"Am I a girl?" This question from a long-ago English class (quoted by Kennedy, 1983) illustrates what was once considered suitable practice for language learners. Over the decades, ideas for the content of a language lesson have reflected developing theories of second language learning and teaching. This essay draws on materials,…

This study of open education as practiced in a number of selected American elementary school classrooms is concerned with teacher, administrator and parent attitudes, curriculum, teacher and administrator roles, and learning approaches and outcomes. A sample consisting of ten elementary schools in six areas of the country was studied through…

An attempt was made to develop and demonstrate the use of a clearly specified procedure for identifying specific causes of system failures as these are encountered in the in-classroom tryout of new lesson materials and their associated classroom management activities. Evaluation models were reviewed as well as the literature on curriculum…

On looking back at Head Start and other early childhood program plans, it is felt that several false assumptions have been made, the most obvious being the idea that poor children are understimulated; another is that poor children can be stereotyped, although there are relationships between poverty and health problems and language development. The…

Dissertation abstracts (N=124) were reviewed to assess recent research concerning the study of factors which have an impact on pupil attitudes toward school subjects. Results suggest teacher attitudes and enthusiasm toward the subject and student related variables such as previous attitudes, parents, and self-concept may have a greater impact.…

In this paper the most effective use of instructional time is discussed. In evaluating the efficient use of teaching time, the following questions are examined: (1) Is the instruction process proceeding toward a perceivable objective? (2) Is the instructional objective at the right level of difficulty for the learners who are investing time? (3)…

This report describes the work of the Study Methods Group, which uses qualitative research methodologies to determine how Open University students approach learning and why they adopt a particular approach. Research considers student orientation to learning, the relationship of learning outcomes to learning approach, and student development as…

The purpose of this monograph is to describe a number of studies that the author has carried out, which offer some evidence for the existence of a few environmental factors which appear to influence children's performance on both ability and attainment tests. The notion is developed of how children's motivation to learn, and hence their level of…

The purpose of this study was to measure the self-concept of students enrolled in "Man: A Course of Study" and compare those results with students enrolled in other social studies classrooms. Seven-hundred and twenty-one MACOS students and 736 non-MACOS students in Atlanta public elementary schools participated in the survey. The…

The study evaluates the effectiveness of a set of social studies activities in promoting cooperative interaction among junior high school students. A field experiment was designed to test three hypotheses: (1) groups which have previously worked together structure tasks more cooperatively than a newly formed group: (2) groups which have…