Argues that academe is a culture which is characterized by values, goals, and ways of working which are fundamentally at odds with laissez-faire individualism, profit, market-forces, and competition. Asserts that academe cannot be squeezed into conformity with the prevailing conservative political culture which advocates privatization and reduced…

This article describes a four year research project which investigated how a system of democratized primary school government, in which parents were prominent, was functioning. Findings suggest that the democratized government was an effective, acceptable, and practical reform. States that strategies and guidelines may be drawn from this example.…

Investigated the attitudes of 80 first-year teacher education students towards lesbian women, gay men, and "homosexuality and education" using specially constructed scales. Results showed significant differences in the attitudes of male and female students. An attempt to alter the students' views is reported and the scales for measuring the…

Describes a research-based part-time Master's degree program which recruited teams of practicing teachers. Research revealed that the nature of the team collaboration did not meet the program's expectations. Teachers' reflections and actions were predominately individualistic, due to constraints in the program itself and the culture of schools.…

Reports on the methodology of an evaluation of an industrial resource materials database intended for use in secondary science and mathematics courses. Due to time and budget constraints, the methodology involved the use of a postal questionnaire followed by telephone interviews. (Author/JDH)

Reports a study designed to assess whether students coming from a conservative Catholic background move toward liberal values under the influence of a college and whether they move back toward traditional Catholic values at the end of their four-year degree. Concludes that early adolescence values formation is more crucial than college…

Demonstrates that some commonly used indices can be misleading in their quantification of reliability. The effects are most pronounced on gain or difference scores. Proposals are made to avoid sources of invalidity by using a procedure to assess reliability in terms of upper and lower limits for the true scores of each examinee. (Author/JDH)

The purpose of this review is to discuss the historical and contemporary reasons why scholarship on rural education has been relatively underdeveloped in the United States. Brief surveys of current initiatives and emerging rural education scholarship are presented. (RB)

Article critically reviews the research literature on peer modeling among children as a function of model attributes. Conditions under which perceived similarity causes behavioral change are discussed. (RB)

This article examines the literature on achievement effects of practical applications of grouped-based mastery learning in elementary and secondary schools. The review found no evidence to support the claim that mastery learning improves student performance on standardized achievement measures. (RB)

Responds to R. Slavin's best-evidence synthesis of research on mastery learning. Contends that at the heart of decisions about education are value judgments about how the mind should be cultivated and for what goal. (RB)

Discusses R. Slavin's best-evidence synthesis method as an alternative to traditional meta-analysis and review techniques. Explains the inherent weaknesses of the technique Slavin uses and how the techniques can be misused. (RB)

In this rejoinder, R. Slavin responds to a broad range of technical and philosophical issues about his use of best-evidence synthesis to research the effectiveness of mastery learning. (RB)

The effects of adjunct postquestions in an individualized training course were tested. Percent of adjunct questions identical to the lesson and final test questions was varied in four conditions: no questions, 0 percent, 50 percent, and 100 percent identical. The 100 percent group was superior on all measures. (Author/GK)

Degree objectives of prospective graduate students from eight ethnic groups were investigated using the Graduate Record Examinations(GRE) registrant population of 1976-1977. GRE scores, undergraduate grade point average (GPA), and being a male were important predictors of students' expectations of obtaining a doctor's rather than a master's…