Recent negotiations to amend the tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin would require Wisconsin students attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus to pay a tuition surcharge. Simulations of how the proposed changes would affect enrollment and revenue showed that the proposed surcharge would not adversely…

Discusses the role of the academic dean and its conflicting pressures of administration and scholarship. Reports on the first phase of a study exploring the sources of stress experienced by 825 deans in both Australia and the United States. Analyzes findings in terms of a four-component managerial stress model and provides tables detailing deans'…

Presents a study that investigates the effect of different melodic configurations on an Orff xylophone on how children compose and on the musical characteristics of their compositions. Focuses on fourth grade students (n=48) who lacked education in musical composition and who composed a song on the xylophone. (CMK)

Examines the effects that modeling, self-evaluation, and self-listening have on the music performance and attitudes about practice of junior high school students in the seventh (n=36), eighth (n=31), or ninth (n=15) grades who play woodwind, brass, and percussion instruments. Includes references. (CMK)

Presents a study that explored the relationship between music and nonmusic majors' real-time responses to a piece of twentieth century music. Explains that the undergraduate nonmusic majors and undergraduate and graduate music majors manipulated a Continuous Response Digital Interface dial. (CMK)

Examines listeners' perceptions of musical intensity in nine excerpts of orchestral music in order to compare two measures of overall effect in music. Explains that two assessments were used: (1) recording subjects' responses as they listened to music excerpts; and (2) recording subjects' ratings of intensity. (CMK)

Examined 2- to 5-year-olds' play with peers in their child care classroom and on the playground. Found that children were more likely to engage in interactive dramatic play outdoors than indoors. Outdoors, older children were more likely to interact with peers than were younger children. Outdoors offered older children functional and dramatic play…

Explored preschoolers' solitary-active play in the presence of peers as a marker for maladjustment among 153 children. Found that, compared to peers, children with frequent solitary-active behaviors were temperamentally less attentive, were more difficult to soothe, behaved more shyly, displayed more externalizing problems, performed more poorly…

This longitudinal study correlated block play performance at age 4 to mathematics achievement for third-, fifth-, and seventh-graders, and high school students. No correlation was found between block performance and standardized mathematics tests or grades in elementary school. Beginning in middle school and through high school grades, a positive…

This article provides qualitative description of behaviors that bring children to musical competence by age 5 in Nharira Communal Lands in Zimbabwe. Based on observation of three villages comprised of multiple extended family groups, the narrative focuses on area demographics, the community's people, musical influences, musical interactions of…

Examined 10 early childhood teachers' views regarding curricular trends for young children, their teaching practices, and systemic constraints affecting their teaching. Teachers were identified as advocates, resistors, or traditionalists. Systemic constraints identified included early academics, reading wars, and standardized testing. Teachers…

Describes how chaos theory can be used to understand the nature of quality in early care and education settings. Reviews research on quality and quality initiatives, noting challenges to such quality enhancement initiatives. Details an application of the tenets of chaos theory to early care and educational settings, and includes recommendations…

This qualitative study examined experiences of teachers, parents, and administrators related to standardized kindergarten entrance assessment to identify strengths and weaknesses of standardized testing in kindergarten. Strengths emerging from the data included consistency of information with core curriculum, and the time and opportunity to begin…

Compared views and practices of kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers with those of third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade teachers regarding student assessment. Found that both groups valued and used a variety of assessment measures but did not value or use standardized test scores. Both groups believed that parents should be involved in…

Used content analysis and grounded theory methods to examine professional beliefs about teaching and learning among 298 Taiwanese early childhood preservice teachers. Found that beliefs can be organized systematically to construct useful patterns of interrelationships among belief components, such as teachers' roles, images of classroom practice,…