Discusses four components of the classroom environment found to play an important role in the successful participation of children learning English as a second language. Those components are: a physical environment that is organized, inviting, and accessible; inclusion of materials and artifacts from many cultures; opportunities for community…

Compares Queensland teachers' conceptions of communicative language teaching with those held by 11 Japanese junior high school teachers of English, interviewed in 1997 as part of a s part study on the development of language teaching in Japan. (Author/VWL)

Academic disciplines with soft paradigmatic development have greater affinity for practices designed to improve undergraduate education than do hard paradigmatic disciplines. A study extends this hypothesis to the seven principles of good practice, garnering empirical support for four principles: encouragement of faculty-student contact;…

Presents a collection of computer software programs designed to spark learning enthusiasm at every grade level and across the curriculum. They include Reader Rabbit's Learn to Read, Spelling Power, Mind Twister Math, Community Construction Kit, Breaking the Code, Encarta Africana 2000, Virtual Serengeti, Operation: Frog (Deluxe), and My First…

Suggests that learning is essential not only for students to develop basic employability skills but also for development of work habits, beliefs, interests, and values. The theory can: (a) be an assessment instrument for stimulating learning, (b) achieve performance and cognitive outcomes, and (c) measure success by the extent to which clients…

Presents an analysis of recorded weekly discussions between British student language teachers and their school-based mentors. Results found that, despite individual preferences and interpretations, all mentors supported principles related to positive classroom management, building relationships with pupils, maximum use of the target language, and…

Describes a study that used survey and focus group data to examine differences in perception of online group process and development between college students in Mexico and the United States. Discusses language, power distance, gender differences, collectivist versus individualist tendencies, conflict, social presence, time frame, and technical…

Presents results of the latest biennial survey of school library funding. Highlights include funding sources; expenditures; currency of collections; technology; library staff and training; programs and services; media specialists' experience and salaries; instructional planning with teachers; and district level leadership. (LRW)

Examined associations between parent language complexity and conversational style and child language use. Contrasted parents' story reading language style with their style for free play with toys and joint remembering of an event. Findings underscore the extent to which children's conversational ability is shaped by the demands of the social and…

Examination of gender differences in self-efficacy, attitudes toward mathematics, and achievement of 48 gifted 7th and 8th grade students after participating in a 2-week course on probability and statistics found no differences in achievement or self-efficacy between cooperative learning mixed gender or single gender groups. Differences in…

The author's gaming-simulation course at Western Carolina University has been 30 years in the making. Its structure, content, and instructional methods are heavily influenced by the author's professorial aspirations and experience in the use of simulations. In this brief article, the author shares some of his early use of educational games and…

This paper applies the findings of doctoral research undertaken in the Northern Territory. It draws on extended interviews with nine Indigenous students studying at university to produce four findings for classroom learning and teaching, one of which highlights the need to recognise Aboriginal English as a focal point of the curriculum for both…

Australian public policy adopted the concept of lifelong learning in the 1980s and harnessed it to human capital theory to articulate a new policy emphasis on "up-skilling" the Australian labour force. This paper addresses the question of how this conception of lifelong learning has fared in practice as Australian Commonwealth government…

Diverse university student cohorts are becoming the norm in rural universities. As universities reach out to an increasingly diverse group of students in rural areas it has become evident that traditional support structures are inadequate to meet the needs of students who tend to be mature aged women and first generation students. Studies have…

This study examined associations between multiple parental behaviors and children's participation in out-of-school math, science, and computer activities for children in 2nd (n = 125), 3rd (n = 123), and 5th grade (n = 200). Mothers and fathers reported how often they encouraged their children's activities, participated in activities with their…