The Checklist of Instructional Characteristics (CLIC) was assessed by examining potential contaminating factors (class size, presentation format, students' initial interest, and personal impression of the instructor) and instructional outcomes (outcome interest, course performance, and self-reported learning). The relationships between the CLIC…

Data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 indicate that women are more likely to withdraw only in two year colleges and that whites are more likely to withdraw than blacks. High school program, college grades, and educational aspiration are significantly related to withdrawal, but receipt of financial aid is not.…

The effects of school size and school plant utilization on pupil costs of maintenance and operation (M & O) in a large city school system in the South were investigated. School size is significantly and negatively related to pupil costs of M & O. Utilization rate, computed by dividing average daily attendance by the design capacity of the school…

To examine how survival rates change with time, each cohort of new entrants to the public school teaching profession between 1968 and 1976 was examined. Results replicated Charters' downward sloping survival curve, although the curve has shifted up steadily through time. The survival rate differential between men and women is decreasing over time.…

Three aptitude factor scores for each of 2,985 college bound urban high school seniors were used to compare patterns and levels of performance by sex and ethnic group membership. Significant differences in levels of performance between Blacks, Hispanics, Caucasian Jewish, and Caucasian Gentile were found on factors labeled Verbal, Reasoning, and…

From a sample of eighth-grade pupils, 96 class clowns were identified and compared to a sample of 237 nonclown classmates. Clowns were predominantly males, and were seen by their teachers to be higher than nonclowns in Asserting, Unruliness, Attention Seeking, Leadership, and Cheerfulness, and to be lower in Accomplishing. (Author/CP)

According to confluence theory, a child is helped or hindered in intellectual development according to the average absolute intelligence (mental age) in the family when the child is born. An analysis of test scores, family information, and socioeconomic data of 36,000 college applicants in Colombia failed to support this theory. (Author/CP)

Experienced teachers had 90 minutes to think aloud and plan the lesson before an experimental teaching session. Most planning decisions concerned lesson content rather than objective-setting, student diagnosis, or instructional strategy. Planning differences were related to teachers' cognitive styles and abilities. Relationships between planning,…

As predicted, foods from categories typical of most people's restaurant schemata (conceptual framework) were better recalled by undergraduates who read a restaurant narrative, than those reading about supermarkets, a less structured schemata. Findings confirm Ausubel's notion that information which fits slots in a conceptual framework is more…

The judges usefulness and objectivity of a simulated evaluation report and client agreement with the report's recommendations were examined as functions of the evaluator's simulated professional background and the client's status, Apparently, source and audience characteristics influence client ratings of the evaluator but do not effect changes in…

Teachers with direct and indirect teaching styles were paired with students who were high or low on social-emotional development, to create congruent and incongruent matches. Congruency was consistently related to instructional outcome with the effect strongest for student affect, followed by achievement, and then attention to task. Findings…

Several hypotheses were tested: (1) task behavior in a Montessori classroom and an experimental activity are correlated; (2) teacher criticism causes low task persistence in both situations; and (3) praise causes higher involvement in both situations. Results confirmed all hypotheses except that between classroom reward and experimental…

Within three Liberal Arts departments, this study examined intercorrelations among college instructors' self ratings. Although instructors saw some relationship between their abilities and student outcomes, none of the correlations were especially large. The more instructors said that they enjoyed teaching, the more they estimated the amount of…

Teacher effectiveness was defined by students' mathematics score on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills while achievement was measured by the Cognitive Abilities Test. Relatively effective teachers generally produced achievement gains from all aptitude levels. Similarly, relatively ineffective teachers did not disproportionately depress achievement for…

Thirty physical education students and 30 music education students read a passage which could be given two distinct interpretations. Multiple-choice test scores, theme-revealing disambiguations and instrusions in free recall indicate that high-level schemata provide the interpretive framework for comprehending discourse. Schema theory and its…