The goal of this project was to develop a comprehensive program for teaching listening skills to kindergarten children which could be incorporated into a given curriculum. The focus of this paper was to identify the basic need of listening skills to the kindergartener and suggesta plan whereby this apparent deficiency could be addressed. Included are activities that the classroom teacher could utilize to increase the child's ability to listen. Five of the seven basic skills identified as necessary pre-reading skills are considered; listening skills, visual discrimination, visual memory, auditory discrimination, and auditory memory. Activities compatable with thedevelopment of these skill areas are offered.

The purpose of this study was to find out if a teacher’s verbal or nonverbal behavior is more successful in redirecting a student's attention in the classroom. Three specific student behaviors were observed---daydreaming, distractive talking, and doing assignments for another class. Three twelfth \ grade English teachers in a Duval County high school gave the observer permission to visit their classrooms and observe on ten different occasions over a period of eight weeks. Observation sheets were kept and tallied on each teacher. A total for all three teachers was then tallied and analyzed according to a chi-square routine. The results of the chi-square analysis showed no significance in the data at the .05 level. It was concluded that even though the results showed no Significance, the raw data showed a definite unique pattern for each teacher in the way that they successfully handled behavior problems in their classrooms.

This paper investigates the hypothesis that freewriting, when used as part of the writing process, will lead to more positive attitudes toward writing in a sample of advanced tenth grade students. An additional issue focuses on the level of positive attitudes of males when compared to females. Two intact classrooms taught by one teacher wrote weekly papers. The experimental group wrote freely, while the control group was restricted in topic choice, length and form of their writing. The experimental group received positive comments on the content of their writing, but the control group received standard error corrections on their writing. The subjects responded to an attitude instrument as pretest and posttest measures. The experimental group showed no significant increase in positive attitudes toward writing. Girls in both the experimental and comparison groups showed no more attitudes toward writing than pretesting or at post testing.

This is a study which examines motivation and its implications for the secondary student writer. Included in the study is a synthesization of writing research with a multi-faceted curriculum. The study concludes by challenging teachers to acquire a theory of teaching writing based upon knowledge of research and instructional practices related to that theory.

The instructional materials prepared for this project are based on outdoor activities that correlate with the Duval County, Florida, Performance Objectives for Life Science in the seventh grade. Special emphasis is placed on hands-on, sensory experiences and observations, and sequencing of instruction within lessons. The review of related literature includes the philosophy of outdoor/environmental education, a historical perspective of outdoor/environmental education, and learning theory as it applies to the principles and practices of an outdoor approach to education.

The purpose of this project was to develop a thematic unit of children's literature that combines skills-based and meaning-based reading instruction. The curriculum guide was designed for use with third and fourth graders. Lessons concentrated on relating each story to previously read stories through guided questioning. Emphasis was placed on critical reading and thinking skills, as well as the integrating of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The curriculum was reviewed by seven third and fourth grade inservice teachers from two schools. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire. Results indicated that the teachers surveyed found the curriculum guide to be successful in combining children's literature into a thematic unit and that such a unit is an effective means of teaching reading. Also, the researcher concluded that the curriculum would be useful for teachers desiring to move toward a more holistic instructional approach. In addition, it was found that the curriculum effectively encouraged learner involvement and fostered higher-level thinking skills. Furthermore, the researcher concluded that the curriculum effectively integrated the four language art components in meaning-centered reading experiences which, in turn, enabled children to read, write, listen, and speak more often and at a higher level.

This study examined the relationships of cognitive style and motivation to the biology achievement of Filipino students in a North Florida high school. The effects of gender and grade level on test scores, grades, and academic motive responses were considered during data analysis. This sample was found to be more analytical and field-independent when compared with normative groups. Significant correlations were established between achievement and field-independence, persistence, sequential abilities, mobility, and gender. Different academic motives were evident with different achievement measures. When achievement was measured by biology final grades, high achievers felt less pressure, tried harder, and were not motivated by peers. High achievers also cited college attendance as a reason for school attendance. When utilizing a course comprehensive biology test, high achievers reported feeling less pressure in school and enrolled in biology because it was required. Most all subjects, regardless of achievement, reported strong career and economic motives for school attendance.

The purpose of this study was to explore the valuation process of community college library end-users as they decide which information resources to use when conducting research. This study was designed as an exploratory study using Q methodology and focused on five specific information resources that community college library end-users routinely use in their research process: the Internet, the reference librarian, books, newspapers, and subscription databases. Little is known about the valuation hierarchy that end-users overlay on these resources when deciding which ones to use to address a specific research need. Sixty-four community college library end-users from four main campuses of a large community college sorted 40 statements describing specific value statements pertaining to the information resources under study. The statements were sorted along a continuum ranging from least like me (-4) to most like me (+4) with 0 representing an opinion of neutrality. Following these procedures, five factors emerged that represented different perspectives on value relating to the five information resources under study. Interpretation of these factors yielded distinct patterns of opinion relating to the perceived value of each information resource. These factors were named: (a) Browsers, (b) Proficient, (c) Vacillators, (d) Bibliophiles, and (e) Traditionalists. The results of the study suggest that community college library end-users value, to varying degrees, all five of the information resources selected for this study. The results also suggest that while the Internet has become a dominant information resource in the community college library end-user's research process, other more traditional information resources such as the reference librarian, books, and, to a lesser extent, newspapers still hold value in the research process. The perspectives described and the interpretation provided in this study can greatly assist community college library end-users in the valuation of available community college library information resources.

Environmental education is becoming an increasingly important component of secondary science education as our society attempts to minimize the exploitations and damaging actions of humankind on the earth. Environmental education has evolved primarily from environmental consciousness in the 1960s to an environmentally active focus in the 1990s. This project examined the effectiveness of an environmental education curriculum that focuses on improving environmental behaviors and attitudes as well as knowledge. The review of the literature for this project indicates that responsible environmental behaviors are linked to four types of environmental education categories. These categories are hierarchical and include: 1) ecological concepts, 2) conceptual awareness, 3) issue investigation and evaluation, and 4) environmental action skills (Disinger, 1993). A review of environmental education curricula provides a wide variety of activities in all four of the above listed categories. Information documenting the relationship between the acquisition of environmental knowledge and behav~ural change as a result of participating in community based environmental activities is less evident. Therefore, this project attempted to investigate the relationships between participation in community-based environmental activities and tenth-grade students' knowledge and attitudes toward environmental issues. During the spring semester of 1995 forty-five tenth-grade biology students at a private urban high school were pretested to assess their initial environmental concept knowledge and their initial environmental attitudes. These students were subsequently exposed to a three-week introduction to environmental concepts and to techniques for investigating environmental issues. Students were simultaneously given a variety of issues to investigate. An additional four hours of time were required of each student to participate in a community service related to an environmental concern. They submitted a written report of their work which included background research, method of participation, results and conclusions on the effect of their project on the environment. Following these experiences, a posttest was administered to assess any change in students' environmental knowledge or attitudes. Effective environmental education encourages the active participation of students in environmental improvement. The results of this investigation could assist educators in the selection of appropriate environmental activities for use with high school students.

A study was conducted to determine the effects on theknowledge and comprehension level learning as shown by thetest scores of thirty-one fifth grade students in onehealth unit after the utilization of the classroom managementprogram "OUNCE" had been implemented for eight weeks in contrastto their knowledge and comprehension level learning in a priorhealth unit as shown by the post-test scores before themanagement program was utilized.