This research explores the perception and experiences of 15 Burmese international students temporarily studying at two international colleges in suburban Bangkok, Thailand and compares their impressions of and reaction to history with 10 Thai students studying at the same international colleges. This ethnographic exploration of Burmese…

A 1 credit hour First-Year Engineering Course which provides background to students on the engineering disciplinary options available to them was redesigned to help inform the selection of their engineering major for future study. Initially, course administration was a large lecture class but was transformed into smaller classes that were…

The authors examined the testimonials of 60 elementary school students about their experience during class discussions of assigned readings. They randomly assigned 12 classrooms to 2 treatments: Philosophy for Children (P4C) and Regular Instruction. P4C is an alternative educational environment that places dialogue at the center of its pedagogy.…

There is on-going international interest in the relationships between assessment instruments, students' understanding of science concepts and context-based curriculum approaches. This study extends earlier research showing that students can develop connections between contexts and concepts--called "fluid transitions"--when studying…

Sampling tasks and sampling distributions provide a fertile realm for investigating students' conceptions of variability. A project-designed teaching episode on samples and sampling distributions was team-taught in 6 research classrooms (2 middle school and 4 high school) by the investigators and regular classroom mathematics teachers. Data…

This mixed-methods study used interviews and a questionnaire to investigate the perceptions of 304 teacher education students regarding the learning-related value of handouts accompanying teacher educators' computer-generated slide presentations. The extent to which graduate and undergraduate students differed in their perceptions was also…

Existing comparative studies between peer and teacher feedback in English writing classes have predominantly used frequency measures of peer and teacher feedback in learners' revisions to suggest their relative values for developing learners' writing proficiency. However, learners do not necessarily understand the feedback that is used in their…

Drawing on data associated with an investigation of classroom read alouds and discussions of children's literature, this article conceptualizes the reading aloud and discussions of picturebooks as an "interpretive space" for elementary grade students' exploration of visual images and written text. Analyzing the types of responses…

Through study of 32 students' narratives about coping with external threats to their career goals (e.g., denial of admission to the major of their choice), this study examines the following issues: (a) the coping mechanisms student use when faced with threats that loom large, (b) the relation between coping methods employed and whether the goal is…

This article describes a research project in which William "Bill" Thelin, who directs the writing program at the University of Akron, was looking to uncover student reaction to English courses in which the professor carried through with a political agenda. Through the participant-observation method, Bill hoped to glean information that…

Presents steps taken in planning, implementing, and evaluating a descriptive study that compares student approaches to learning in two settings: (1) a traditional university class with face-to-face instruction; and (2) a distance education course. A discussion and figures analyze student responses to questionnaires and interviews concerning…

This article describes a comparative study of the introduction of student portfolios in two departments of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Nottingham Trent University in the UK. Portfolios are designed to facilitate effective management of lifelong learning, to provide a record of achievements and to encourage…

This study compared dialogue and response journal formats. The participants were members of a graduate class for literacy educators. Completing a journal containing dialogue and response entries was one assignment for this class. Data came from student journals, interviews, and questionnaires. The integration of findings from these sources…

Thirty classroom teachers, 19 reading teachers, 33 students, and 13 supervisors were interviewed in a study to gather information concerning the degree of congruence that exists in the instruction provided during core curriculum reading instruction and compensatory reading instruction. The interviews consisted of open-ended questions that…

The traditional K-3 social studies curriculum has focused on food, clothing, shelter, communication, transportation, and other cultural universals. Very little information exists about children's prior knowledge and thinking (including misconceptions) about these topics. A study was designed to provide such information with respect to the topic of…