This paper examines the meaning of "rural" in rural education research and the relationship of this meaning to the research project's design and purpose. In traditional, comparative research designs, "rural" becomes a part of research that involves or implies comparisons with the nonrural. In contrast, emergent, interpretive…

The way in which professional counselors perceive or conceptualize clients and their presenting issues constitutes an outward expression of the counselors' philosophy, training and world view. These perceptions and conceptualizations directly or indirectly affect assessment, therapeutic methodology, and even client outcomes. This article presents…

A microanalysis was completed of 3,003 oral reading error episodes during 72 small-group reading lessons involving 116 students in three second-grade and three third-grade classrooms. Factors were investigated that influenced: (1) oral reading errors made by readers; (2) the readers' reactions to their own errors; and (3) the teachers' feedback…

This book profiles 12 writing centers that function effectively on their college and university campuses. Following an introduction that provides an overview and suggests ways the book can be used, the centers are examined in detail in the following chapters: (1) "A Multiservice Writing Lab in a Multiversity: The Purdue University Writing…

Over the last 20 years there has been a surge of activity in research on teaching. Researchers and teacher educators have also debated the merits of this research for teachers in terms of its value and the ways research can influence practice. Controversy continues about the kind and degree of influence research can have on teachers and teacher…

This collection explores the political context of efforts to change urban education. The contributors examine various issues in a variety of settings, and they show how hard it is to rearrange political relationships so that they will be conducive to school reform. The following essays are included: (1) "Introduction: Urban Education in…

Research designed to understand the underachievement of minorities in general, and Latino immigrants in particular, is summarized as it relates to mathematics. Two paradigms have dominated this research: the Deficit paradigm and the Cultural Difference paradigm. A third paradigm, the Holistic paradigm, seems to account for most of the deficiencies…

This report summarizes the results of the Planning Introductory College Courses study which examined influences on course planning among U.S. faculty members. The study was built on exploratory interviews conducted in the 1986-87 Course Planning Exploration survey with 89 faculty members. Major findings show that when planning introductory…

A study on children's speech is prefaced by an extensive theoretical discussion. An attempt to construct a taxonomy that captured psychologically real, discrete types of communicative acts in mother-child interactions was based on the insight that verbal utterances are social acts that are meaningful in particular social situations. The taxonomy…

These proceedings contain 4 keynote addresses and 88 papers concerning the theme of the conference: Contexts in Mathematics Education. The four keynote addresses are: (1) "Contemplating Cultural Context" (Bill Barton); (2) "Conceptualising Cultural and Social Contexts in Mathematics Education" (Alan Bishop); (3)…

This report summarizes the school factors that affect the academic achievement of black urban high school students. An examination of changes in the academic achievement of the members of a class of 148 students between the sophomore and senior years found the following changes: (1) 4 percent of those who had been classified as "high achievers" as…

This study is one of the few that have addressed the teacher's involvement in children's peer interactions. Some of the ways in which teacher beliefs and intentions interact reflexively with contextual factors to produce particular social realities in preschool settings are examined. Four experienced early childhood teachers of acknowledged…

Fundamental aspects of the play behavior of kindergarten children are illustrated in five vignettes. Aspects include the function of smiles in play, sex differences in verbal and physical aggression, the simultaneous occurrence of flignt and fantasy in the play of boys, successful nonverbal participation in play, gender stereotypes, the sequencing…

Examined were the effects on children's learning and motivation of the embedding of instructional materials in various fantasy contexts. Students in the third grade worked with graphics commands from the LOGO programming language under one of three conditions. In a control condition, students were given a series of abstract problems characteristic…

To examine the effects of general and specific comprehension ability of a target reading passage and prior knowledge of the subject of the passage, a study examined 182 sixth graders from two central Illinois rural and urban communities. Subjects were given a fifth-grade passage (a 500-word fictional narrative description of the Yanomamo tribe of…