This paper attempts an overview of language attitude studies through consideration of their history and theoretical basis. Studies of students' language attitudes are examined before a more extensive review is made of teachers' language attitudes, especially their attitudes toward the language of West Indian and Black American students.…

Questionnaires administered to 190 children, ages 9-14, including persistent absentees, measured students' anxiety levels and relationships with parents, teachers, and peers. Academic-ability and parent-status data were gathered from school records. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictive efficiency of these variables…

Describes an experimental project where taped stories were presented to secondary pupils for their formal responses. Responses were correlated with age, IQ, and reading ability. In general, older students had higher appreciation and awareness scores, independent of any formal ability factor. Texts of these Australian stories are appended.…

It was hypothesized that the experimentation and problem solving involved in design lessons were consistent with features of intellectual development stressed by Piaget. An experimental group (27 students) received art lessons stressing spatial concepts and manipulations. Controls studied art conventionally. Experimentals were superior on some of…

The purpose of this article is to discuss some recent developments in the scoring of multiple-choice items from two angles. The first consists of the recent developments in the test instructions of the conventional scoring procedures, and the second consists of a discussion of new scoring methods and formulas. (Author)

The shortcomings of the three main approaches to measuring teacher effectiveness (systematic observation, participant observation, and questionnaires) are discussed and problems of research design and analysis considered. The development of better measures of educational benefits to complement the emphasis on test scores is suggested. (Author/SK)

Research into the effectiveness of open-book examinations has shown that they reduce test anxiety and the need to memorize factual information. An investigation into the effect of using open books in an English literature examination showed that students acquired higher levels of attainment than those who took a traditional test. (SK)

Analyzes some of the educational problems that can arise from teachers' lack of awareness of the systematic differences between standard English and nonstandard dialects. Discusses the serious linguistic and social consequences of the situation in Britain, where most schoolchildren speak nonstandard English. (SK)

This paper discusses a small-scale study of student reaction to a new choice-based modular course structure in the Department of Education, University of York. Implications for university planning in an era of financial and enrollment decline are drawn from these findings on student choice of courses. (SJL)

Analysis of the use made by 93 British primary school teachers of the word 'commitment' revealed that they were using it in four different senses--as caring, a concern for occupational competence, personal identification as teacher, and career-continuance. All suggest different motives for entering and remaining in teaching. (Author)

This empirical inquiry investigates the establishment of off-site school support units for disruptive pupils in one division of the Inner London Education Authority. An attempt is made to analyze the problems experienced by the teachers and head teachers in establishing the units. (Author)

The pictorial art work of 13-year-old children was assessed by three experienced art teachers on each of six aspects of artistic performance (color, space, pattern, imagery, affect and composition). A significant interaction was found between field-independence, extraversion, and art measure in their effect on art performance. (Author/SJL)

Using 40 university students, the author studied the effect of a summary on recall of a reading passage. Four conditions were compared: beginning summary on same page as main passage, beginning summary on separate page, end summary, and no summary. Subjects using end and separate page summaries demonstrated greater recall. (SJL)

Reports construction of a questionnaire for measuring secondary students' attitudes toward learning French. Suggests that the instrument may be easily adapted to other languages. An appendix provides a list of scaled items on the questionnaire. (SJL)

This inquiry had two aims: to assess children's ability to interpret maps in geography; to relate the assessed ability to maturity of thought as proposed by Peel, general intelligence, and age. It was found that performance on four tests depended more on intelligence than on maturity of thought or age. (Author/SJL)