Hypotheses from self-efficacy theory in the area of children's arithmetic achievement were tested. It was hypothesized that compared with didactic instruction, cognitive modeling would result in higher arithmetic achievement, self-efficacy, and accuracy of self-appraisal. (Author/GK)

This article showed that students demonstrate individual differences in their composition of text. It was found that noncontingent students tended to write more creative essays and used more text-creative or schema-creative propositions in composing their descriptions than did the other two register groups (imitative and contingent). (Author/GK)

Three strategies for controlling concentration during academic tasks were evaluated: (1) self-initiated relaxation; (2) self-coaching; and (3) a combination of the first two types. Results indicated that the third strategy, significantly facilitated some aspects of academic performance. (Author/GK)

High school discussion classes were tape-recorded and the duration of student utterances timed. No significant difference was observed between response to teacher questions and response to declarative statements. Response to questions appeared unrelated to selected characteristics of classroom, teacher, and student. The efficacy of teacher…

Attitudes toward the profession were determined among different aged teachers and students enrolled in teacher education programs. No age differences in attitudes among the teacher samples were found but intergroup differences in attitudes were found between students and teachers. These results support Neugarten's hypothesis concerning effect of…

College students read prose passages and answered either verbatim or paraphrased inserted questions while reading under review or no review conditions. On a posttest students who received paraphrased questions outperformed students who received verbatim questions. This result supported the contention that paraphrased adjunct questions could…

It is argued that educational psychology courses need not be restricted to the domain of research inquiry and teacher education. Instead, educational psychology can and should be part of an undergraduate liberal arts education. This thesis is defended on the basis of pragmatic and scholarly concerns. (Author/RD)

A longitudinal study of first graders found that children had a more internal locus of control, were more optimistic, and scored higher on an effectance motivation measure at the end of first grade than at the beginning but attitudes and self-esteem did not change. Some changes were effected by SES and academic success. (AtuhorRD)

Two experiments on multiple-choice assessment of students learning from sentences were conducted. Interference arising from intersentence similarity was a function of both the kind of learning strategies students were instructed to employ and the kind of strategies they reported having employed spontaneously. Implications for test construction and…

College students wrote summaries of short passages to assess their ability to identify important information. Naive summaries judged as "better" contained more major semantic roles, such as agent, than did summaries judged "not as good". Students wrote better summaries when instructed to use major semantic roles within the passage. (Author/RD)

Context orientation and depth of processing were tested as possible explanations for thematic organization. The process of searching for the theme of prose passages was detrimental to recall. Theme statements facilitated recall when provided prior to each passage. The theme search process was beneficial only when the correct theme was identified.…

Effects of individual and group contingencies on reading performance of special education students were examined in a counterbalanced multiple-baseline design with experimental manipulations introduced at random. Students evidenced more accuracy and preferred the group contingency phase. Ease of implementation of group contingencies within a…

The confluence model of cognitive development was tested on 7,060 children. Family size, sibling order within family sizes, and hypothesized age-dependent effects were tested. Findings indicated an inverse relationship between family size and the cognitive measures; age-dependent effects and other confluence variables were found to be…

Combined teacher ratings of perceived cognitive competence and misbehavior accounted for the most variance in peer acceptance or rejection of educable mentally handicapped children. Ratings of academic competence were associated with both acceptance and rejection of educationally handicapped children (a category of low achievers used in…

A program title and an advance organizer were used in presenting affective television materials to large college-level classes of beginning v advanced chemistry. Results showed that the advance organizer significantly increased student comprehension but had negative affective consequences. Students' perceptions of the material's value and…