The relationship between supervisory behavior and staff burnout was tested in two schools for severely retarded children. In the lower burnout school, the principal spent less time in classroom observations, more time planning and coordinating activities, interacted more with her own superior, and discussed work-related problems more than…

The frequency of interactions with teachers and peers in two groups of preschool children (nine mildly/moderately handicapped, nine nonhandicapped) were observed. For both, positive temperament patterns increased interactions with peers and, for nonhandicapped, also increased child-teacher interactions. Teachers interacted more with those…

The definition of progress as applied to writing research and practice is examined, and three different approaches to understanding the writing of exceptional children are considered: a literal approach, an interpretive approach, and an evaluative approach. The scientific and social implications of each of the approaches are considered.…

Research-based recommendations for an effective writing instruction program for exceptional students include, among others, allocate a sufficient amount of instruction time; expose students to a broad range of writing tasks; integrate writing with other academic subjects; develop the processes of planning, sentence generation, and revising; and…

The expository writing difficulties of exceptional students are examined in relationship to the writing process, expository text structures, and students' metacognitive knowledge. Approaches to the teaching of expository writing are discussed, and a dialogic approach, involving teacher modeling and a series of think sheets, is described.…

The theoretical bases of process-oriented approaches for teaching writing to mildly handicapped students are described. Instructional features of such approaches include opportunities for sustained writing, establishment of a writing community, student selection of topics, modeling of the writing process and strategic thinking, reflective thinking…

Assessment of writing skills must focus on the writing product to satisfy four educational functions: identifying unsuccessful writers, planning instruction, monitoring student progress, and providing feedback. Both qualitative and quantitative measures for five important aspects of the writing product are discussed: fluency, content, conventions,…

The paper discusses: features of word processors and their impact on the writing process and the social context for writing; research on word processors in schools and the potential instructional role of extensions to word processors, such as spelling and style checkers, synthesized speech output, computer networks, and interactive prompting…

This paper reviews two theoretical approaches (cognitive-developmental and functional-interactive) to the study of the writing of bilingual exceptional children and discusses their implications for effective writing instruction. Also described are two illustrative research projects, one employing the dialogue-journal technique on a microcomputer…

This paper describes a program that systematically increases the composition productivity of disabled students who are inexperienced writers. Program features include building discourse units, using student-generated language, and incorporating self-evaluation. Procedures for small group instruction focus on constructing and testing clauses,…

Guidelines are provided for evaluating research on the process approach to the teaching of writing to exceptional children. Focus is on the roles of the teacher and the learner. Suggestions are presented for further research, specifically in the areas of fluency, the functions of writing, and the effects of instruction. (Author/JDD)

Results showed that under research conditions, gifted students in the experimental population did significantly better than average students in the experimental and control groups. (Author/SBH)

Great Britain established a committee under the chairpersonship of Mary Warnock to investigate special education which resulted in a report (the Warnock Report) making recommendations for serving the handicapped. Among the issues considered are categorization, integration, early education, assessment, teacher training, and financial resources.…

There is little evidence implicating genetics, social learning, and organic factors as causes of hyperactivity. Environmental factors such as lead poisoning and, in particular, food additives show a somewhat stronger association with hyperactivity. (Author)

Among findings were that 45 percent of the average teachers were in their first or second year of teaching their current exceptionality, whereas only 22 percent of the superior teachers indicated such limited experience and more extensive preservice practicum experiences were associated with a greater number of superior teachers. (Author/SBH)