This mixed-methods study examines how teachers who have taught one or two units of the Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curriculum for two years reported on: students' responses to design failure; the ways in which they, the teachers, supported these students and used fail words (e.g. fail, failure); and the teachers' broad perspectives and…

Smith College initiated an ePortfolio pilot project to guide students in documenting key learning experiences and in linking those experiences to Smith's institutional mission of "developing leaders for society's challenges" (Smith College, 2011). Twenty-one college students volunteered to participate in the pilot, based on the…

Black males are scarce on White campuses. Still, they experience hypervisibility and are targets of hypersurveillance. This study used focus groups and semi-structured interviews to examine the experiences of 36 Black male students attending seven "elite" historically White Research I institutions. Two themes emerged: (a) anti-Black male…

Promoting blog content is a social activity--a means of communicating one student's appreciation of another student's work. This article explores the feasibility of using student promotions of content, in a blogosphere, to identify quality content, and implications for students and instructors. We show that students actively and voluntarily…

This article reports on findings from a mixed-methods validation study of the "Online Survey of Students' Experiences of Learning in Learning Communities". In the quantitative part of the study, we found strong correlations among survey items related to faculty behaviors, student behaviors, and critical thinking. Factor analysis yielded…

Racial and language minority students who must repeat high school exit exams are at increased risk of dropping out of school. Each time students fail an exit exam, they become less confident that they will ever pass and more unsure about their ability to graduate and their postsecondary plans. The relationship between students' culture and their…

In this Voices Inside Schools essay, a veteran teacher shares her reflections on a classroom unit entitled "How Language Reveals Character." The goal of the unit is to help adolescents read and write critically through an exploration of literary characters' language. Beginning by drawing on adolescents' fascination with one another,…

STUDENTS FROM TWO HIGH SCHOOLS WERE SURVEYED TO GATHER INFORMATION ABOUT ALIENATION AND INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL. A LITERATURE SEARCH REVEALED A VERY LIMITED NUMBER OF STUDIES ON THE SUBJECT. BOTH TAPE-RECORDED INTERVIEWS AND QUESTIONNAIRES WERE USED FOR DATA COLLECTION. QUESTIONNAIRES USED WERE (1) FILL-IN, MULTIPLE CHOICE, AND FORCED CHOICE ITEMS,…

A regular class activity in typewriting classes at Amherst, Massachusetts, regional secondary schools is making and viewing video tape recordings of the students' typing techniques over closed circuit television. Taping procedures, student reaction, and benefits of the program are described. (MF)

Elementary English language learners at Harrington Elementary in Lynn, Massachusetts--whom Reeves interviewed--share their perspectives on learning English in elementary school, and give advice to teachers working with English language learners. Among the advice students give teachers are: don't worry so much as you teach us, be patient and repeat…

This book recounts the author's experience of teaching in a predominantly Negro elementary school in Boston as part of a program to upgrade segregated schools. He describes specific incidents to convey the bigoted attitudes of the teachers and other authorities, which he feels were manifest in their behavior and in the curriculum and activities of…

A survey was conducted in Massachusetts in October-November 1978, to determine the public's attitude toward the educational objectives proposed as part of the state's Basic Skills Improvement Policy. The objectives involved standards for graduation from high school, and covered reading, writing, listening, speaking, and mathematics. Three samples…