This paper proposes an integrative approach for teaching English as a second language to students in Hong Kong to develop their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in English to meet the challenge of an English curriculum. The integrative approach provides an authentic language environment for learners to develop language skills in a…

Preservice teachers enter formal studies of teaching with an array of personal history-based beliefs and about teaching, classrooms, and students. This report traces the interactions between preservice teachers' personal history-based lay knowledge and their decisions about the potential value of coursework-based principles of content area reading…

Use of metacognitive strategies, creative problem solving, and creative thinking techniques in intermediate grade writing instruction can promote students' thinking and creativity. Metacognitive strategies can help students attack the writing task in an orderly fashion. Answering specific questions for descriptive, expository, narrative, or…

Case-based learning is one method that can be used to foster critical thinking and schema construction. Students need to be provided with problem solving lessons in meaningful learning contexts for critical thinking to take place. In order for schema construction to occur, a framework needs to be provided that helps readers to elaborate upon new…

If students are able to relate what they learn in school to experiences they have outside the classroom, they will become better critical thinkers. This paper suggests a model for teachers to use in aiding such "transfer" of knowledge from the classroom to the student's past or future experiences. By maintaining a profile of the student's…

A study was conducted to determine whether students who mapped prior and post knowledge of a basal reading lesson would achieve higher scores on a comprehension test and write better summaries of those stories than would students who received traditional basal reading instruction. Subjects, 30 fifth grade students, participated in either a…

Using examples from children drawing in a year one classroom, this article examines firstly, how drawing operates as a unique mental tool, and secondly, the role of drawing in the construction and development of knowledge. Young children utilize prior knowledge and experience to negotiate and construct meaning through their interactions with…

Describes an approach to content reading instruction that emphasizes both content and process, and encourages reader response in social, affective, cognitive, and metacognitive realms. It begins with the Content Directed Reading-Thinking Activity, followed by the Group Mapping Activity and the Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy. (HOD)

Examination of computer literacy debate presents arguments by Leuhrmann, who advocates teaching computer literacy in one course rather than across the curriculum; six definitions from educators; and results of a survey of 10 state education agencies on recent state involvement in implementation of computer literacy programs. (MBR)

The main purpose of this study was to gather evidence regarding the existence of a Culturally Relevant and Responsive Educational program (CRRE) in schools and especially classrooms. The CRRE conceptual framework presents a comprehensive model dealing with all aspect of instruction and education (Maddahian, and Bird, 2004). To examine the…

Discusses how language teacher education has shifted to constructivist, process-oriented theories of learning; the idea that teacher education programs have failed to prepare teachers for the classroom; the importance of teachers' prior experiences; and the concern that teaching be viewed as a profession where teachers have an active role in…

Recent discoveries about brain function explain how best practices in adult learning may lead to adult learners' developmental growth.

We examined direct and interaction effects of learners' characteristics (cognitive ability, prior knowledge, prior experience, and motivation to learn) and classroom characteristics (videoconferencing and class size) on learning from a 16-week course. A 2x2 quasi-experimental design varied the class size between large (approximately 60 students)…

Chemistry learning involves establishing conceptual relationships among macroscopic, microscopic, and symbolic representations. Employing the notion of intertextuality to conceptualize these relationships, this study investigates how class members interactionally construct meanings of chemical representations by connecting them to real-life…

This study reports the development of an instrument to assess classroom environment in universities. Using a sample of 665 students from 11 departments of the University of Seville (Spain), an instrument called the Evaluation of University Teaching Activities Questionnaire (E.U.T.A.Q.) was field-tested. The E.U.T.A.Q. consists of 25 items assigned…