The article criticizes present-day overemphasis of contrastive analysis procedures in second language instruction. Recommendations are for language teachers to reappraise their classroom objectives and to give paramount importance to mastery of language use rather than mastery of language structure. Pedagogical procedures based on situational…

This book, written by authors representing 12 countries and five continents, is a collection of international perspectives on distance learning and distance learning implementations in higher education. The perspectives are presented in the form of practical case studies of distance learning implementations, research studies on teaching and…

Cooperative learning has been proven to be helpful in enhancing the learning performance of students. The goal of a cooperative learning group is to maximize all members' learning, which is accomplished via promoting each other's success, through assisting, sharing, mentoring, explaining, and encouragement. To achieve the goal of cooperative…

Student faculty ratings are used at most institutions of higher learning for three important reasons. First, the ratings provide direct feedback to the faculty, and this enables faculty to adjust their teaching styles. Second, the ratings provide the administration with information intended to assist in guiding and mentoring faculty toward more…

Background: The No Child Left Behind Act legislation requires both higher standards and higher success rates at the same time. Failure of students to learn to read adequately as shown by national and state test results and the need for continued school success had prompted education officials to implement two reading programs--Voyager Universal…

The term "serious games" became popularized in 2002 as a result of an initiative to promote the use of games for education, training, and other purposes. Today, many companies are using games for training and development, often with hefty price tags. For example, the development budget for the U.S. Army recruiting game, "America's…

The authors examined the effectiveness of a 2-year (kindergarten and first grade) oral English intervention provided to 534 Hispanic English-language learners in transitional bilingual education (TBE) and structured English immersion (SEI) programs. Using latent growth modeling, the authors compared instructional programs in relation to growth…

This study examined the effects of peer tutoring on children's social interactions and compared social interaction behaviors between children who are English-language learners (ELL) and children who are primary English speakers (PES). Single-subject withdrawal design (ABA) was applied in this study and classwide peer tutoring was used as the…

An analytical approach was employed to compare sensitivity of causal effect estimates with different assumptions on treatment noncompliance and non-response behaviors. The core of this approach is to fully clarify bias mechanisms of considered models and to connect these models based on common parameters. Focusing on intention-to-treat analysis,…

The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention with teacher and parent scaffolding were investigated in an experimental study. A total of 24 teachers and 400 children in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: control, books only, books with oral reading scaffolding, and books with oral reading and…

During the past decade, many departments of agricultural education have used microteaching in the preparation of teachers. Research has found that microteaching has a positive effect on students' views of themselves as teachers and their attitudes toward and perceptions of teaching. Microteaching also allows a student to view his or her strengths…

The effectiveness of the simulation-gaming method of instruction as opposed to the lecture-discussion method in teaching a college introductory economics course is examined. One hundred and twenty Ashland College freshmen were tested to determine their knowledge, interest, and training in economics; retention of knowledge seven weeks after the…

A study determined effective inservice education methods to reduce the apprehension of experienced vocational education teachers regarding instruction of handicapped students. In order to guide the study, three null hypotheses were generated and tested. A three-group, randomized, pre- and post-test experimental design was utilized. Thirty teachers…

An evaluation project conducted at Dona Ana County Occupational Education Branch of New Mexico State University was designed to compare the effectiveness of Century 21 with Gregg Shorthand. Two classes of shorthand students were set up as experimental groups (due to student attrition, two more groups were added during the third semester). Their…

Reports findings of two experiments examining perceived differences among teaching styles and identifying subjects' perceptions of their own teaching styles. Teaching styles were rated by 188 elementary education students and 99 music students using transcripts from audiotape recordings of music classroom sessions. Found feedback more effective…