The aim of the present study was to find out whether students' active involvement in classroom activities can promote language learning. This paper, using practitioner research, examines the active involvement of first-year engineering students in a film activity. The research took place in three phases: (1) the students were divided into five…

Literature in this field of English language learners (ELLs) in US public schools indicates that the needs of these adolescent ELLs are not being met due to a lack of language support and inaccessibility to content. This research examined the enactment of a curriculum with preservice teachers designed to address the specific needs of adolescent…

The purpose of this case study was to examine a beginning elementary teacher's development of identity for science teaching from her first year at university, her field experience, and through her first year of teaching. Several kinds of data were collected over a period of 5 years through different sources: interviews, journal entries,…

The key to improving student achievement isn't more teacher time--it's more teacher impact. But how do you decide which instructional practices will deliver the most bang for your buck? In this handbook, written for teachers but suitable for use by principals and instructional coaches, best-selling author Jim Knight presents the high-leverage…

This study explored the nature of the integration of the five components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK): (a) Orientations toward Teaching Science, (b) Knowledge of Student Understanding, (c) Knowledge of Instructional Strategies and Representations, (d) Knowledge of Science Curriculum, and (e) Knowledge of Assessment of Science Learning.…

This study explores two approaches to directly measuring the quality of instruction: teachers' assignments with student work and focused lesson observations. The technical quality and potential feasibility of these approaches for measuring instruction in large numbers of classrooms are compared within two different content areas (reading…

The increase in accountability on both preK-12 districts and institutes of higher education has heightened the demands for partnerships between the two. Such programs have the ability to provide contextually focused, meaningful experiences by combining the theory and research knowledge of university faculty with the practical experience of…

In this study the authors investigate whether a whole-class educational blog could facilitate culturally relevant instruction and authentic intellectual work in U.S. history. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed that included student comments posted to an educational blog, classroom observations, and follow-up interviews. Based on the…

This paper explores ways in which data collected during designerly activity in a Secondary Design and Technology Classroom in the UK, can be analysed with a view to ascertaining the features of the classroom interactions which facilitate the development of designerly activity in "fledgling designers" (Trebell, 2007). The paper builds…

The merits and shortcomings of formalized assessments of student writing have been debated by critics who maintain they are not valid measures of writing proficiency, often result in a narrowing effect on the local school curriculum and elicit predictable or formulaic writing by students and by proponents who argue they help to inform teacher…

This study explored the practices of two high school teachers of U.S. history and their students' performance on evidence-based history essays over 7 months. Data include pre- and posttest essays, interviews, observations, teacher feedback, assignments, and readings. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons of 42 students' work show that one class…

Recognizing that no single evaluation instrument or procedure could provide a genuine measure of teaching effectiveness, the University of Southern Mississippi devised an evaluation system specifically designed for composition that consists of four components: student evaluation, observation of classroom activity, evaluation of a set of marked…

Based on research using participant and nonparticipant observation in a natural setting, a study examined how teaching practices, classroom conditions, and student differences influenced the design of writing lessons in 14 English classes in five inner city schools. Data were collected from five sources--interviews, writing samples,…

This paper uses Baxter Magolda's (1992) framework on ways of knowing to examine the effects of using multimedia case studies with beginning pre-service teachers (PSTs). Baxter Magolda referred to these ways of thinking as absolute, transitional, independent, and contextual. The written responses to two sets of tasks were analysed for 36 PSTs…

During 1983, an observational study was carried out in four classrooms in two schools in Wellington, New Zealand, with the following objectives in mind: (1) to describe the different writing tasks, assigned to the students, (2) to outline the guidance students were given in order to help them complete their writing tasks, (3) to establish which…