The purpose of this study was to explore vocabulary acquisition of primary grade children. Specifically, the study used a unique teaching strategy that added physical movement to typical read-aloud sessions with kindergarten and first grade children. Although a review of reading research revealed a plethora of studies, very few studies…

The relationship between home and school is often raised in public discussion about boys' education as an aspect of boys' overall lower achievement in school, and particularly in literacy, relative to girls. A critical review of two influential Australian and one UK government commissioned reports into boys' education sets the scene for our…

This paper describes how two people, a professor in educational administration and a graduate student who acted as coach, used the coaching process as a part of collaborative action research. It focuses on the professor-coach interpersonal issues of mutual trust, new learning, and autonomy. The graduate student was an expert in coaching methods…

As educators seek to bridge the gap between research and practice, action research empowers teachers to inform others of the results found in their own schools. This paper describes a step-by-step approach to help teachers and administrators conduct classroom action research in their own schools. The five steps are as follows: (1) problem…

SwampLog is a type of journal keeping that records the facts of daily activities as experienced and perceived by practitioners. The label, "SwampLog," was inspired by Donald Schon's metaphor used to distinguish the "swamplands of practice" from the "high, hard ground of research." Keeping a SwampLog consists of recording four general types of…

In this background paper to the Educational Research Symposium on the "Socio-Culturally Handicapped", compensatory educational programs are reviewed with particular regard to pre-primary and primary school education. Positive strategies are suggested based on the development of evaluation techniques which link research and action and are tied to…

This report describes the various programs associated with the British educational priority area (EPA) project whose aim was to identify and evaluate practical means of implementing in the primary and pre-school the recommendations of the Plowden Report that a policy of "positive discrimination" be adopted towards the education of…

This summary paper of the Educational Research Symposium on the "Socio-Culturally Handicapped" details the major themes of the conference, and lists recommendations for further involvement for the Council of Europe in this area. (EH)

The Randomized Response Technique (RRT) appears to have promise in future work which studies the relation of school variables to disruption or delinquent behavior. The RRT is especially useful in situations when it is difficult or undesirable directly to ask stigmatizing questions. The proportions of students in this study estimated to have used…

A problem, endemic to program evaluation, centering around the inability of evaluations to produce meaningful information, is outlined. A general strategy to be utilized in responding to the problem, the ethnographic approach, is presented. The discussion of an ethnographic evaluation model focuses upon: the role of the participant observer,…

This paper reports on an investigation of the preferences of 50 parents of kindergarten children for various types of report cards and proposes a method of reporting that conforms to the parents' preferences. A general opinionnaire plus a Report Card Evaluation form were designed for the study. Parents were found to prefer (1) a reporting method…

To date, efforts to educate the disadvantaged child have failed because most teachers and administrators have been unable to transcend the gulf between his culture and their own. Two concepts, however, are basic to any suggestions about educating the disadvantaged. First, it is possible to educate children "by providing a model for emulation and…

This paper reports some findings observed in the course of an on-going study of some effects of an Organization Development (OD) intervention in a secondary level parochial school. Two types of data are reported. First, data commonly found in literature concerning OD in schools, those in the social psychological dimension. These included some…

Participant/observation is useful as a tool for gathering evidence about processes, circumstances, or other observable conditions. A participant/observer is an investigator gathering evidence. Observations are carefully recorded, prejudgment is scorned, and judgments flow from the evidence. In approaching a situation to be investigated, the…

Several of the most common approaches to the preparation of more reflective teachers during pre-service teacher education are described. Specific strategies include: action research, ethnographic studies, writing exercises, and the Ohio State reflective teaching exercises. Empirical evidence concerning inquiry-oriented strategies is also…