Blended learning is a promising model for supporting teacher professional development that combines the advantages of traditional face-to-face interaction with the flexibility of online learning. In this study, we examine the impact of two one-year blended learning programs on teachers' attitudes, knowledge, and classroom practices. These…

The use of activity theory is considered in the evaluation of a web based academic writing course in a New Zealand university. Activity theory is an aspect of sociocultural theory and provides a model for the understanding of goal directed social activity. Like other recent developments in applied linguistics, research and evaluation in second…

Purpose: To investigate the extent to which secondary schools practiced aspects of total quality management (TQM). Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional research design was used in this study. A sample of 300 teachers in a residential session during a school holiday provided their perceptions on the practice of TQM in their schools. Data…

This article pursues two main lines of inquiry: How might postcolonial theory, feminist and postcolonial translation studies sharpen our critical understandings of the micro- and geopolitics of English language learning? What kinds of pedagogical practice might such new developments ground in order to foster our learners' critical ways of knowing…

This article reports the results of a survey of third-grade teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Arizona regarding school language and accountability policies--Proposition 203, which restricts bilingual education and mandates sheltered English Immersion; the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB); and Arizona LEARNS, the…

This study addresses changes in student perceptions when team leaders are incentivized. Although the benefits of groupwork have been thoroughly studied and documented, minimizing dysfunctional teamwork may prove difficult because of leadership incentives, social loafing, and organizational justice implications. Using an innovative pedagogical…

Community Health Aides and Community Health Practitioners (CHA/Ps), the primary providers of healthcare in rural Alaska, share the importance of story as a culturally respectful way for creating meaning and broadening understanding. Story is woven into the fabric of cancer education courses for CHA/Ps. Between May 2004 and April 2007, 13 week-long…

In this article, the author examines successful schools with high concentrations of poor and minority children--those in which students were doing as well as or better than those in affluent schools on statewide standardized tests--to see what they were doing to improve the level of instruction in their classrooms. These high-performing,…

The essays in this collection address questions raised by a modernity that has become global with the victory of capitalism over its competitors in the late twentieth century. Rather than erase difference by converting all to Euro/American norms of modernity, capitalist modernity as it has gone global has empowered societies once condemned to…

In 1993, nine service expectations for Ohio's two-colleges and regional campuses were approved by the state Board of Regents. This report describes specific performance measures developed for the service expectations to equitably evaluate the performance of the colleges. Following a brief introduction describing the goals and advantages of the…

Noting that teachers in mixed-ability classrooms face multiple challenges, this booklet provides teachers guidance in creating learning environments that address the diversity in learning styles typical of mixed-ability classrooms. The booklet discusses what differentiated instruction is, why it is appropriate for all learners, how to plan for and…

Highlighting the importance of teaching practice grounded in a consciously held, critically examined philosophical framework, this book examines the contribution of John Dewey's philosophy to the early childhood teacher's theoretical base for practical direction and decision making. A detailed account of how Dewey's educational philosophy may be…

This monograph presents a synthesis of the literature on empirically supported effective teaching principles that have been derived from research on behavioral, cognitive, social-learning, and other theories. After an introductory section, the first section discusses characteristics of empowered and ineffective learners. Motivational, cognitive,…

Five approaches currently used in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy instruction are described. A group of strategies developed by Paulo Freire are participatory or learner-centered, and revolve around the discussion of issues drawn from learners' real-life experiences. The Whole Language Approach, more than a specific method or…

This book is an effort to introduce early childhood educators to Vygotsky's perspective, research on young children that has been stimulated by this perspective, and current educational practices emanating from it. The discussion is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of Vygotsky's life, the social conditions in which his…