A curriculum activity was initiated to provide preservice teachers with a personal knowledge base of active research procedures through the use of class-related activities. A research component was included in a required preservice class in assessment. Following the principles of scaffolding theory, students who had studied the elements of…

The Illinois State Board of Education's Scientific Literacy Project provided extra funds to certain schools with the intent of creating demonstration schools useful as models for other schools to improve their science education programs. The study described in this document examined the impact of these funds on the target schools and attempted to…

This publication offers practical support to those in British higher education implementing the Observation of Teaching governmental directives. It provides discussion of key issues as well as a range of materials on how to carry out teaching observation including 23 checklists. The materials are grouped in four main areas: general issues, self…

Conducted in 1991, this study surveyed the quality of day care centers in the province of Pavia, Italy, in order to provide a description of the centers and to trace educational patterns in the infant, young toddler, and toddler sections of the centers. The 32 day care centers located in the province employ a staff of 342 and provide 1,700 places…

A study in Sri Lanka concerning the effects of second language tests, specifically the O-Level examination in English as a Second Language, on classroom language instruction is reported. The study investigates the phenomenon of washback or backwash, the influence of testing on instruction. It is cited as the only known research investigating…

Designed to help teachers monitor their students' progress in beginning literacy, this book describes some classroom observation tasks which have been used systematically by New Zealand teachers to guide their teaching of young children in formal school programs. The book is designed for: teachers who work individually with children having…

Classroom observation and evaluation of teachers by supervisors or principals is a delicate process. Most teachers would welcome feedback from their supervisors about improving teaching, but they rarely receive it. Many times the role of the principal is unclear in the observation process. Standardized observation formats sometimes fail to…

This book focuses on what it feels like and what it means to spend substantial portions of one's everyday life in the chat rooms, support groups, and virtual communities of cyberspace. Interviewing heavy users online, and becoming one herself, the author creates and ethnographic site for inquiring into the meanings of life online, a place where…

This study was conducted to examine the preparation of principals to deal with incompetent or marginal teachers. There is some concern that principals may not be current on effective teaching techniques, may not have sufficient time during the day to deal with management demands as well as teacher observation and assistance, and may not have…

This report describes a program designed to promote the use of recorded observations in Child Development Associate (CDA) advisors' assessments of interns in early childhood education at a southwestern community college. Sixty-one advisors participated in the program, which consisted of a series of five staff development meetings, formulation of a…

This paper proposes a strategy for analyzing and improving a college professor's approach to teaching. The strategy uses volunteer observers and a simple checklist, the Teacher Observation Checklist, of positive teaching behaviors drawn from the literature. Since college professors' sensitivity to examination and evaluation is high, this strategy…

In an effort to help developmentally delayed or disabled children succeed in an integrated or regular early childhood classroom setting, the Rural Area Model Preschool Project staff developed an ecological inventory to identify the behaviors and skills expected of preschoolers in classroom settings. The inventory was used for 2 months in eight…

In this paper a new conception of school science is set forth, based on the utilization of data collected in introductory college chemistry classrooms in a western university. Two sections of freshmen chemistry and several of the accompanying laboratory periods for the first weeks of the fall semester were observed. The methods of research were…

This manual describes the results of a 3-year research project at George Washington University (District of Columbia) called the Assessment as Intervention Project, which explored approaches to parent-sensitive developmental follow-up for prematurely born infants who received neonatal intensive care and their families (N=25). After an…

This publication reviews issues and processes in the quest for less-biased, least-biased, non-biased assessment. It is intended to aid the school psychologist in assisting all individuals in placement or program decisions for school-age children. The first section articulates the common sources of bias in assessment and identifies concepts…