The procedures used in an ethnographic study of a classroom language learning community are described. The research was undertaken to gain insights into adult language learning taking place among students who were not foreign language majors in an elementary French class at Michigan Technological University during the 1986-87 academic year. The…

In this module, developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project, preservice teachers study the major types of classroom interactions which occur between teachers and students and review the research findings showing how these interactions are related to effective teaching. Much effort is spent on describing procedures for…

A study of 60 elementary and secondary math and science teachers who were nominated by their peers as effective microcomputer-using teachers was conducted to describe how peer-nominated teachers use microcomputers instructionally, and how these uses vary as a function of teacher characteristics (e.g., knowledge, attitudes) and other background…

The Infant/Toddler Program of the Louise Child Care Center began providing full time day care to young children of working parents in the fall of 1978. While delivering this service, the Center conducted a longitudinal, exploratory investigation into the responses of children and their families to a group-home day care setting. The study was…

The evaluation examined whether there was a difference in the achievement in four dimensions of communications skills (content, organization, language usage, and delivery) of students of eight K-6 teachers attending a 2-week summer institute and nine 1-6 teachers attending four inservice sessions, and whether there was a correlation between grade…

This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

The first volume of this final report of a large study that detailed the day-to-day workings of, and student response to, two philosophically different approaches to reading readiness as they were used in six Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) kindergartens reports on the literate environment approach. The background section explains that this approach…

According to this publication, a school's most effective tool in encouraging student success may be its control over the time the student spends working on goal-oriented learning activities--that is, time on task. This document is intended to help school administrators understand the effects of their decisions on students' learning time and…

Projects involving students more directly in research, evaluation, and teaching in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota are described in this newsletter issue. Results of the projects seem to underscore the role that student-faculty relationships play in the growth and development of college students. It is suggested that with more student…

The first part of this guide describes how kindergarten children learn and develop and how teachers can enhance children's intellectual, physical, and social development in the context of their activity in a prepared, play-based environment. Topics addressed include physical development, sensory awareness, motor skills, creative movement, skilled…

A detailed description and sociological analysis were made of peer interaction in a public school kindergarten located in a large urban school district. Data collected over a 5-month observation period included field note transcriptions of hundreds of interaction events, records of formal and informal interviews with classroom participants, and…

This paper describes Detroit's "Peer Teachers as Mirrors and Monitors" project, a cost effective approach to increasing student achievement in mathematics and reading in grades one through four in Title I schools. The program consists of: (1) an observation/feedback system giving teachers data from their students' engaged-in-learning…

Public and private teacher-student interactions were coded for 551 students during 10 mathematics class periods in 18 classrooms, grades 5 through 8. The observation system used was a modified version of two systems, the Brophy and Good teacher-student dyadic interaction system, and the Dweck et al. observation system to code evaluative feedback.…

Kindergarten teachers in Hong Kong are often criticised for not putting early childhood education theory into practice after their in-service training. It appears that they may be too concerned about academic work and discipline in the classroom and neglect to create a coherent vision of early childhood education. It might be suggested that…

Evaluations of faculty instructional ability have long been used to assist in promotion, tenure, and hiring decisions or to help improve individual teaching performance. Internal and external pressures for increased accountability, together with improvements in evaluation methods, have resulted in increased emphasis on evaluation of instruction.…