Phonemic awareness tasks are identified: sound-to-word matching, word-to-word matching, rhyme recognition, isolation segmentation, counting sounds, blending, deletion, and substitution. Methods for teaching segmentation and blending, the most cortical tasks, are discussed. (Author/CP)

Twelve first-grade children were tested on word-reading and automaticity of letter and word processing. Word-reading speed increased steadily during the year. Apparently, their ability to process letters automatically was acquired prior to the ability to read words rapidly and accurately. (Author/CP)

In the first drill, the branching type, subjects received problems matched to their ability. In the second drill, the fixed type, subjects received problems from all difficulty levels. Performance on both the pretest and posttest indicated that the fixed drill yielded the highest gains for more difficult problems. (Author/CP)

This study examined differential expectancy effects as a function of teachers' susceptibility to biasing information and distinctions between positive ("Galatea effects") and negative ("Golem effects") outcomes of teacher expectancies. Patterns of differential, negative expectancy effects were evident not only in teachers' behavior but also in…

The relationship between interaction and achievement in cooperative small groups was studied in four junior high school mathematics classrooms. The interaction variable that related most strongly to achievement was asking a question and receiving no response; this type of interaction was negatively related to achievement. (Author/BW)

Two groups of junior high teachers were identified as being more or less effective in their classroom management practices. Observational data collected from these teachers in the first three weeks of the year indicate that the beginning of the year is a crucial time for establishing effective classroom management. (Author/BW)

Female college students were given a training task involving anagrams, mathematical problems, perceptual identifications, or all three. Results indicate that increasing the variety of training tasks at high or low levels of required effort contributes to the student's abstraction of a general principle concerning degree of effort required for…

Four experiments examined the "distinctiveness of encoding" hypothesis with respect to recall of text materials. Specifically, they investigated: (1) recall of distinctively versus nondistinctively encoded material; (2) readers' interactions with the semantic base of the text; (3) encoding and recall of semantic content; and (4) the role of…

Six classes of fifth- and sixth-grade students were taught a unit on probability. Following the lesson, students were interviewed about their thought processes. Students' reports of their understanding of the lesson and their use of specific cognitive strategies were related to achievement. (Author/BW)

Children who lacked subtraction skills received didactic training in subtraction with effort attributional feedback concerning past achievement, with feedback concerning future achievement, or with no feedback. Results showed that attributional feedback for past achievement led to more rapid progress in mastering subtraction operations, greater…

In two experiments, college students wrote preliminary and final drafts of a persuasive document. Elimination of sentence-formation and sequence operations produced corresponding increments in persuasive argument production, with average-ability writers benefiting more than low-ability writers. Comparatively few new arguments were constructed…

The relative contribution of undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) and the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) to predicting academic performance in each of three years of law school was investigated. The LSAT makes its greatest contribution in early years and UGPA in later years. (Author/BW)

The relative effectiveness of three measures of teacher expectations for predicting students' achievement was studied. Teachers' perceptions of student ability and the discrepancy between teacher-perceived ability and student-tested ability were related to achievement change. The amount of improvement the teacher expected was unrelated to the…

Puerto Rican students took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), the Prueba de Aptitud Academica (PAA), and the Pruebas de Aprovechamiento Academico. The strength of the relationship between scores on the SAT given in English and the PAA given in Spanish increased as proficiency in English as a second language increased (Author/BW)

The Interpersonal Relationship Assessment Technique was developed and the relationship between academic tracking and degree of cross-ethnic acceptance in integrated homeroom classes was examined. Among 2,323 Israeli junior high students, the degree of cross-ethnic acceptance was positively related to the academic status of evaluated classmates.…