Much of the research on the effects of tests on foreign and second-language classrooms has examined the impact or washback effect that commercial/institutional language tests, such as the TOEFL, have on teachers' instructional practices (Hughes, 1998; Wall & Alderson, 1993). Using a case study methodology, this study uncovered the ways in…

Foreign-language cinema has generally been relegated to a minor role in language education. This paper reports on and analyses the results of a survey of attitudes towards foreign film among UK university students of French, German and Spanish. The findings reveal students' limited exposure to and relative lack of familiarity with non-anglophone…

For the last nine years, Ukpokodu has taught an elementary social studies methods course. As one who is grounded in multicultural education, global education and critical pedagogy, she approaches the course from a transformative and social reconstructionist perspective (Banks 1996; Sleeter and Grant 1994). That means that the course reflects…

Critical literacy is about how people see and interact with the world; it is about having, as a regular part of one's life, the skills and desire to evaluate society and the world. It is especially focused on issues of power: Who has it and who is denied it; how it is used and how it is abused. More specifically, it often revolves around issues of…

The current emphasis in second language teaching lies in the achievement of communicative effectiveness. In line with this approach, pronunciation training is nowadays geared towards helping learners avoid serious pronunciation errors, rather than eradicating the finest traces of foreign accent. However, to devise optimal pronunciation training…

English language learners (ELL) are typically instructed in general education programs that do not have bilingual instructional support (Zehler et al., 2003). Teachers instructing those students must focus on strengthening the students' English language skills because language is such a primary component for learning and achieving. Instructional…

The article reports work over one year by three teachers from the Milton Keynes Primary Schools Learning Network. Their collaborative classroom-focused action research investigated the limits and possibilities of pupils' and teachers' learning through self-evaluation. In phase one the teacher researchers used questionnaires, interviews and…

Biotechnology is an expanding area of scientific and community interest, one that it is important students understand because of its potential to impact on them and their communities. The issue for teachers and science and technology educators is how to provide learning experiences in this area. This paper draws on classroom-based research to…

In this article, the author discusses the concept of the individual as essentially autonomous. Subsequently, each individual, in theory, is capable of directing the course of his/her own life. Yet, as persons, we are continually required to confront and even overcome new challenges in life. The potential of every human being to respond to such…

This article will explore how symbolic and institutional violence shaped students' understandings of themselves within the educational context, and will argue that the creation of critical educational spaces can enable students and teachers to explore and transgress the internal and external influences and violence that shape the learning…

Over the last few decades, inclusive educational practice has developed into a guiding political vision in Norway, as it has in several other western countries. This article, and the larger study it is part of, takes a narrative approach to the study of how one particular Norwegian primary school teacher deals with realizing the ideology of…

Through interviews and observing day-to-day classroom practice, this study explores the beliefs of 10 music teachers in elementary schools in Vancouver and Hong Kong. The results demonstrate that the music teachers of the two localities hold similar cognitive beliefs about the essential elements of music education. However, they hold different…

The focus of the present paper is on the relationship between national identities and foreign-language education policies and practices. The paper examines this relationship through a juxtaposition of three sociohistoric contexts in which sociopolitical events led to major changes in foreign-language education: post-World War I United States,…

Recent events, such as the anthrax scares and the SARS outbreak, have forced teachers to focus on issues such as disease control and bioterrorism in their own backyards. Students are aware of the current biological issues in the news and are curious about infectious diseases and the issues relating to biological warfare. In order to address the…

This article primarily focuses on the representation of the manner in which the activity is presented to the students, both in terms of how it is structured as a set of experiences and of the actual tasks that students learn.