SHAPES--an acronym for the South Plains Child Care Management Services (SpCCMS) Helping, Assisting and Preparing Educators and Staff--is also the name of a preschool readiness curriculum that is being developed for use by administrators and teachers. The first phase of the curriculum development consists of the publication of five books to be used…

An ethnographic study examined the experiences of Karim (a member of the Ismaili cultural community in Canada), enrolled in an urban grade two multi-lingual classroom comprised of Canadian-born children who are second generation immigrants and whose daily lives are conducted in a language other than English. A researcher participated in the…

Phoneme awareness, or the ability to recognize a spoken word as a sequence of individual sounds, is thought to be an essential prerequisite to successful literacy. A child-based phoneme awareness training program integrating children's experience and activities with sound awareness and print immersion was developed at a small urban elementary…

Findings of a study that examined the effects of teacher behavior and organizational factors on student behavior in peer work groups are presented in this paper. Methodology included observation of one classroom from each of 10 Dutch elementary schools that frequently used forms of peer work groups and teacher interviews. Findings indicate that…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined the influence of organizational and instructional factors on the efficacy of cooperative learning in Dutch classrooms, as measured by student achievement. To answer the question "What is the degree to which primary schools in the Netherlands use cooperative learning," a questionnaire…

In most schools in America little attention is paid to the nurturance of students' creative potential, with emphasis too often placed instead on rote, repetitive learning. The literature contains many suggestions for enhancing creativity in the classroom setting, such as refraining from discounting odd or unusual questions from students, finding…

Papers in this volume include the following: "Constraints on Dative Acquisition by Chinese ESL Learners" (Hua Dong Fan); "The Learnability of Locality Conditions on Quantification" (Thomas Lee); "Do Learning Environments Make a Difference? A Study on the Acquisition of the English Interrogatives by Three Types of Cantonese…

Educational assessment is discussed, describing three images of instructional design that can be used to construct classroom learning environments, and focusing on the nature and uses of portfolios and authentic assessment. The following three designs for schooling are considered: (1) discipline-centered schooling, the most familiar vision of…

Based on the belief that the teaching and learning of language are inextricably intertwined, this book addresses the challenge of providing an integrated language arts program in the elementary and middle school level that bridges traditional instruction and thematic, whole language, or literature-based instruction. The book also presents ways to…

The incidence of multiple births has increased dramatically in the past two decades. Given this trend, it seems reasonable to assume that many teachers will have twins and other multiple siblings in their classes at some point in their classroom careers. This Digest offers some pointers for educators facing the challenges of educating multiples.…

This action research project implemented and evaluated an intervention designed to assist students in developing their social skills to enhance the classroom atmosphere. The targeted population consisted of fourth-, fifth- and sixth- grade students in lower- to middle-class suburbs of a Midwestern city. Off-task, verbal and physical inappropriate…

Institutions offering distance education courses realize the value that well-trained and well-prepared faculty contribute to the success of their distance education programs. However, taking approximately a half-hour in the first session of any course to prepare the students for their distance education experience will add to the success of the…

This article suggests that it is important to examine how constructivism-in-practice can flourish or flounder according to a variety of influences, noting the importance of outlining the challenges teachers face in understanding and implementing constructivism in classrooms. The article characterizes four major challenges faced by teachers in…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of two laboratory environments for introductory chemistry on undergraduate students' inquiry skills. The two laboratory environments are embedded in the same lecture course. The standard laboratory curriculum and instruction are distinct from the curriculum explored in this study, the MORE…

This paper examines trends reflecting changes in the role of the classroom foreign language teacher, particularly as these trends affect English-as-a-Second-Language instruction. This study is based on relevant literature and research being carried out in the English Language Institute at Kanda University of International Studies (Japan). Past and…