Predicting teacher referrals of emotionally disturbed children

The degree to which teachers' perceptions of a student can be distorted by characteristics indigenous to teachers, as well as students, were investigated to determine whether teachers would initiate a referral for special education. Sixty-five teachers volunteered for participation. Twenty-seven of them were experienced, having had their own classrooms in a public school. Thirty-eight were preservice student teachers who had not yet had their own classrooms. Teachers were evaluated to have had either an internal or external locus of control and were judged to have had either a high or low opinion of self according to either of two separate scales. After viewing two video tapes of two elementary-aged students (one student was severely emotionally disturbed [SED] and the other non-SED), teachers rated the children on several child characteristics and referral questions. Results revealed that the locus of control and self-esteem of teachers, in conjunction with teaching experience and a child's characteristics, can predict teachers' inclinations to refer children. Findings point to the need to place greater care in the initiation of referrals. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The impacts of an early mathematics curriculum on oral language and literacy

Competence in early mathematics is crucial for later school success. Although research indicates that early mathematics curricula improve children's mathematics skill, such curricula's impacts on oral language and early literacy skills are not known. This project is the first to investigate the effects of an intensive pre-kindergarten mathematics curriculum, Building Blocks, on the oral language and letter recognition of children participating in a large-scale cluster randomized trial project. Results showed no evidence that children who were taught mathematics using the curriculum performed differently than control children who received the typical district mathematics instruction on measures of letter recognition, and on two of the oral language (story retell) subtests, sentence length and inferential reasoning (emotive content). However, children in the Building Blocks group outperformed children in the control group on four oral language subtests: ability to recall key words, use of complex utterances, willingness to reproduce narratives independently, and inferential reasoning (practical content).     

An Experimental Study in Remedial Teaching in College Freshman Mathematics

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a specific cell, Memory of Figural Units–Visual Mode (MFU-V), of the Structure of Intellect (SOI) can be significantly affected by training kindergarten and first-grade children, and whether improvement in MFU-V has a significant (.05 level) effect on reading achievement of first grade children. A pre- and posttest design for experimental and control groups was used. Results showed an overall statistical significance (.05) of medians of the experimental over control in reading accuracy. No significant difference was evident in memory improvement between experimental and control groups. One-hundred and seventeen pupils were involved in this study.     

The 3 R's: An Educational Myth

This study examines nine secondary American history textbooks' treatment of 9/11 and related events. Through the use of content analysis, the study centers on the knowledge omitted from textbook portrayals of 9/11. Findings indicate that when authors omit particular information, these exclusions limit the perspectives that students can consider, which shapes understandings of American history and the world. Recommendations are provided for ways teachers can develop students' critical thinking, provide them with multiple perspectives, and increase their historical understandings.