The purpose of this study is to examine student perceptions of instructional techniques that promote language learning. The intent was to inform practice for current and future foreign language teachers. Eight major themes emerged from interviews with numerous advanced level foreign students from throughout central Indiana. These themes include…

This paper describes the shared responsibility model--in which instructors, institutional administrators, and learners all assume responsibility--for learner success in distance education environments. Discussed in detail are the specific strategies to be deployed by: (1) the instructor, who plans instructional outcomes, selects course content,…

In research on classroom discourses, case studies have been used to describe the dynamics of effective and ineffective instruction. In other research, quantitative studies have identified global features of such discourse. The research reported here combined the advantages of both methods, investigating how generally effective classroom discourse…

This paper uses a language classroom role-playing scene from a Woody Allen movie to examine the language student who has traditionally been asked to emulate and copy the native speaker and to discuss roles that teachers ask students to play. It also presents the changing paradigm of the native speaker and his or her role inside and outside the…

This paper outlines a matrix approach to shared governance developed at Central Michigan University (CMU), designed to help faculty and administrators focus on specific decision areas and to define existing roles more clearly. The process began at CMU in spring 1998 with the formation of an ad hoc committee on governance which surveyed faculty and…

The purpose of this paper was to provide a literary review and to create a manual explaining the difference between an interdisciplinary curriculum and other curriculum approaches. An interdisciplinary curriculum is a holistic approach that links the disciplines by emphasizing relationships and connections. A different approach to curriculum…

In science education, it is well understood that teachers' scientific conceptions can influence students' learning, but the extent to which students' knowledge influences teachers' ideas is not known. This paper describes a study of the mutual interaction of ideas between two second grade teachers, one teacher intern, and their classrooms during…

This study analyzed the beliefs of student teachers in two Hong Kong teacher training programs: the Post-Graduate Diploma of Education (PGDE) and the Teachers' Certificate (TC) programs. It examined student teachers' beliefs when they first entered the program and noted characteristics of the beliefs. Ten student teachers from a 1-year PGDE…

Their numbers are increasing every year, especially in community colleges, and teaching methods must be tailored to their particular backgrounds, needs, and expectations. (Editor)

A sociological analysis of the concept of "role" is applied to adult students. The disparity between adult students and teachers' subjective expectations of them is examined. A framework for analyzing student role from social, personal, occupational, and institutional perspectives is presented. (Availability: Falmer Press, Falmer House, Barcombe,…

The potential of using a school-based approach to teacher education was investigated in an action study undertaken jointly by three European institutions of higher education. The Joint Studies Programme of the Commission of the European Community for institutions of higher education initiated and developed the school-based projects. (Author/PP)

Three articles discuss the use of computers in education: (1) "References for a Broader Vision" (Henry F. Olds, Jr.); (2) "What Every Teacher Should Know About Computer Simulations" (David Grady); and (3) "The Computer as Palette and Model Builder" (Interview of Alan Kay). (CJ)

David Riesman's "On Higher Education: The Academic Enterprise in an Era of Rising Student Consumerism" is criticized as evading the real issue of the conflict between traditional, self-serving faculty notions of higher education's purpose and the much-changed demands of the student population. (MSE)

Student and teaching staff at the University of New England were surveyed by questionnaire to assess attitudes about the purposes of a college education, preferences for different learning modes, and views on student and faculty roles in decision-making related to the instructional process. (MLW)

The purpose of this study was to use parallel measures, in a sample of Israeli classrooms (18 teachers classes) to assess the perception of behavior and adequacy of role performance of self and others. Findings suggest that teacher self-concept is associated with student self-concept and achievement levels. (Author/DS)