"Good teaching" is notoriously difficult to measure. It may be possible, though, to say where a teacher stands on a scale of development which has four stages. In the first stage, the authority is the teacher, and the student gives back rote responses. In the second stage, the authority is the text or syllabus, and the student asks…

The Edwards Personal Preference Schedule was used to assess the personality variables of teachers named as effective by a sample of heterosexual, heterogeneous Black, Chicano, Indian, Asian, and White high school students. Specific attributes of effective teachers were identified, and include: intraception, change, dominance, nurturance, and…

The hypothesis that field-independent students rank task-oriented characteristics as important in the "ideal teacher," and conversely, that field-dependent students rank socially-oriented characteristics as important was not confirmed. The small tendency for field-dependent students to prefer teacher traits in which they themselves are…

Expected student teaching performance and supervisory bias can be defined through performance contracting, an agreement between those involved in the supervisory relationship which clarifies problem areas related to content, teaching style, pupil evaluation, classroom management, and the evaluation of the student teacher. (Author)

Discusses many of the distinctions that chemists draw between theoretical chemistry and descriptive chemistry, along with the tendency for chemical educators to adopt the type of chemistry they feel is most important to teach. Uses examples to argue that theoretical chemistry and descriptive chemistry are, at the bottom line, the same. (TW)

This study of the instructional ecology of 52 high school resource room programs for mildly handicapped students found that teachers instructed in a wide variety of content areas and had high student engagement rates. Instructional practices generally associated with high achievement were not typically employed. Implications for teacher training…

A study of 150 rural teachers assessed the effect of teaching practices on elementary students' improvement in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior concerning good nutrition. Significant findings indicated that teachers using fewer traditional activities had students who performed better. Number of nontraditional activities used had no relationship…

Reports on observations of how a small group of foreign language teachers sought to teach their students the skill of "free expression," that is, the ability to use sentences learned integrally from texts and exericises in new and different situations. Compares these techniques and interprets these comparisons. (SED)

The consensus among Japanese that education is important is the single most important contributor to the success of Japanese schools. Other factors include institutional centralization and centralized fiscal support, the valued role of maternal support, and the strong supportive learning atmosphere at home and in the classroom. (CMG)

Achievement and student attitudes were studied using data from 250 secondary Ontario mathematics classes. The differences between semester schools versus year-long schools were examined. Hours of instruction and teachers' experience were also noted. Lower achievement was observed in semester classes, with no advantage in student attitudes.…

Based on experiences with her introverted sensing-perceiving type daughter, the author concludes that successful teaching requires trust, empathy, and a large-goal orientation combined with a clear understanding of Jungian typology. Included is a schematic description of Jungian types (as extended by Myers), excerpted from the author's book,…

This study examines two teaching styles in Chinese middle schools, traditional lecture-based and cooperative learning. The study uses simple descriptive statistics to analyze economic status and achievement scores for both strategies in four Chinese middle schools. There were 145 randomly selected middle school students involved in the study. The…

This paper presents an overview of American Indian students' learning styles, world views, and communication styles, with implications for classroom techniques and teaching styles. Research has shown that American Indian and African American students are primarily right-brained in learning styles, while Anglo and Asian students are primarily…

This qualitative investigation examined the strategy knowledge of preservice teachers in a field-based program. Subjects were 24 preservice teachers in a field-based program. Recursive analyses of their field teaching lessons and post lesson interviews revealed a continuum of strategy awareness ranging from limited to metacognitive levels. First…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether reformed science and math courses at community colleges and universities were impacting education majors as they began a teaching career. The reformed courses, in contrast to typical lecture classes, implemented inquiry-based methods that emphasized deep understanding of fundamental science and…