Because of the well-documented role caregiving plays in child development and socialization, family service programs commonly aim to improve parenting. Despite the common emphasis on parenting behavior, few programs regularly assess it, because existing observational tools, designed primarily for research purposes, prove too cumbersome for use in…

The incidence of Spanish-speaking children who require language and education services is increasing. Language testing of these children requires assessment instruments that are linguistically, culturally, and developmentally appropriate. However, most of the currently available Spanish-language instruments are limited in number and are designed…

The poor performance of students in America's urban high schools, both in absolute terms and in comparison with their more economically secure counterparts in suburban schools, is a critical issue for the country, and the opportunity for all students to learn mathematics has been heralded as the new "civil right." In a recent study of…

In this article, the author reports an action research project she conducted on the influence of technology on parent involvement and communication with their child's school. The author collected data using parent surveys, student interviews, e-mails, and checklists and observations. An analysis of the data collected revealed parents' appreciation…

The authors discuss the challenges encountered by English-language learners (ELLs) as they attempt to interpret the figurative language of their new cultures. Providing ELL students with explicit instruction in interpreting figurative language--a bridge to reading comprehension--is a significant goal for teachers who design instruction for…

This article explores the use of improvisation (improv) as a lens for viewing and describing teacher-child interactions. The author describes the relationship between the principles of improv and the characteristics of responsive teaching, and how improv can be used as a lens for seeing relational activity. The author hypothesizes that improv…

In the action research project report the teacher researchers targeted 70 elementary students in third- and fifth-grade classrooms that demonstrated a lack of social skills necessary to work cooperatively in a classroom. The purpose of the project was to improve the social skills in children. The three teacher researchers who conducted this action…

Four teacher researchers focused on the lack of students' proper social skills for this action research project report. In the classes of four teacher researchers, the students were coming to school lacking proper social skills. Because of this, teachers were spending time allocated for the curriculum, on discipline and the instruction of social…

An observational study of reading instruction, using the MS-CISSAR protocol, was conducted in general education classrooms, resource classrooms, and self-contained special education/deaf education classrooms in Grades 1 through 4 in public schools within the tri-state area of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Participants were 24 students who…

This article presents a comprehensive model of daily, classroom informal writing assessment that is constantly linked to instruction and the characteristics of proficient writers. Methods for promoting teacher, student, and parent collaboration and their roles in dialoguing, conferencing, and reflection are discussed. Strategies for including…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the first offering of two interactive distance education courses--curriculum and instruction and educational administration--at Memphis State University. Subjects were the 69 graduate students enrolled in the classes and the 2 instructors; data were collected by written surveys, interviews, and class…

This case study explored how social interaction during science lessons leads to the development of planning skills in students. An analysis of group discussions was conducted. Questions addressed were: (1) What is the nature of planning discourse during science problem-solving activities with young children?; and (2) How is collaborative planning…

This paper presents findings of an ethnographic study of a school district's Staff Development, Supervision, and Evaluation Program (SDSEP). Data were gathered through interviews, observations, participant observation, analysis of kinesics and proxemics, semiotic analysis of discourse, unobtrusive measures, and analysis of official documents. The…

This paper describes findings from a set of extended observations of 15 public school teachers in an effort to gain insight into classroom assessment procedures. Two elementary school, seven middle school, and six high school teachers were observed over 5 days by dividing time into 10-minute intervals. Attention was given to the amounts of time…

Science process skills such as observing, classifying, inferring, interpreting, predicting, and hypothesizing can all be classified as a sub category of thinking skills. This book is part of the series "Strategies for Learning" that focuses on the step-by-step development and application of thinking skills as a vehicle for learning science. The…