Rex Putnam High School (Milwaukie, Oregon) received a New American High School (NAHS) award for reform efforts that included small learning environments; career pathways programs; career-related learning experiences in the community; and involvement of parents, staff, and community members in decision making. An interview with an assistant…

Examined Taiwanese university students' responses to five American short stories. A reader-response approach to teaching English-as-a-foreign-language reading was used. Students' journals were analyzed and students were interviewed. Analysis of the journals reveals students went beyond comprehension of text and actively constructed meaning through…

Provides observations from a study of an attempt to introduce Indonesian in an Australian high school. Data collection was done through interviews and classroom observations. Classroom test results were used to compare achievement in subject content and language learning. Findings are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Discusses reading with pre-teens Francine Pascal's "Sweet Valley Twins: Best Friends," one of a series of pre-romance novels featuring identical twin sisters. Interviews six girls using the Symbolic Representation Interview (SRI) about the good girl/bad girl dichotomy in novels and other media. Provides comments by Tom Romano and Diana Mitchell.…

Qualitative procedures (observation and interviews with students, teachers, and parents) were used to evaluate characteristics of 20 deaf students succeeding in general education settings. The students' primary communication modes were closely divided between sign language and spoken English. Results of the interviews, a summary of observations,…

Describes a longitudinal study of college students in the United Kingdom that examined factors affecting computer use. Results show situational factors, including access, training, and time, affect student computer use, but academic staff tend to focus on the needs of their department and should focus more on the student perspective. (Author/LRW)

Using Swindler's settled discourse theory, examined 12 women superintendents' discourse to determine whether patterns in their talk about work experiences contain events or episodes of inequality. Five topics emerged: power, silence, style, responsibility, and people. Each was analyzed to discover how women treated such experiences in their…

Lori Arviso Alvord, an associate dean at Dartmouth College, discusses her experiences as the first Navajo woman surgeon. She discusses what Navajo philosophy and traditional healing can contribute to Western medicine, the importance of the patient-doctor relationship, and the personal changes she made to achieve harmony and balance in her life and…

Alfie Kohn, former teacher and current educational theorist and writer, discusses his views on teaching, learning, and parenting. He addresses the problems of reward-based education, the negative effects of competition on learning, and capitalizing on the naturalness of altruistic behavior in humans. He stresses the importance of treating children…

Indepth interviews with senior managers in six Australian universities revealed messy policy processes and considerable variation in quality policy practices. Quality policy's "big-picture" effect was to enhance national government control of higher education from a distance. A further effect was to increase inequalities among and within…

Leaders bring to new jobs their values and vision, the authority of their position, and their reputation and accomplishments. How new superintendents conduct themselves during the critical entry/"honeymoon" phase affects their subsequent working relationships and leadership effectiveness. Structured interviews with staff, parents, and…

This study demonstrates three ways of analyzing qualitative interview data: content, cultural models, and narrative analyses. Interview data from 250 Latino parents of young children with mental retardation illustrates these types of analyses. Suggestions for ways in which early intervention studies could be extended by considering different…

Explores ways of measuring implicit and explicit second language (L2) knowledge and examines the relationship between these measures and measures of general language proficiency. Factor analysis revealed a two-factor solution, reflecting a clear distinction between measures that incorporated a time constraint and those that did not. (Author/VWL)

Grace Llewellyn, author of "The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How To Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education," discusses how her educational experiences as both student and teacher influenced her support of teens liberating themselves from school and "rising out." Llewellyn also discusses innovative learning practices, a camp for teenage…

Examines an Advanced Placement U.S. history classroom as a miniature common school to assess students' abilities to develop historically-grounded perspectives and engage in a moral debate. Finds that (1) students with little historical-grounding lacked an inclination toward a collective, ethical critique; and (2) exchange of historically-grounded…