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To develop a teaching style, educators must become knowledgeable in certain areas of teaching and in their expert field in order to understand how to transfer learning. Being an expert in one field does not necessarily mean that one knows how to transfer the learning to students. Educators develop their own teaching styles by understanding their own teaching philosophy. This paper compared and contrasted Stephen Brookfield's and Huey B. Long's teaching styles. Research was conducted through Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) and Google Scholar. Six references were located to include textbooks and primary articles. A literature review was conducted to determine their relevance in the study. Results revealed that the literature supported both teaching styles.

School attachment has received considerable attention in K-12 literature but it is relatively unexplored at the post-secondary level. The university attachment scale (UAS) is a new instrument designed to bridge this gap and previous research suggests transfer students score lower on group attachment than non-transfer students. However, these findings are limited to a population of primarily residential and traditional 4-year university students. This study re-examines the factor structure of the UAS at an institution with a large transfer student population and compares the latent means between traditional (N = 561), transfer (N = 372) and online (N = 50) students. These results of this study and their implications for higher education are discussed. (Contains 5 tables.)

For those tests solely composed of testlets, local item independency assumption tends to be violated. This study, by using empirical data from a large-scale state assessment program, was interested in investigates the effects of using different models on equating results under the non-equivalent group anchor-test (NEAT) design. Specifically, the primary purpose of this study was to apply the IRT true-score equating method to equating testlet-based tests using both testlet theory (TRT) model and bi-factor model. In addition, the equating results from using the TRT and bi-factor models were compared with those from using conventional dichotomous item response theory (IRT) models. The candidate models considered in this study included a series of conventional dichotomous IRT models, Testlet model, and bi-factor model. The results echoed with those in Lee et al. (2001) in that equating using models that can account for item dependency in general tend to yield closer equating relationship to the traditional equating methods than the conventional IRT models. Limitations and further studies were also discussed. (Contains 4 figures and 8 tables.)

The goal of this research was to investigate the effects of teacher read-alouds when students use, versus do not use, student companion texts during the read-alouds. Both quantitative and qualitative research data were collected based on an experimental design which randomly assigned 168 low SES, primarily Hispanic, students to either listen-only or companion text conditions during a 4-month intervention. The study was framed from a Connectionist theoretical perspective. Quantitative results indicated that no significant differences on two measures of reading growth were found. Qualitative data based on classroom observations, student interviews, and teacher interviews revealed higher attention, enjoyment, and comprehension for students that used the companion texts during the teacher read-alouds. Thus, the qualitative results of this study supported the research hypothesis although the quantitative results did not.

This paper will examine the differences and similarities between two program planning models, Tyler and Caffarella, to reveal their strengths and weaknesses. When adults are involved in training sessions, there are various program planning models that can be used, depending on the goal of the training session. Researchers developed these models based on their ideological frameworks and goals. Research was conducted through the Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) and Google Scholar, and eight references were located A literature review was performed to determine their relevance to the research. Results revealed a significant amount of similarities and differences between two planning models, and how they may be used in future research.

The English Language Institute at Gallaudet University participated in the Electronic Networks for Instruction (ENFI) Project in 1989. The purpose of this paper is to do a literature review of the ENFI Project within the scope of Gallaudet University and to contribute content that is specific to the English Language Institute. The research design is based on two interviews conducted in November 2011 with instructors at the English Language Institute. The discussion includes a comparison of the classes at Gallaudet University and the English Language Institute. Three recommendations on future ENFI research projects are presented. (Contains 5 notes.)

This study in the context of National Curriculum Framework (2005) and constructivist approach to learning and critical pedagogy, gauges the attainment of upper primary students in Malayalam, science, social studies and mathematics in 2011 and compares it with that of their age group during 1999, in Kerala, India. Overall achievement of students has come down after a decade, especially attainment of higher order competencies. It is found that, generally achievement in Malayalam of the two groups are similar, while in social studies factual attainment the 2011 group has advantage over the 1999 group, but not in the case of overall social studies attainment and non-factual items. Overall science attainment and attainment in higher order skills in science has become poorer after a decade. In mathematics the score of the present students is at par with their predecessors, but the former have significantly lesser score in geometry. Students at both the end both the ends of achievement distribution have significantly lesser attainment in Malayalam, science and mathematics have lesser attainment levels than a decade earlier. Even comprehension and deriving conclusions which are especially focused in the present primary curriculum cannot be firmly said to have improved. Implications and suggestions for improving the attainment are made (3 tables included).

The purpose of this paper is to present three classical theories on organizational learning and conduct a comparative analysis that highlights their strengths, similarities, and differences. Two of the theories -- experiential learning theory and adaptive -- generative learning theory -- represent the thinking of the cognitive perspective, while the third theory --assimilation theory -- coincides with the behavioral school of thought on organizational learning. The three criteria to be used in the comparative analysis include: 1) the learning process, or how learning occurs in each theory; 2) the learning target, or who experiences the learning; and 3) the learning context, or the antecedents and conditions that promote a learning organization. Because theory building in this discipline has a history of approaches that fragment rather than assimilate new theory (Lahteenmaki, Toivonen, & Mattila, 2001, p. 113), a new prototype theory will be introduced that effectively integrates the important themes, principles, and practices of organizational learning into a more holistic model.

This work brings forward the geographically-based classification scheme for the public Master's Colleges and Universities sector. Using the same methodology developed by Katsinas and Hardy (2005) to classify community colleges, this work classifies Master's Colleges and Universities. This work has four major findings and conclusions. First, a geographically-based classification system is possible for the 266 publicly-controlled Master's Colleges and Universities. The publicly-controlled Carnegie classified Master's Colleges and Universities can be classified as 61% rural-serving, 21% suburban-serving, and 17% urban-serving--a percentage breakdown that nearly matches the Associate's Colleges classifications. Second, significant differences exist across all three geographical types by enrollment size, bachelor's degrees awarded, and student race and ethnicity. Approximately 61% of 2,507,879 undergraduate students enrolled in public Master's institutions in academic year 2006-07 were White, with 13% Black, and 11% Hispanic--a finding that has tremendous policy implications. Third, significant differences exist across all three geographical areas with respect to student financial aid and student loan indebtedness. Student loans represent the single largest category of all financial aid awards across all three geographical types of public master's institutions. In total, nearly 45% of all students enrolled in a public master's institution require student loans to finance their educations. Fourth and finally, this classification scheme will allow for community college scholars to more accurately compare MCUs and ACs. (Contains 7 tables.)

Issues related to full-time inclusive programs have been particularly controversial for elementary students with learning disabilities. The nature of this controversy has changed substantially over the last decade, given the emphasis on high stakes accountability for all students in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and IDEA 2004. In spite of this continuing controversy, increasing numbers of students with LD are being educated in inclusive settings. This article reviews research related to the extent to which full inclusion programs provide students with learning disabilities the support needed to meet high stakes accountability standards in reading and math. The results reveal that while some elementary students with LD in full-time inclusion classrooms made significant educational progress, a majority of students made very little academic progress, even when extraordinary resources were used to develop the programs. (Contains 2 tables.)

In this study, Don't Know/Not Applicable (DK/NA) responses on a measure of academic behaviors associated with college readiness for high school students were treated with: (a) casewise deletion, (b) scale inclusion at the lowest level, and (c) imputation using E/M algorithm. Significant differences in mean responses according to treatment method resulted. Comparisons of survey completers and noncompleters revealed first generation students have a significantly higher number of DK/NA responses. Results indicate a potential external validity threat in treating DK/NA responses with casewise deletion or imputation because noncompleters would be removed or reduced, and the unique needs of first generation students could be overlooked. Findings support scale inclusion at the lowest level as the most appropriate treatment of nonresponse items. (Contains 3 tables and 4 figures.)

A pattern of decreasing trusting proportions in each consecutive decade and increasing trusting proportions with age was revealed in data. Although trust levels were lower in younger adults and the 2000s, findings did not support hypotheses of more rapidly falling trust levels or a college degree procuring less trust in the 2000s. A hypothesis of upswings in trust for young adults following September 11, 2001 was supported. Logistic regression analyses identified the 1990s, not the 2000s, as the decade with the weakest associations between trust and college degree and life stage product term variables. Two exceptions to patterns in the 2000s--no change in the proportion of trusting 25 to 29-year-olds and an increase in the trusting proportion of 18 to 24-year-old college graduates--suggested Putnam (2005) may have cause to look more closely to emerging adults today for a possibility of the next greatest civic generation of Americans. An appendix presents: Differences between GSS [General Social Survey Datafile] and ANES [American National Election Studies] Surveys for Social Trust. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

This paper explores patterns of growth in participation in six Anglophone and seven Francophone countries in SSA. The countries are Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Senegal. These countries all have large scale Universal Primary Education programmes and all have demographic and health survey (DHS) data sets collected at least ten years apart. These allow comparisons over time to see how participation has been changing. The results show that progress has been patchy and sometimes disappointing. Access remains strongly associated with household wealth despite commitments to pro-poor policies. The chances of the poorest being enrolled relative to the richest have generally not improved substantially, and in some cases have deteriorated. Reductions in numbers of out of school children have in some cases been accompanied by increases in the proportion over age. Poorer children and rural children are more likely to be over age and unlikely to complete schooling, especially if they are girls. The message is clear. Though there has been progress, it falls far short of the gains that were anticipated. Much more progress is needed to achieve universal access with equity and to close the gap between the poorer and richer households. (Contains 9 tables and 13 figures.)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate student understanding and application of computational thinking patterns to novel situations. Over 500 students, who had just designed and programmed a Frogger-style game using the AgentSheets platform, responded to a newly developed video-prompt survey instrument administered in the Fall 2010 semester. The students watched video clips and were asked if and how the content of the video was related to the computer game they had just created. Open-ended responses collected from the survey were analyzed and coded for six pre-defined computational thinking patterns. The percent match between student responses and expert responses varied by question, ranging from approximately 35% to 75%. Utilizing alternate definitions of transfer, and the principles of grounded theory, new computational thinking patterns emerged from the student responses. These methods will be utilized in subsequent analysis of data collected from students after they have designed and created other games and STEM simulations. The newly emerging patterns will inform further research into computational thinking. (Contains 3 charts and 4 tables)

Using data drawn from the National School Effectiveness Study, this paper reveals that by Grade 4 35% of South African learners are overage. The study confirms what every other testing programme tells us about the poor state of learning which characterizes the system: the seeds of low pass rates at Grade 12 level, and of low participation and throughput rates in further and higher education, are sown in the first three years of schooling. What the present study adds to this picture is that overage children perform less well than their appropriately aged peers, gain less learning from one year to the next, generally come from poorer homes than their appropriately aged peers, and are predominantly male. This is a major problem in the system, and giving explicit attention to it must constitute a significant component of any strategy to address the very poor learning outcomes of the school system, the slow progress of learners through the grades, and the high rate of dropouts in the last three years of the secondary school. (Contains 7 tables, 9 footnotes, and 6 figures.)

Developed for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) Career Exploration Program, the Find Your Interests (FYI) inventory was designed to help students learn about their career-related interests. The FYI is a 90-item interest inventory based on Holland's (1973, 1985, 1997) widely accepted theory and taxonomy of career choice. The inventory determines their resemblance to each of the six interest types. Nearly one-quarter of all high school students in the nation participate in the ASVAB Program (Baker, 2000), underscoring the need for study and documentation of the creation and validation of this instrument. Based on a large national sample of high school students, analyses were conducted to assess FYI content, criterion, and construct-related evidence of validity. Results showed that the FYI: (a) is composed of six factors with each factor representing one RIASEC domain; (b) has a hexagonal shape; and (c) has substantial relationships with the Strong Interest Inventory. Throughout the analyses, consistent content, criterion, and construct-related evidence for the validity of the FYI are presented. (Contains 14 tables and 2 figures.)

The widely-used Tukey's HSD index is not produced in the current version of SPSS (i.e., PASW Statistics, version 18), and a computer program named "HSD Calculator" has been chosen to amend this problem. In comparison to hand calculation, this program application does not require table checking, which eliminates potential concern on the size of a "Studentized range" table that might not cover various degrees of freedom. Since the software can be downloaded with no charge, this approach demonstrated a simple and practical solution for the SPSS-based HSD computing. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

Tests of college learning are often administered to obtain value-added scores indicating whether score gains are below, near, or above typical performance for students of given entering academic ability. This study compares the qualities of value-added scores generated by the original Collegiate Learning Assessment value-added approach and a new approach that employs hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Results indicate that value-added scores produced by the two approaches are correlated and would be identical if larger student samples were available. The new approach produces value-added scores that are slightly more reliable and display substantially greater consistency across years. Furthermore, the HLM-based approach provides school-specific indicators of value-added score precision, which improve interpretability. For these reasons, the new approach is recommended for future institutional assessment programs. Detailed specification of HLM-based value-added approach is appended. (Contains 4 figures and 2 footnotes.)

To design a series of assessments that could be used to compare the learning gains of high school students studying the cardiopulmonary system using traditional methods to those who used a collaborative computer simulation, called "Mr. Vetro". Five teachers and 264 HS biology students participated in the study. The students were in regular biology, advanced biology, anatomy and physiology or AP biology. One group of teachers taught a 7 day unit on the cardiovascular system using Mr. Vetro and the other group of teachers taught the same content without Mr. Vetro. Assessments were administered before and after the unit, and included basic recall as well as making connections and application of knowledge to new situations. The learning gains of four matched Vetro vs. Comparison groups were compared, for all types of assessments. Results indicate that there were statistically significant differences between the learning gains of all of the Vetro vs Comparison groups for assessments that required higher level thinking skills as well as for some of the assessments that required basic recall. Learning gains on multiple choice problems taken from standardized tests were more moderate or not significant. Results show that students who use the Mr. Vetro collaborative computer simulation make stronger learning gains than those who do not, regardless of the level of the course. Schools should consider using the Mr. Vetro simulation to foster a deeper understanding of the cardiovascular system. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table).

Globalization and increased diversity within student populations generate a growing impetus toward a multicultural approach to music education. Additionally, the National Standards in Music Education require that students experience the music of other cultures. However, not all multicultural music programs are equivalent in content, depth of study, or quality of execution. This study investigated the extent to which multicultural music is taught in Massachusetts public elementary schools, based upon their location and financial status. The perspectives and teaching strategies of 50 teachers representing urban, suburban, and rural schools were surveyed. The results indicated that the most comprehensive multicultural music programs were found in suburban locations, followed by urban and rural schools. Program funding was an important factor influencing these results. Appendices include: (1) Multicultural Music Survey; (2) Survey Email Cover Letter; and (3) Survey Introduction. (Contains 5 tables.)

Current educational reform in K-12 schools in this nation is much driven by the No Child Left Behind Act. One central goal of NCLB is to "bring all students (including special education children) up to grade level in reading and math, to close the achievement gap and to hold schools accountable for results"(ed.gov). Varied innovative efforts are being undertaken by school systems to ensure they meet the NCLB mandate, and one such instructional strategy is co-teaching (McDuffie, Mastropieri, & Scruggs, 2009). Co-teaching may have different names such as team teaching, parallel teaching, alternative teaching, or collaborative teaching, but the essential is having two qualified teachers in the classroom working together to plan, teach, and assess students learning (Dieker & Murawski, 2003; Bouck 2007). But research on effects of co-teaching in elementary schools is emerging and inconclusive (Dugan & Letterman, 2008). The purpose of this action research project was to compare the effects of co-teaching vs. solo teaching on students' academic achievement in the elementary school, specifically this research focused the comparative effects on fifth graders' math achievement. Participants of this study were the students of two fifth grade math classes in one elementary school, one with a regular education teacher (solo-teaching) and the other with the same regular education teacher and a special education teacher (co-teaching). Participants' math achievement as measured by both standardized and non-standardized tests including Unit tests, 120 Day test, CRCT, and ITBS) was analyzed for comparison. A series of unpaired t-tests was conducted comparing the various math scores of students in the two classes, solo teaching and co-teaching. No statistical significant difference was found, but noticeable differences in 9 out the 10 sets of math scores did seem to favor co-teaching. Results of the study indicate that co-teaching appears to have more positive effect on students' achievement in elementary schools. Due to limitations of this study (intact classes, no random selection of subjects, small sample size, teacher as researcher), further research is needed. (Contains 5 tables.)

The accountability focus in higher education historically has been directed at the institutional level. The purpose of this comparative case study, however, was to look at state-level accountability. The research focused on the processes used in Tennessee, Minnesota, and South Dakota. Interviews were conducted with higher education administrators from state governing or coordinating boards, governors' policy advisers, and representatives of the legislative branch to compare viewpoints from those public policy domains. Burke's (2005) Accountability Triangle was applied as an analytical framework to better understand how higher education systems in these three states have balanced state priorities, academic concerns, and market forces. Interview protocol is appended. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Using hierarchical linear modeling, student standardized test scores are analyzed to determine the impact of mentoring first- and second-year teachers on their students' achievement. The contrasting group used for comparison consists of experienced teachers in matched schools, grade level, and content area. The study contains data from 300 teachers in grades 4-10 (196 treatment teachers and 104 in the contrasting group) serving over 6900 students in language arts, mathematics, and science from around the state of Alaska. The dataset is split into the three content areas that were tested, and students with only one teacher per content area are included in the study. Teacher, district, school, and student demographic information are taken into account. Results show that although mentoring new teachers did not bring the students' standardized scores of new teachers up to the same level as students in veteran classes, they are much closer than expected based on past research (statistically significant but very small effect sizes) for Reading, Writing, and Science. In the case of Mathematics, students in classrooms of mentored first- and second-year teachers perform the same as those in classrooms of veteran teachers. Thus, mentoring conducted through the Alaska Statewide Mentor Project shows promising results to start closing the achievement gap typically seen between the students of new and veteran teachers. (Contains 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)

The purpose of this paper is to describe, compare, and contrast an early childhood departmental accreditation process from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and a college/university-wide accreditation process from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The history of higher education accreditation is also discussed. The author concludes by illustrating the need for further research in the area of educational program evaluations. (Contains 4 tables.)

Research suggests that characteristics of EFL input cause morphosyntactic features to be acquired in an order dissimilar to that found in ESL contexts. To determine whether acquisition order for Korean learners could be explained by characteristics of their EFL input, a Korean elementary school curriculum was analyzed. Morphosyntactic features that were reported to be variable in a Korean EFL context, namely, the plural -"s," third person singular -"s," possessive -"'s," past regular, copula ("is"/"are"/"am"), progressive auxiliary ("is"/"are"/"am"), and phrasal verb, were examined in three steps. First, frequencies of less salient morphosyntactic features were compared to those found in native English contexts. Second, use of contraction, which may reduce the saliency of auxiliary verbs, was compared to the use of uncontracted forms. Third, phrasal verb use and the frequency of particle separation were studied. Results revealed that frequencies of the past regular, third person singular, copula, progressive auxiliary, and phrasal verb are significantly lower than those found in native English settings. Further, contractions appear to be used much more often in declarative sentences, which may lower the salience of auxiliary verbs considerably. Collectively, the results suggest that reduced frequency and salience within input have slowed the acquisition of some morphosyntactic features, which may explain why the Korean EFL acquisition order is dissimilar. [This paper was published in "TESOL Review" v2 p97-111 2010.]

In recent years India has seen an explosion in low-fee private (LFP) schooling aimed at the poorer strata of society. This marketisation of primary education is a reaction to the well-documented failings of the government system. This paper looks at LFP schooling in one rural district of Uttar Pradesh, and compares government to low cost private schools in this area. It explores whether LFPs are affordable to the rural poor and marginalised by examining the key factors in parental decision making and ultimately discovering whether equity considerations are served. CREATE's zones of exclusion model is appended. (Contains 17 footnotes, 23 tables, and 1 figure.)

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled school leaders, statewide assessments of 784 Texas public school administrators were compared to determine how leadership skills varied by type of campus (urban, suburban and rural) and by campus student achievement ratings. Important findings indicate differences exist by campus type and by campus student academic achievement as measured by state accountability ratings. In particular, leadership skills of urban, suburban, and rural principals at campuses with the state's highest student academic achievement ratings differ from skills of principal at schools with lower student academic achievement ratings. Five appendixes are included: (1) National Policy Board of Educational Administration (NPBEA): Knowledge and Skill Domains; (2) Sample; (3) Urban Principal NPBEA Skills by Texas Accountability Ratings (N= 244 teams); (4) Suburban Principal NPBEA Skills by Texas Accountability Ratings (N= 264 teams); and (5) Rural Principal NPBEA Skills by Texas Accountability Ratings (N= 259 teams). (Contains 1 table.)

The economic downturn that began in the United States in 2008 has influenced higher education in similar ways to retrenchment in the early 1970s. Institutional budget constraints have expedited long-term declines in the number of full-time, tenure track faculty positions available in many academic disciplines, especially the humanities. This qualitative study examined the careers of humanities faculty who were trained at prestigious research institutions before entering a tight academic labor market as newly-minted PhDs in the period from 1972-1982. The discrepancies between future faculty preparation and unanticipated career options in the 1970s had long-lasting repercussions for the study participants, and underscores the differences between elite PhD-granting research universities and employing Master's I/Comprehensive universities. (Contains 2 tables.)

In the 1950s Terman summarized the results of his longitudinal study of the gifted and compared the "life success" of the 150 most successful men (Group A) with the 150 least successful men (Group C) at the midpoint of their careers (age 30). The objective of this article is to replicate the original Terman work with a modern sample of the most successful (Group A) and least successful (Group C) American Academic Olympians (N=190). The most successful adult Olympians were found to have parents that supplied a "Conducive Home Atmosphere" when they were growing up and were not hampered by a lack of motivation. We present implications of this study for today's schools and for parents of the gifted. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

IMPACT is a media and technology program designed to support and promote effective instruction through the integration of technology. The model is currently being implemented in 30 K-12 schools throughout North Carolina. This evaluation study investigated the effects of this model on the attitudes, behaviors, and activities of students and teachers. Information about the measures, data collection/analysis methods and implementation issues will be addressed. (Contains 5 tables, 3 figures, and 1 footnote.)

Vocabulary acquisition research has been paid attention these years (e.g. Beck, McKeown & McCaslin, 1983; Harley, 1996; Huckin, Haynes, & Coady, 1993; Zahar, Cobb & Spada, 2001). A serious methodologies had been reported, including applying learner dictionaries (Nesi, 1999; Tribble, 2003), using forms of visual glossing (Al-Seghayer, 2001), and so on. This study argues that because the research of vocabulary teaching methods has not a long history, since 1999 as Read (2004) mentions, English teachers should pay additional efforts in learning how to raise our students' vocabulary proficiencies through updated ways that have been provided to be effective. This study aims on investigating the pedagogies of language vocabulary. In addition, it reports the author's perceptions for specialized and modernized techniques of teaching vocabularies through interactive approaches that River (2000) suggests and provides the results of a research plan conducted in National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung of Taiwan where twenty-six learners learned higher-intermediate level vocabularies in a required general English course.

Repeated poor performance by students with special needs on the Indiana Statewide Test of Educational Progress (ISTEP) in an Indiana middle school supported the need for instructional changes. Following the implementation of a full inclusion program, a problem arose in that the program had not been evaluated and effectiveness was in question. This study, grounded in the constructivist and social reproduction theoretical frameworks, is important in explaining the effectiveness of a fully inclusive school. Whether placing middle school aged children with special needs in inclusive classrooms in the middle school setting is an effective practice is the research question guiding this work. A program evaluation was used to determine effectiveness by examining same student test score data in math and English from 2005 through 2007. The 2007 test scores reflected the first scores following a full year of inclusion. The test score data were compared using repeated-measures ANOVA to study overall performance from year to year. The findings of the project show that inclusion had a significant positive effect on ISTEP scores and is an effective method of instructing children with special needs in the least restrictive environment. The information gained from this work could be used to provide improved learning opportunities for middle school students with special needs in their current setting as well as influence their future learning opportunities through high school and beyond resulting in positive social change. Students with special needs may realize higher graduation rates and academic success while this work could be used to guide the implementation of an inclusion program by examining the methods explained in this paper. (Contains 2 figures and 7 tables.)

This study compared college student reported grade point averages (GPA) with actual GPA as recorded at the Registrar's Office to determine the accuracy of student reported GPA. Results indicated that, on average, students reported slightly higher GPA than their actual GPA. Additionally, females were virtually as accurate as males and students with high GPAs were more accurate than students with lower GPAs. Since 17% of unexplained variance in actual GPA was found based upon student GPA estimates, the findings support the recommendation that researchers employ the actual GPA recorded in the Registrar's Office whenever possible and feasible.

This study examined the educational beliefs about teaching and learning of Chinese international and American-born graduate students in the disciplines of pure and applied sciences and mathematics at Auburn University by comparing their similarities and differences. The study reported (a) participants' demographic characteristics, (b) the dominant beliefs about teaching and learning of the two groups, (c) the two groups' educational beliefs about teaching and learning. One hundred and fifty-three graduate students who were in pure and applied sciences and mathematics participated in the study. There were 54 Chinese international students, and 99 American-born graduate students. Results indicated there were more similarities in beliefs about teaching and learning between Chinese international and American-born graduate students in the disciplines of pure and applied sciences and mathematics than differences. This study provided a new dimension in cross-cultural comparative investigation. (Contains 2 tables.)

The purpose of this paper was to discuss the importance of listening and to examine whether or not transcribing utterances in English using the Korean alphabet improved the accuracy in English sentences produced by a group of Korean college students. A total population of 120 students was divided into two groups, control and experiment. The experiment group transcribed the English utterances on a practice TOEIC tape into phonological writing in Korean and then later transposed the Korean writing into English words. The control group transcribed the English sounds only in English without using the Korean alphabet. Statistically significant differences were noted in the accuracy of dictation when the students used the Korean alphabet, especially for the beginning and intermediate students. Statistically significant results were not produced for the advanced students. The findings of the study supported the view of many researchers and methodologists that listening comprehension is important to the acquisition of language skills, and second language instruction should continue to emphasize the importance of listening. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.)

The current study examines three regression models: OLS (ordinary least square) linear regression, Poisson regression, and negative binomial regression for analyzing count data. Simulation results show that the OLS regression model performed better than the others, since it did not produce more false statistically significant relationships than expected by chance at alpha levels 0.05 and 0.01. The Poisson regression model produced fewer Type I errors than expected at alpha levels 0.05 and 0.01. The negative binomial regression model produced more Type I errors at both 0.05 and 0.01 alpha levels, but it did not produce more incorrect statistically significant relationships than expected by chance as the sample sizes increased. (Contains 19 tables and 7 figures.)

School reformers hope that converting comprehensive high schools into collections of small schools will produce results similar to those realized in freestanding small schools. This comparative case study revisits two "conversions" as they complete the grant funding that supported the reform, in order to explore the extent to which changes achieved through the conversion process are sustained. The report focuses on three salient themes--shared decision making, professional community, and personalization--to look at how small school sustainability is affected by the way school and district staff navigate the tensions inherent to the conversion setting. Findings indicate that conversions strive to maintain both small school and comprehensive high school ideals, leaving teachers feeling isolated and frustrated by operating in an "in-between place." (Contains 2 footnotes.)

Globalization and increased diversity within student populations generate a growing impetus toward a multicultural approach to music education in today's schools; however, student responses to world music are often initially negative (Shehan, 1985). This study investigates whether sixth-grade students become more appreciative of Indonesian Gamelan music as a result of participation in a multicultural music education program. Approximately 180 students, selected at random from an elementary school in Massachusetts, were divided into two groups. Both groups listened to an example of Indonesian music and were given a pre-test survey. The experimental group received multicultural instruction; while the control group did not. Both groups listened to the same example of Indonesian music and a post-test survey was administered. The data were analyzed to determine any changes of response. The results indicate that initially negative responses toward Indonesian music became more tolerant following multicultural music instruction. The concluding discussion addresses issues for further research and offers suggestions to improve multicultural music education in today's schools. (Contains 2 figures and 1 table.)