The purpose of this study was to examine how the use of the student's first language (L1) by a non-native English-speaking EFL teacher affects the students' experiences in learning English compared to those in the classrooms where only English is used as a means of teaching. This study also investigates the role of the teacher in providing…

Studies on classroom practices in Africa and the developing world tend to report on the visible general features, i.e. code switching, rote learning, memorisation and safe talk, with very little on the micro, invisible, classroom life. This article, based on the findings of a study involving classroom observations of teachers and pupils'…

This study addressed questions about the relations between personal characteristics and aspects of home environments and young children's subsequent academically relevant peer interaction behaviors in kindergarten in a sample of 108 preschool-age children (57 males, 51 females) from 2 Midwest cities and neighboring communities. A year prior to the…

Background/Context: In response to state-level test-based accountability and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school administrators increasingly view centralized curriculum and prescribed instructional strategies as the most direct means of increasing student performance. This movement toward standardization reduces teachers' autonomy and…

This document reports a study of school-based kindergarten through 12th grade environmental education (EE) programs. The study was developed to gather baseline information on the status of EE, identify education reform initiatives and explore their possible interactions with EE, and provide an overview of institutional needs and the factors that…

This study examined changes in infants' performance in detecting tones as a funtion of time. Stimuli were presented in blocks of fixed frequency and intensity, rather than in random order. The findings of earlier studies that an observer can reliably tell from a 1-month-old's behavior when a pure tone is being presented, and that reinforcement of…

This study explores how accurately participants in an encounter group perceive the leaders. Accuracy of the participants' perceptions were measured at the beginning and the end of the experience. Results show that group members' perceptions of the leaders were highly inaccurate. (Author)

Results of the present investigation indicate that when there is no actual change in behavior, knowledge by observers of predicted results is unlikely to alter behavioral recordings. (Author)

Reflections on the meaning and uses of science and observations about its implications in the study of learning disabilities are offered in this paper. The distinction between science and technology is examined and difficulties with society's absorption in pseudoscience or in science that has been oversimplified are discussed. The field of left…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize some of the author's logical and empirical reflections on the practice of using naturalistic techniques to conduct evaluations. The main assertion to be supported by these reflections is that naturalistic evaluation is possible and in some cases powerful. This assertion is supported through a review of (1)…

This paper discusses different approaches used by researchers to acquire a comprehensive picture of what family life is like when one of the family members is handicapped. Researchers must determine the best time to get a "true" picture of what family life is like and must determine whether parents describe the true family situation or react to…

Provides an illustration of the contribution of serendipitous happenings to scientific information and relates this to a consideration of social and technical problems confronting mankind. The author decries an unfortunate tendency in science today: that of discarding observational aspects of field activities which cannot easily be made…

This paper is based upon a thesis presented to Purdue University by the senior author in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the master's degree.