Art instruction and the Goodenough-Harris drawing test in fifth-graders

The experiment was conducted to assess the effect of ordinary school art instruction in human figure drawing on scores of the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test. Subjects consisted of 44 fifth-grade students attending a suburban parochial school who were members of two preexisting, randomly assigned homeroom classes. Both classes were taught two lessons in art by their regular teachers. The treatment group was taught human figure drawing, and the control group had art lessons excluding figure drawing instruction. The Drawing Test was administered three times, one preinstruction and two postinstruction administrations. Absenteeism reduced treatment and control groups to 14 and 17 subjects, respectively. As predicted, no differences were found in the control group between pretest and postests. The treatment group showed significant gains on both posttests, as well as a significant decline from the first posttest to the second posttest.     

Eventual school placement of kindergartners observed as high risk in the classroom

To determine whether children's observable kindergarten behavior might predict eventual educational risk, 40 of 94 children originally observed in their classrooms at the beginning of kindergarten were followed at completion of second grade. The 40 subjects appeared to be representative in that they did not differ significantly from the total sample in terms of original kindergarten classroom behavior, sex, or race. Using four clusters of kindergarten behavior, significant differences were found in eventual special placement and in ratings of teacher anecdotal material. Attending behavior correlated highly with eventual risk, leading to speculation about early identification procedures.     

Teaching and nurturing: changing conceptions of self as teacher in a case study of becoming a teacher

Interest is growing in better understanding how teachers think and how they come to think like teachers. From a theoretical orientation informed by insights gained from symbolic inter‐actionism, recent research in the role metaphors play in self‐understanding, and schema theory, the authors present a case study of the first year of teaching of a divorced mother of five young children. Over the course of the year this teacher's understanding of herself as teacher changes, as indicated by changes in her personal teaching metaphor, teacher is nurturer. The reasons for these changes are explored. Of particular note is the struggle this teacher has balancing the demands of home and work. Finally, some implications for teacher education are discussed.     

Class‐size and Learning: the Tennessee experiment — what follows?

Abstract

The exceptionally large ‘Tennessee experiment’ — involving 7000 pupils — to elucidate the effects of class‐size on primary school pupils’ rate of learning has been widely interpreted as showing convincingly that classes of 15 pupils learn more rapidly, in an important sense, than classes of 24 pupils. The present re‐analysis in terms of value‐added in learning — the annual increase in SAT scores (rather than the absolute levels of those scores) — indicates that the benefits to average children resulting simply from a lowering of class‐size, while positive, are negligible in magnitude and not justifiable in relation to the additional economic resources required. The paper suggests that benefits are more likely to result from targeting additional resources to improved teaching styles, improved teaching materials and providing small classes for pupils with recognised learning difficulties; further research on class‐size needs to concentrate on the correct proportion of low‐attaining pupils that would benefit from attending small classes, the optimal size of such classes, and the fractions of the day which pupils with varying difficulties should attend small and normal‐sized classes.     

Audio-Visual Training in the Netherlands

In 1972 the Netherlands Institute for Audio-Visual Media (NIAM) in the Hague established a new department in Rotterdam to provide information and advice on the selection of audiovisual equipment and training in the use and applications of the different media. The information service was to be provided free of charge, but a fee would be charge for the training courses.