To help Pennsylvania-based reading professionals share the results of their research with colleagues, this guide contains abstracts of both published and unpublished articles, doctoral dissertations, masters' projects, institutional research projects, and articles in preparation, all prepared by researchers living in Pennsylvania or affiliated…

Teacher behaviors and activities related to varying levels of student engagement and disruption were examined in 41 elementary school classrooms. Teachers and their classes were observed for eight weeks at the beginning of the school year and from January to March to determine: (1) the relationships between management behaviors and two student…

Foreign graduate students who have reached an advanced level in a specific discipline may be able to explain that subject's intricacies with ease but may have difficulty in speaking comprehensibly, explaining clearly, and understanding students easily while leading an undergraduate discussion section. Harvard University offers a program to help…

To accomplish successful communicative foreign language teaching, a teacher needs more than a sound command of the language and thorough training in communicative methodology. He or she also needs training in self-presentation, exposure to situations in which the importance of non-verbal behavior is made clear, and discussion of the fundamental…

Based on the hypothesis that the low academic achievement of Brazilian children attending government schools was directly related to a discrepancy between the children's working-class dialect and the school's dialect which is closer to upper class speech, a study was undertaken in literacy classes in one private and one public school where the…

In writing instruction, emphasis should be placed on developing a sense of a community, focusing on the social or collaborative view of writing. This view contends that writing is taught best as collaborative learning, with the classroom providing a social context in which students come together to develop their writing skills. In the…

By using public speaking skills, typical classroom problem areas can be reduced or eliminated. During the first five minutes of class, instructors can orient their audience by reviewing information from the previous class, or gain attention with an interesting story, quote, or humorous incident related to the subject matter. To avoid wasting the…

Although the social-emotional development of students is an important goal of schools, and foreign language education is generally intended to be a humanistic pursuit valuing the appreciation of others' cultures and the similarities and differences among people, these objectives are not always translated into classroom practice. The link between…

A review of research on time on task and length of school day or year reveals that time is not the only variable significantly related to student achievement. Research indicates that increasing time in school will not automatically increase student achievement or raise standardized test scores. Other variables such as corrective and immediate…

A teacher training program located in the Department of Communication at the University of Montana systematically attempts to modify teachers' communication behavior within the classroom. In step 1, baseline behavioral data are collected from each teacher by videotaping within the classroom. Step 2 involves coding the videotapes, using a "simple"…

A study examined the attitudes and learning strategies, and their relationships to achievement, of university students enrolled in elementary Spanish (n=88) and elementary Japanese (n=121) for one academic year. For both groups of students, the classroom was seen as the most relevant context for language learning. Specific classroom behaviors…

This document reports on a study to develop an empirical method for analyzing and reporting classroom interaction data. Data were collected according to a classroom observation scheme involving the frequency of various interactions (question, answer, or management), the cognitive level of the interaction, the role of the actor, the level of…

The time spent in the regular English-language classroom is critical for the limited-English-proficient (LEP) student in eventual mainstreaming. The classroom teacher can work productively with LEP students in the classroom to maximize their exposure to authentic language during the school day. Classroom communication should be simple and clear,…

Two studies were conducted to determine the degree to which various types of power were employed in the classroom and the effects of each type on both cognitive and affective learning. The primary focus of the first study was to determine the degree to which teachers and students shared perceptions of the use of power in the classroom. Power was…

Intended to help upper elementary and secondary school teachers increase their students' critical thinking, this booklet discusses the theory and techniques behind the use of questioning to evoke prior knowledge and further inquiry. The first portion of the booklet discusses the theory and research that underlie the use of questioning, examining…