This article addresses the debate on college literacy achievement by focusing on teacher education students. In addition to acquiring the academic tools for teaching, many of those students might need to remediate their literacy gaps while mastering graduate-level academic writing skills. This study inquired into variables that might help predict…

This article involved a series of investigations influenced by the Reggio Emilia approach to early education as well as ideas of Paulo Freire. Within a Reggio-influenced classroom, teacher professional development is seen as essential, whereas for Paulo Freire, both teacher and the student are learners. These 2 ideas were brought together in a…

Collaborative action research partnerships create rich opportunities for the professional development of teachers and classroom reform. This paper reports results from two action research projects. The first was a collaboration between the author and a seventh-grade mathematics teacher who wanted to change his mathematics teaching in an effort to…

This report describes a program for improving reading comprehension in seventh graders by focusing on higher order thinking and metacognitive skills. The targeted population was in a growing, middle class community located in northern Illinois. The problem of below grade level reading comprehension was documented by Illinois Goals Assessment…

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in teacher research and action research as ways of knowing about teaching and learning, but assisting preservice and inservice teachers to become teacher researchers has not traditionally been accommodated by teacher education programs. The model English education program at the University of…

This report presents the current status of an ongoing qualitative case study of the implementation of the High Scope Curriculum in the preschool readiness program at one elementary school in Gordon County, Georgia. This program, provided for all 4-year-olds, includes home visits by a family services coordinator, parent involvement opportunities,…

Viewed through an investigation of the cultural and social impact of Information Technology (IT), this paper attempts to illustrate the theoretical and practical utility of HCI (Human Computer Interaction) to communication research. Informed by the full integration hypothesis, which suggests that information technologies have become part of the…

This paper reports on an on-going action research project that attempts to establish a science education learning community. A pluralistic theoretical perspective influenced by post-critical theory, postmodernism/poststructuralism, and feminism is used in the examination of the challenges in developing a learning community among student teachers,…

Approximately 35 literacy practitioners in Pennsylvania were trained and mentored in action research from July 1995-June 1996. The project used two models of delivery. With a team of five trainers/mentors, the urban model was developed in the Pittsburgh and Erie western region and an outreach model was used in the northern, northeastern, and…

This conference paper describes an assessment model used by the graduate degree program at St. Mary College (Kansas). The degree program provides a cross-specialization in education, management, and psychology. Qualitative/Action Research for Authentic Assessment is a method for assessing students at completion of degree which provides an…

The purpose of skills-training needs-assessment is to identify what type of skills and knowledge are needed to support economic strategies and, as a result, improve organizational decisionmaking related to training investments and general work force development. This paper presents findings of 11 skills-retraining, needs-assessment,…

A new paradigm for evaluating school restructuring that is based on the teacher-as-researcher concept, or action research, is presented in this paper. The first section compares the traditional and new evaluation paradigms. The old model is competitive, one-dimensional, reactive, and based on external change agents; it appeals to fear and views…

This action research project involved the implementation and evaluation of a program for increased parental involvement at an elementary school in western Illinois. Evidence for the lack of parental involvement included declining membership in the Parent-Teacher Organization, elimination of the computer lab, limited library hours due to lack of…

This paper focuses on nine inservice elementary teachers who received training in the Youth Empowerment and Self-Sufficiency (YESS)!/Mini-Society program at the beginning of the 1996-97 school year. The purpose of the project was to explore these teachers' impressions of the program before and after program implementation. All subjects…

This study reports on a high school teacher using emancipatory action research to implement cooperative learning strategies in a chemistry class. Data were collected and analyzed using qualitative methods. The findings of the study indicate: (1) students accept cooperative learning if they feel it can increase their ability to learn content; (2)…