This portrait of a high school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Mr. McCabe and his eighth grade class in their…

A four-phase staff development program for faculty of health science professional schools is described, and aspects of the teaching/learning process are considered. The first phase dealt with intensive, all-day educational workshops for faculty in the basic and applied health sciences. Topics such as instructional planning, strategies of teaching…

Designed to alleviate the confusion caused by the existence of a multiplicity of approaches to writing research, the four parts of this book present explicit discussions of research principles and methods used by researchers actively working within a variety of disciplines. The two chapters in Part 1 describe very broad views of the entire…

An approach to supervision and evaluation of student teachers includes identification of generic teaching competencies and a systematic appraisal with reference to established desirable teaching behaviors. Structured Classroom Observation Guides, focusing on particular skills during each week of the practicum experience and progressing from basic…

An investigation was made to determine whether teacher expectations influence the way teachers interact with students and, if they do, to assess what effects teacher behavior might have. Also addressed was the question of whether teachers treat males and females differently in ways that may discourage females in math. All teacher/student…

The purpose of this comparative case study was to explore English language teachers' beliefs, assumptions and knowledge about learner-centeredness and to see how they implement learner-centeredness in their classrooms. The study was conducted at one public and one private primary school in Istanbul. Focus group interviews were held in each school…

In this article, the authors seek to re-conceptualize the perspective regarding students' difficulties with algebra. While acknowledging that students "do" have difficulties when learning algebra, they also argue that the generally espoused criteria for algebra as the ability to work with the syntactical rules for solving equations is…

What issues do distance education (DE) leaders believe will influence the future of DE? What are their colleges' DE strategies? This qualitative study compares DE strategic thinking and strategic choices at three community colleges. Two propositions are investigated: (1) each college's DE leaders use common strategic mental models (ways of…

This paper describes in detail the narrative approach taken in a study of a particular facet of learning in the workplace--how people make sense of change. In unstructured in-depth interviews, employees were encouraged to tell their stories about their organisations, revealing details about the organisational culture and the ways in which this…

This research focused on students' learning of mathematical rules with reasoning. A small group of students (age 11-12 yrs) was observed closely by the first author as she taught them fraction rules. The area of focus was fractions and activities were designed pertaining to the four rules of fractions: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and…

Grouse Creek is a small Mormon ranching community in the extreme northwest corner of Utah. A survey of that community was conducted during 1985 by a team of folklorists, architectural historians, and historians, with the purpose of testing the idea of combining in the same fieldwork a concern for architecture, folk arts, and folklife. The work was…

Observation of teacher classroom performance can provide insights into the steps necessary to improve pedagogical practice. Data from over 13,000 field observations of Florida teachers over a 2-year period revealed parallel performance patterns across grade levels and years among 40 behavioral indicators. The study used the Florida Performance…

This book uses an ethnographic approach to collect and analyze patterns of language and culture that affect interracial communication and culture. The study selects patterns of behavior, or elements within patterns, and maps black and white cognitive territory in order to reveal the cultural reasons for communications difficulties. The book…

This article reports on the development, internal consistency, and reliability of a new preschool and kindergarten classroom observational measure based on NAEYC's Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practices. The Classroom Practices Inventory (CPI) is a 26-item rating scale tapping the curricular emphasis and emotional climate of programs…

Applications of the qualitative approach in the evaluation of special education and second language programs are addressed in this paper. Qualitative data are recommended for providing detailed descriptions of specific program elements, and can be obtained through interviews, observations, case studies, and ethnographic studies. Six evaluation…