Finnish special-education teachers (n=135) rated five sentences written by an 11-year-old student either labeled or not labeled as being in a special class for educable mentally retarded (EMR) students. Results indicated that the EMR label diminished teachers' ratings and that teacher dogmatism and pessimistic stereotype correlated negatively with…

A teaching procedure incorporated high-probability request sequences to increase low-probability communication behaviors of a 4-year old and an 8-year old with severe disabilities. Findings included increases in communication responses by both participants, as well as increases in unprompted communication responses by one participant. (Author/DB)

Effects of a community-based progressive resistance physical training program on simulated work productivity were evaluated with six students (mean age 17 years) having moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Strength values increased from preprogram to postprogram assessment. Mean values for all work productivity tasks increased during the…

Examines the complexities of doing collaborative action research by presenting examples of research efforts on a continuum. Describes the progress from university domination of research to practitioner-directed action research conducted by teachers. Includes a figure illustrating a continuum of approaches to collaborative research. (CFR)

Maintains that most of the questions that have concerned arts educators have remained basically the same. Contends that issues of cultural pluralism have been added to these questions. Presents and discusses issues of art and music education in New York City and the role of action research. (CFR)

Reports on the effects of expressive variation in dynamics on the musical preferences of 45 middle school students. Finds that students preferred the expressive version of 10 folk songs. Concludes that expressive interpretation and performance may stimulate a wide range of positive student responses. (CFR)

Reports on a study of the effects of an aural-oral pitch matching training program on aural pitch discrimination among 96 sixth-grade string students. Finds that the students who used the TAP Pitch Master Machine made statistically significant gains in pitch discrimination. (CFR)

Reports on a study of high school students' perceptions about the importance of academic and sociocultural factors to their participation in college level music and the relationship of these factors to the higher education recruitment process. Finds significant differences related to race, years of experience in a musical group, grade level, and…

Reports a study that evaluated the appropriateness and effectiveness of a self-help manual for postsecondary education students who used smokeless tobacco. Students participated in groups that received either two or four sessions of support for using the self-help manual. Results indicated both groups produced similar cessation rates. (SM)