New Zealand school education through the middle years appears to be in crisis. Sutton (2000) reports that students in the age range from 13-15 years (Years 9 and 10 of schooling) experience the crisis most poignantly. Their teachers increasingly say children in this age range are difficult to motivate, that they present them with their greatest…

There is a tremendous gap in the research of the moral and ethical dimensions of teacher dispositions. Teacher dispositions need to be reviewed, re-evaluated and constructed with a plan in mind to accommodate what we, as educators, now know about the legitimate and unique differences in learning at every age. The purpose of this research was to…

Research has demonstrated that well-integrated computer-assisted instruction can have positive effects on student achievement, attitudes, and self-esteem. In this article, the authors summarize a project that focused on increasing students' positive social behavior by providing better context to the instruction and using technology as the teaching…

This paper compares two sets of data from the same year, 2001--the numbers of students taking languages other than English at primary and secondary level, and census statistics for the home use of languages other than English. The data draws attention to languages that are taught principally in day schools and those taken mainly in after hours…

This study has two parallel research agenda: (1) the development of social skills and pedagogical content knowledge in teacher candidates as they work collaboratively in pairs, and (2) the development of conceptual understanding and social skills in elementary school students who are taught by teacher candidates with cooperative learning…

The purpose of my qualitative, action study was to gain a better understanding of the effects of an experimental college course in computer applications. This inquiry was made concerning both the teacher's and learners' points of view. A holistic, arts-based approach was used by the researcher/teacher in order to design, develop and facilitate a…

David Ingram's career has traversed several decades of shifting rationale for language policy in Australia. Government and institutional initiatives have at various times favoured traditional foreign language teaching, multicultural imperatives and language diversity, concern for Asian economically strategic languages, or a focus on literacy in…

This paper explores the interplay between Western conceptions of education and students from other educational traditions, most specifically Japan, through the lens of the author's practice in international education. He examines models of the private and public spheres and public discourse advanced by Hannah Arendt and Jurgen Habermas in relation…

An evaluation mosaic brings together different methods and forms to present an overall picture of the impact this professional learning experience had on teachers' practices and on student achievement. Using this framework, professional developers were able to determine whether they were getting the results they wanted--and they did.

In recent years, educators have begun to use learning portfolios as a means of evaluating student learning in higher education. Research indicates that learning portfolios can help students understand better the learning process as well as enhancing learning outcomes. They promote reflection on the learning experience and encourage students to…

Student perceptions were investigated toward their experience of learning online in a web-based graduate social policy course. Overall, student perceptions were positive toward the online features of this course with the most useful features being the PowerPoint lecture notes and the Discussion Board. Students were more satisfied with their…

This research is the result of time spent on school campuses, working in classrooms, observing lunch areas and student quads, and interviewing students. We tried to determine how or whether English learners had opportunities to learn with and from native English speakers, as well as whether both groups were aware of the presence of each other on…

This study applied an early screening approach to determine the risk status of children in 5 urban schools and monitor their patterns of reading growth over 3 years. A majority of students were from culturally diverse and low-SES backgrounds. Two validated instruments were used for determining (a) academic risk (the Dynamic Indicators of Basic…

This edited volume contains 15 chapters. Part one, "Language Teaching, Language Learning, and Literacy," has three chapters: "The Monolingual Teaching and Bilingual Learning of English" (Henry G. Widdowson); "Literacy: The Extension of Languages Through Other Means" (Ellen Bialystok); "Bilingual Processing…

This document contains the fourth volume of the proceedings of the 30th Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education. Conference presentations are centered around the theme "Mathematics at the Centre." This volume features 59 research reports by presenters with last names beginning between Kun and…