This article outlines a writing study circle aimed at enhancing the writing instruction practices of teachers working with adult learners. The study circle focused on professional development, collaboration, and reflection as key components to improve both the quality and quantity of writing produced by adult learners. The study circle's design,…

Learning to read and write efficiently is of the utmost importance in elementary school. However, writing is frequently difficult and can be demotivating for beginning writers. Fortunately these barriers can be partially alleviated with parental help. Many studies showed that parental involvement influences children's competence and motivation in…

Background/Context: Founded in 1974 by James Gray and a group of teacher colleagues who came together as the Bay Area Writing Project in California, the National Writing Project is a professional development network that has spread from one site to 197 university-based sites across the U.S. After such a long period of time in operation, it becomes…

This study investigated the impact of the New Jersey Writing Project in Texas (NJWPT) three-week professional development in writing instruction on teachers' attitudes toward writing and the teaching of writing. In addition, the research explored the impact of teacher attitude on the classroom implementation of writing strategies. Therefore, the…

This qualitative study examined the influence of the 2011 Oregon Writing Project (OWP) Summer Institute (SI) on the professional development of six teachers in the following ways: 1. The development of case descriptions of teachers' personal and professional backgrounds relevant to their teaching of writing. 2. An examination of the effects of the…

This qualitative study reports the findings implementing a pen pal letter exchange project between adult English language learners and volunteer native English speakers. The pen pal project was implemented using a holistic and socio-cultural approach to English literacy development. This article presents pen pal writing as an authentic language…

Recent school reforms such as NCLB have focused on standardizing learning outcomes, and in the process have stimulated many schools to standardize curricular content, particularly if those schools are in Program Improvement (PI) status as a result of not meeting testing targets. But these attempts at standardization have ignored the fact that…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report results from an evaluation of an online abstract mentoring programme to support early career and less experienced human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) researchers improve their chances of acceptance to International HIV/Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome Conferences. Design/methodology/approach: An…

Teachers who participated in invitational institutes of the National Writing Project (NWP) during summer 2005 responded to two surveys: a Client Satisfaction Survey immediately following the institutes, and a Follow-up Survey of Program Impact one year later. The two surveys together assess the quality and usefulness of the institutes for…

This study focused on a particular course entitled Raising Standards in Writing and attempted to discover if it did impact on pupil attainment and change teachers' practices. The course was provided by a Local Education Authority and used National Literacy Strategy materials. It was developed in the context of the British government's concern…

Getting papers published in the (largely English-language) international literature is important for individual researchers, their institutions, and the academic community, and the resulting pressure is being felt increasingly in China as a result of top-down policy initiatives. For many researchers, reaching this goal involves two intersecting…