The purposes of this study were (1) to determine the difference between the cognitive style of low and high achieving students in an algebra course in a traditional high school and the cognitive style of low and high achieving students in an algebra course in a high school for dropouts, and (2) to determine the difference between the cognitive styles of low and high achieving males and females in an algebra class in a traditional high school and in a high school for dropouts. It was hypothesized that (1) low achieving mathematics students are more field-dependent than high achieving mathematics students in both the traditional high school and in the high school for dropouts, (2) female students are more field-dependent than male students in the mathematics classes of both schools, and (3) there will be a significant interaction on the achievement variable and the sex variable with respect to field-dependence in both schools.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the inhibitors affecting classroom teaching by surveying the perceptions of secondary teachers. This purpose was based on the growing crisis of "teacher burnout" which was thoroughly documented. Since it appears that burnout most often affects those teachers who work in conventional classrooms, characteristics of teaching effectiveness within these classrooms were the basis for inhibitor comparison. Seven characteristics were produced by a crosstabulation of studies on effective teaching spanning the last fifty years. The inhibitor choices presented with these seven characteristics were extracted from an extensive list produced by the literature and classified under six areas of origin. The characteristics and inhibitors ultimately selected were surveyed among teachers in a large Southwest metropolitan area.