A study of the relative effects of socioeconomic and psychological factors on adult learner dropouts revealed that dropout and persistence are apparently two distinct phenomena. The Social Readjustment Rating Scale was the best significant predictor of dropout. The Differential Aptitude Test was the only significant predictor of achievement. (SB)

Grade 7 student subjects, in a study of solving certain types of word problems found in elementary school mathematics materials, did not reread problems carefully, used only one of eight problem-solving heuristics, and did not check their answers, but were willing to persevere in the problem-solving process. (SB)

The article contrasts the development of secondary schools in Sweden, Finland, and Norway at the end of the nineteenth century and shows how secondary school development was affected by political power structure and conflicts involved in the definition of a national identity for each of the three countries. (SB)

Uses descriptions of two local rural schools to illustrate the problems of developing and legitimizing a general education program in the culturally varied Saami area of Norway. Notes that Saami educational problems include content determination, curriculum organization, materials, and culture conflicts, and are influenced by ethnicity, society,…

Distinguishes between developmental work to bring about change according to a specific organizational theory or organizational development in schools and developmental work based on a rationalistic view of school as an organization or developing schools as organizations. Notes that only the latter can foster real school development. (SB)

Using two specially constructed tests for synonyms and general knowledge, researchers examined the possibility of deciding which test items will produce expected sex-differentiated results by looking at test-item contents. They found stable sex differences but very limited possibilities of identifying the test items leading to those differences.…

Newell and Simon's new theory of thinking is summarized and some educational implications developed. The enaction theory implies that thinking is a skill and should be taught like other skills, by teaching methods of how to perform it. The traditional theory of thinking and its influence are briefly discussed. (Author/MH)

Main traits of the mastery learning theory and its relations to other innovatory approaches are sketched. A Finnish school experiment, with the experimental group (160 first graders) following mastery learning principals, is presented and positive results discussed. Advantages of learning strategy and practical difficulties restricting its…

Discusses aspects of educational integration, using teacher education as an example. Deals mainly with experience of adult students, equipped with work experience, in their encounters with schools of higher learning. Demonstrates complexities embedded in such encounters and in the curriculum problem; discusses with reference to frames of the…

Details the results of four tests comparing the French and English achievement of francophone, anglophone, and mixed subpopulations of fifth-grade students in Edmonton Catholic School System French immersion programs. Discusses the behavioral, cognitive, and academic correlates of language competence of the three subgroups. (SB)

Reports a study of the effect of variables at the personal, school, and district/division level on these aspects of the attitudinal professionalism of 1,205 Manitoba teachers: use of professional organization as major referent, belief in public service, belief in self-regulation, sense of calling to the field, and autonomy. (SB)

Reports results of a comparison of correlational and multidimensional scaling techniques as tools for analyzing the perceptions of three groups of mathematics teachers (at high school, vocational school, and university levels) of the relative importance of curricular objectives. Discusses the relationship of the two analyses and the implications…

Explains Piaget's concepts of "subject-object" and "subsystem" interactions in problem solving and describes a test that substantiates Piaget's hypothesis and points to antecedent conditions that appear to stimulate imaginal structures. (SB)

Describes an examination of the interaction of sustained attention, simultaneous processing, and successive processing with nine variables related to the reading, spelling, and mathematics achievement of 165 elementary students in New South Wales. Results suggest the importance of sustained attention to reading and spelling achievement but not to…

Third-year students in the University of Alberta's B.Ed. elementary generalist program think that the program's practicum is valuable but that the program's organization hampers learning and causes stress. Students feel ambivalent about their own preparedness for student teaching and perceive a discrepancy between the program's professed and…