Explores teacher dynamics in an urban classroom. Strategies employed by a high school social studies teacher who had a significant impact on his class are detailed. (RLV)

To help State University of New York at Buffalo faculty prepare for new science courses, summer workshops allowed faculty to try new material and methods on 16 students hired as professional critics. Students and faculty praised the experience. It was concluded that students should be included in faculty development workshops as critics and…

Describes the use of anonymous pop quizzes to measure student understanding, not simple memorization, and to gauge effectiveness of course instruction. Short-term teaching goals and long-term teaching performance can be assessed quickly without grading or recording. A quick look through the quizzes will inform an instructor whether students have…

Discusses a performance assessment tool that entails open-ended tasks requiring students not only to provide answers but to show their solution processes. Discusses several areas to address in developing open-ended tasks. Areas include the need to assess important mathematical content and cognitive processes, use of effective prompts, and use of…

Describes the trilemma of inadequate quality, accessibility, and affordability of American child care. Proposes addressing the quality sector by utilizing a model which determines adult-child ratios based upon quality of staff. Model argues the more highly qualified the program staff, the higher the quality of the overall program. (Author/SD)

A study compared self-ratings and undergraduate student ratings of graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) on nine factors of teaching effectiveness, examining how math and science GTAs who speak English as their native language (NGTAs) differ from their international counterparts (IGTAs). Overall, self-ratings were consistently higher than student…

Describes and evaluates Metacognition in Studying from Texts (MIST), a system that helps students develop metacognitive skills by providing a process-based interface and support for collaboration and reflection. A study of 20 ninth graders determined that high ability students used the interface and intervention productively, but that low ability…

Employs a multiple research methodology to investigate and compare the time perceptions of university teachers from the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Both groups seriously miscalculated time spent on various activities. Reveals remarkable similarities regarding the actual activities and the degrees of estimation. (MJP)

This article studies the performance of online catalog user queries involving personal names and recommends system improvements based on the results. It examines various personal name queries, the construction of bibliographic data, and subject headings. Testing done on an experimental online catalog found search tree designs to reduce system…

Suggests that intellectual ability is a stronger determinant of academic success than family income, parental education, or socioeconomic status. Maintains that familial influence plays an important role in academic achievement but questions the specifics of that relationship. Includes statistical information on grade variation, siblings, and…

Three eras in the history of examining outcomes of education are described, and a new approach labeled as "assessment" is characterized as a postmodern era of achievement testing. This era is marked by increasing the teacher's authority to evaluate achievement and questioning the relevance of certain psychometric principles of evaluation. (SLD)

The relationships among college teaching, scholarship, and research are complex and not easily evaluated. Assertions that teaching and research are incompatible should be regarded with skepticism. At leading research universities, teaching standards and performance have been high and appear to remain so. (SLD)

This elementary physical education teacher developed a student evaluation system by rewriting the curriculum, producing a series of grade-specific objectives to guide her teaching, matching learning activities, creating rubrics for the objectives which she and the students could use, and generating computerized, personalized grade reports for each…

Summarizes various stakeholder surveys and factor analyses that attempt to delineate transferable skills, such as problem solving, communication, teamwork, and critical thinking. Points out that employer skill requirements may vary among countries and these differences may not always be cultural, but are related to different uses of terminology…

A study investigated the people and actions related to two successful gifted advocacy events that included state legislative changes. Five ingredients of success represented the key characteristics common to the leaders in each advocacy group: passion, preparation, inspiration, perseverance, and the ability to take advantage of serendipity.…