The purpose of this research was to assess the gain in critical thinking skills with a consideration of grade point averages during a semester in two high school home economics courses, and one language arts course which was used as a control group. The study was conducted by administering the California Critical Thinking Skills Test: College Level (CCTST) as a pretest and a posttest to students (n = 101) in three classes; Food Science, (grades 10 -12), Nutrition and Food Preparation, (grades 10 -12), and Intermediate Composition, (grade 1l). The study utilized a two-way fixed analysis of covariance design. The dependent variable was the adjusted CCTST posttest score. Independent variables consisted of grade point average (two levels, those students with g.p.a.'s of 2.75 or above and those with g.p.a.'s below 2.75), and class grouping (three levels, including Food Science, Intermediate Composition and Nutrition and Food Preparation). The covariate was the CCTST pretest score. Analyses were performed by SPSS/PC+, with covariate adjustment using the pretest as an influence on posttest scores. After adjustment by the covariate (pretest score), students with higher g.p.a.'s were found to be significantly higher on CCTST mean scores. No statistically significant main effect was found for levels of class group. In addition, no statistically significant interaction was observed between levels of class groups and grade point average. As a result of the findings, it is concluded that the students did not have statistically significant gain in critical thinking skills in any of the tested classes as assessed by the CCTST. There is a great need for students to learn critical thinking skills. Efforts must be included in the training of teachers so that they can guide students in learning critical thinking skills. An effort must be made to adjust lessons and change pedagogy so that students' critical thinking skills can be improved at the high school level. / Graduation date: 1993

Teachers use student grouping to reduce the complexities of the classroom. Grouping has been credited with making behavior more predictable, improving interpersonal skills, and making instruction easier by increasing homogeneity. Research suggests that teachers' grouping decisions are influenced by characteristics of the student, the teacher, the task, and the environment. Research on grouping has centered on elementary classes, with little investigation of secondary classes. The purpose of this study was to describe the influences on secondary laboratory teachers' grouping decisions in a naturally occurring secondary school setting.

Films have been used with varying degrees of success to influence the attitudes of pupils of different ages and interests. Little has been done, however, to measure the attitudes of girls in high school homemaking classes. It is the purpose of this study to use films as an integral part of a group relationships unit and to determine what attitude changes, if any, are directly attributable to film content.

A random multielement design was used in two replications to assess the effectiveness of programming common stimuli to enhance the transfer of household management skills from a group home for mentally disabled adults to an experimental apartment. Salient stimulus items were taken from the subjects' group homes (training site) and placed in an experimental apartment (testing site) as the participants were advancing through a program to teach them independent living skills. The results suggest that the transfer of household management skills was enhanced by programming in stimuli from the training site.

Thesis (PhD (Consumer Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / In the ten years since the inclusive elections of 1994, the South African government has created an international precedent in the housing field. It is widely acknowledged that in this period it has delivered more subsidised houses than any other country in the world. The housing backlog is still between 2 to 3 million and growing every year, so housing policies for the future must continue to , not only provide subsidised housing for a large part of the population but also seeking to establish a viable market for low-cost housing units and to create sustainable human settlements for low-income groups. There are a therefore large numbers of new consumers that enter the housing market for the first time.

It is the purpose of this study to investigate the influence of age, siblings, family structure, religious beliefs, mother's occupation, father's occupation, homemaking courses taken, status of parents, number of rooms in home, and students' work hours after school on the Negro girl's interest in curriculum items on personal, family and community relationships.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)