The participatory learning and action: PLA was the process used for empowering in this program. This process has four steps: 1) create awareness, 2) specify problems or needs, 3) act and 4) present and reflect or monitor. The purposes of this study were: 1) to investigate the conditions of communities in terms of context and problems or needs in…

Language teacher education is widely identified as one of the most important areas that needs addressing in order to improve early language instruction, yet research into teacher education for early language teachers remains relatively sparse. This volume responds to this gap by compiling studies with diverse methodological tenets from a wide…

The arts embody "one of the oldest forms of knowledge and knowing" and "action research provides opportunities to experiment with art as an integral part of the creation and dissemination of knowledge." From his 16 years' experience as an elementary classroom teacher, the author has found that young children are drawn to an arts-based approach of…

Business students are increasingly seeking international experience in short-term, study abroad programs to enhance their intercultural knowledge, intercultural communication skills, and global perspectives to be more competitive in the global arena. Intuitively, universities initiating these programs and the students sojourning abroad believe in…

Times are exciting for adolescent literacy research! Researchers are examining adolescents' reading and writing like never before. This department, Research Connections, spotlights scholarly efforts aimed at improving classroom literacy instruction for adolescent learners. It takes a broad, disciplined-inquiry view of research, embracing…

An emerging research tool used in recent years to better understand and improve teacher thinking has been the use of collaboration and collaborative action research. In our study, we were interested in whether teachers could enhance the learning of their subjects through the use of teaching techniques and strategies involving social interaction.…

This timely book describes the work of the School Improvement Network, a partnership in which university professors and graduate students collaborated with K-12 school leaders and teachers to design, implement, and assess schoolwide action research projects focused on long-term school improvement. Presenting a comprehensive model, this resource…

The Puget Sound Educational Consortium (PESC) is a partnership of 11 school districts in the Puget Sound, Washington, area and the College of Education at the University of Washington. The partnership is based on the following assumptions: a belief in the school as a primary unit of change; a commitment to political inquiry; the development of…

Reviews 73 reports of classroom action research classified into seven groups: seeking quantifiable answers, determining results of change in classroom practice, exploring effects of program restructuring, discovering whether students can learn to use a process, establishing new professional relationships, developing new understandings of students,…

CONTRARY TO THE OPINION OF MANY PEOPLE, PROJECT HEADSTART (HS) IS NOT A STABLE AND UNIFORM PROGRAM WHICH DEALS WITH AN EASILY DEFINABLE POPULATION. THERE ARE, THEREFORE, SEVERAL PROBLEMS WHICH EXIST IN CONNECTION WITH EVALUATIVE RESEARCH CONCERNED WITH HS. IN ORDER TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE IN PROGRAM PLANNING, THIS RESEARCH SEEKS TO DESCRIBE POTENTIAL…

"Action Research" and the "Encyclopedia of Distance Education Research" (1994) are designed as resources for distance education research in Iowa, including information on developing, implementing, and administering distance education systems. This addendum containing an additional seven research studies includes the following…

Today's school counselors are under increasing pressure to document their effectiveness by using data and producing quantitative accountability reports. This guide from recognized counselor educators and trainers gives preservice and inservice school counselors the tools to identify evidence-based practices in their field and to use data in…

This paper reports on the characteristics of one specific form of collaborative research: that was developed by faculty from research institutions of higher education collaborating with teachers in K-12 schools on the conduct of research on teaching. Eighteen teachers have participated in this research with faculty from Michigan State University…

An approach to educational research that is receiving renewed attention is participatory action research (PAR), which emphasizes a bottom-up approach to research as well as useful outcomes. PAR is a philosophy, and not a methodology per se. It is a deliberate, goal-directed, structured, and applied means of obtaining information that looks to…

This book contains 15 chapters that were written by women from 12 Canadian adult literacy and basic education programs who participated in an exploratory research project designed to document the process and results of woman-positive literacy work. The following sections are included: "Exploring the Concept of Woman-Positive within…