A Spanish teacher successfully sued a student she claimed terrorized her, after school administrators ignored her complaints. Nearly 11% of teachers experience verbal and physical abuse by students. Although some states are stiffening penalties against violent students, educators' best recourse is to publicize the problem, devise policies, and…

New Zealand is attempting to introduce a "seamless" system of qualifications for senior secondary school students delivered through modules (learning units) and linked to higher education qualifications. This paper studies how one school's change to a modular curriculum delivery system affected staff and students. Staff perceptions…

Short-term fixes may boost test scores without improving learning. Schools focused on higher standards and instructional reform should reorganize and condense state, district, and national standards; adopt a "less is more" approach; support collaborative improvement efforts; and link assessment to a high-quality learning environment.…

Analyzes survey data from randomly selected schools to investigate Oregon educators' attitudes toward mandated reforms, forces shaping these attitudes, and resultant changes in educational practices. Teachers' attitudes toward systemic reform over a 5-year period may be characterized as ambivalent and their behaviors as compliant. Workload was a…

Builds on Duncan Waite's supervisory mission (improving the total teaching/learning situation) by focusing on the dyadic interaction between positively oriented supervisors and the teachers they supervise. Action dimensions vital to accomplishing change include power/dependence relationships, social influences, and effective communicator styles.…

Addresses past and current issues concerning teacher response to first-year student writing and suggests that teacher intervention should be viewed as a writing process itself. Describes the author's own process of responding to student writing, which he has found to be very effective. Concludes that individual teachers must decide for themselves…

Discusses how to integrate technology into the classroom in order to take advantage of the benefits technology has to offer students, teachers, and parents. Describes how to create a class website that enables students and parents to view information about class activities, assignments, and Internet resources. Offers some technology-based…

Encouraging students to be more vocal members of the response sequence can assist teachers in writing stronger comments on student texts. The author conducted a small-scale study of students' reactions to response formats, finding that students preferred formats that allowed teachers to elaborate on their comments, displayed teacher effort,…

Using a "historical case study" of Edwin M. Hopkins, this article explores what Bruce Horner calls the "material social conditions" of teaching writing early in the twentieth century. It shows how Hopkins's own attitude and response to the demands of being a writing teacher serve as a backdrop for understanding his local and national crusade to…

In this article, the author presents the story of Tucker, a child who constantly looks for attention. The author assesses that children like Tucker frequently wrestle with feelings of jealousy and competition. However, Tucker's intense competitiveness is a bit beyond what one would expect, even for a young child who has a chronically ill older…

Teachers are facing an increasing number of changes in their job context, many of which significantly affect their work lives. This study offers a theoretical understanding of the changes in teachers' working conditions, starting from the intensification thesis. The case study of a Flemish (Belgian) elementary school shows the existence of various…

An instructor of a composition and computers writing course (designed for economically and culturally disadvantaged students) at the State University of New York at Buffalo, developed electronic conferences which combine the capabilities of the computer with the conference approach. The instructor reads students' papers while sitting at the…

Months after the conclusion of a course, a writing teacher still receives electronic mail messages from former students, referring to the class or asking for advice. The implications of this post-course e-mail could cause a refiguration of traditional concepts of the boundaries of the classroom and of the academic term itself. What kind of…

The ability to deal effectively with student differences is crucial to teaching reading. Teachers must address the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students in the regular classroom. The ability of teachers to handle differences effectively translates into instructional practices that provide for each student's self-respect and that…

A study examined the relative effectiveness of written feedback of student speeches. Subjects, 114 students from a large, midwestern university enrolled in 10 sections of the basic communication course, supplied a photocopy of a speech evaluation form which included written comments as well as an overall speech grade for the third speech of the…