The classroom setting is a source for daily and creative writing material for teachers as well as students. Teacher and student writing samples help to illustrate classrooms as cultures-in-the-making in which new rules are invented every day and suggest that stories of classroom life must of necessity end in question marks and untied threads.…

Whole language represents only one of many good concepts about teaching reading to children, but it is not for everybody. Because whole language is a philosophy rather than a specific method, educational practitioners can incorporate different aspects of this philosophy to different degrees. If teachers think of a continuum of theoretical bases…

Observation in schools by college supervisors indicates a gap between what a teacher knows on a theoretical level and what is actually done in classrooms on a practical level. This study was to determine where teachers perceived encountering encouragement or discouragement for lessons involving hands-on activities in science. A questionnaire was…

This collection of lectures includes the following contributions from faculty at the University of Colorado at Boulder: (1) "Aloof Professors and Shy Students" (Patricia Nelson Limerick); (2) "Teaching the Thundering Herd: Surviving in a Large Classroom" (Charles R. Middleton); (3) "The Scientist as a Story Teller" (R. Igor Gamow); (4) "Active…

Studies show that metacognitive strategies can increase learning skills and that independent use of these metacognitive strategies can be gradually developed in people. The school library media center is the ideal place for students to learn how to develop metacognitive strategies; that is, they can learn how to connect new information to former…

This article discusses the use of demonstration in teacher education programs, emphasizing demonstration's potential in teacher preparation and staff development programs, and detailing the practical problems associated with its use. Demonstrations serve: (1) to illustrate teacher instructional behaviors or thinking and decision processes related…

To encourage widespread parental participation in schools, both lay persons and professional staff should understand the primary assumptions which undergird shared efforts to create a unified, effective system of schooling. Proposed practice for an effective schooling system must be related to: (1) democratic concepts and their presumed strengths…

This pilot project explored the use of video in an elementary school as a catalyst for group discussion and self reflection in connection with conflict resolution. Subjects were 32 students in an extended day care program for grades K-6; 80% of these students were of Hispanic background. Videos were created with the students, and then played back…

This paper addresses the training of health workers to become more effective communicators and teachers in third world countries. The first part introduces the health worker to the traditional medicine and cultural beliefs of third world people. Part two on educational psychology deals with helping the health worker manage people's resistance to…

In order to promote peace in our personal lives and in our world it is necessary for teachers to espouse peace education throughout the process and content of their educational systems. Peace education refers to a non-authoritarian educational process that is compatible with peace and avoids all structural violence, not just education about peace.…

This study examined the congruence of teaching method and observed teacher behavior. Its purpose was to find out the actual behaviors in which teachers engaged when using a specific teaching method and whether or not these behaviors were congruent with those dictated by a theoretically based teaching model. The specific objectives of the study…

This guide is designed to present a variety of techniques that can be used in conducting classroom observations. Observation techniques are clustered under four major teaching/learning variables: time on task, teacher talk, classroom interaction, and organization and management. Techniques are presented with an overview that details the rationale…

Following a year-long study, model procedures were developed for eight pairs of peer coaches and inservice elementary school teachers to modify reading instruction practices to improve reading comprehension. Specific teaching behaviors were chosen to determine whether coaches could encourage teacher clients to: (1) incorporate more direct teaching…

The purpose of this study was to explore how the needs, actions, and beliefs of teacher and students interact with the constraints of the classroom and the curriculum to establish an atmosphere conducive to effective learning of physics in grade 11. An interpretive research methodology was used to investigate the students' and teachers' needs,…

Six different approaches to teaching values in the classroom are reviewed in this paper. Each approach is reviewed according to: (1) the rationale of the approach; (2) the process of valuing; (3) the teaching methods used to achieve the specific purpose to the approach; (4) an instructional mode or system of procedures used by teachers to…