Peer coaching, in which two teachers observe each other's classes with the objective of helping each other improve their instructional abilities, empowers teaching professionals by enabling them to develop their own criteria for evaluation of and responsibility for quality classroom performance. Peer coaching can involve collaborative, expert, or…

The Calculators in Primary Mathematics Project was a long-term investigation into the effects of the introduction of calculators on the learning and teaching of primary mathematics. The Australian project commenced with children who were in kindergarten and grade 1 in 1990, moving up through the schools to grade 4 level by 1993. Children were…

A research plan for investigating the effects of student portfolios on teaching and learning at three different school sites is described. The plan accommodates two categories of research questions: (1) broad, cross-site questions; and (2) site-specific questions generated by participants at each individual site. Data collection strategies…

An ethnographic study examined ways in which the writing behaviors of adult literacy students in a classroom setting were either similar to or different from current theories of language acquisition. Three students were selected from an adult literacy class at the Fordham Library Center in the Bronx. The research plan had a three-pronged approach:…

The study described in this paper includes original qualitative research and analysis that addresses: how future secondary teachers are educated; perspectives from veteran and student teachers; insights into preparing teachers for the schools of our future; and suggestions for incorporating the voices of teachers and of those learning to teach…

The first of two sections of this paper describes a pilot program that used interactive video (IAV) technology to enhance the scripting skills of teacher certification assessors in the administration of a classroom observation technique. A comparative analysis was drawn between three groups of assessors: those who received IAV programed…

A project was conducted to identify the pattern of interactions in a sample of 62 vocational classes in 19 representative Kentucky secondary schools and to compare the findings to other studies to ascertain whether these classes displayed the sex bias observed in previous research. Seven observers recorded classroom interactions using the…

This portrait of a high school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Mr. McCabe and his eighth grade class in their…

A four-phase staff development program for faculty of health science professional schools is described, and aspects of the teaching/learning process are considered. The first phase dealt with intensive, all-day educational workshops for faculty in the basic and applied health sciences. Topics such as instructional planning, strategies of teaching…

Designed to alleviate the confusion caused by the existence of a multiplicity of approaches to writing research, the four parts of this book present explicit discussions of research principles and methods used by researchers actively working within a variety of disciplines. The two chapters in Part 1 describe very broad views of the entire…

An approach to supervision and evaluation of student teachers includes identification of generic teaching competencies and a systematic appraisal with reference to established desirable teaching behaviors. Structured Classroom Observation Guides, focusing on particular skills during each week of the practicum experience and progressing from basic…

An investigation was made to determine whether teacher expectations influence the way teachers interact with students and, if they do, to assess what effects teacher behavior might have. Also addressed was the question of whether teachers treat males and females differently in ways that may discourage females in math. All teacher/student…

In this article, the authors seek to re-conceptualize the perspective regarding students' difficulties with algebra. While acknowledging that students "do" have difficulties when learning algebra, they also argue that the generally espoused criteria for algebra as the ability to work with the syntactical rules for solving equations is…

What issues do distance education (DE) leaders believe will influence the future of DE? What are their colleges' DE strategies? This qualitative study compares DE strategic thinking and strategic choices at three community colleges. Two propositions are investigated: (1) each college's DE leaders use common strategic mental models (ways of…

This paper describes in detail the narrative approach taken in a study of a particular facet of learning in the workplace--how people make sense of change. In unstructured in-depth interviews, employees were encouraged to tell their stories about their organisations, revealing details about the organisational culture and the ways in which this…