Offering teaching assistants, new faculty members, and adjunct instructors "real-world" scenarios about the many facets of teaching introductory college composition, this book provides situations, sample syllabi, assignments, and journal entries from classrooms. The book's six chapters move from general considerations of assignment…

This document is comprised of four chapters that show how to use research-abstract worksheets and personal reviews of the literature as tools for linking research and practice in the helping professions. The research tools help to condense lengthy reports, place them into a consistent format, and actively involve the information seeker. Chapter 1…

This paper examines teachers' practical theories of teaching and ways in which individual teachers participate in a social solidarity, based on Richard Rorty's idea of solidarity as clinging to one's own ethnocentrism to understand differences between right and wrong, good and bad. Social solidarity is seen as holding people together, defining…

Opening up new perspectives in the study of literacy, this book presents 25 essays that bring together current research findings from linguistics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Essays in the book discuss theoretical questions related to the definition and modeling of the construct of functional literacy; the notion of literacy…

Cognitively oriented research on writing has altered the manner in which writing is understood and taught. In the 1970s, writing teachers were challenged to improve students' skills. Finding traditional, product-oriented methods inadequate, they were left to discover how they might guide students to develop their skills. L. Flower and J. R. Hayes'…

One of the main reasons why educational change often fails is the neglect of implementation. This book presents a summary of what has been learned during the past decades about implementing successful school improvement. Chapter 1 provides an overview of this knowledge, identifying factors and processes associated with success, and pointing to…

In presenting the concepts and skills of curriculum development and showing how to apply them to actual course planning, an attempt is made to bridge theory and practice in curriculum development. By developing a greater awareness of the important decisions to be made and the alternative courses of action available at each decision point, teachers…

The portfolio procedures a teacher-educator uses in an undergraduate course in teaching reading in the elementary school have proven successful in helping students begin to articulate a philosophy of literacy instruction and assessment. The process also contributes additional benefits to students' levels of self-esteem, self-confidence, and their…

A practicum was developed to help preservice teachers practice reading theories learned in the college classroom during the three-week field experience portion of the class. Preservice teachers at a Christian college in a small, rural, midwestern town had few opportunities to implement theories learned during field experience. A literature review…

Noting that linguistic and mathematical/logical are the two kinds of intelligences the educational system encourages and that the educational system, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect, this paper describes Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory and Peter Kline's theory of integrative learning…

The breach between university and public school educators is wide, but can be bridged so that students are not deprived of effective English education. First, public school teachers should acknowledge that university educators are teachers as well, and university educators must tailor their pre-service and in-service classes to meet the needs of…

This paper discusses the use of in-basket items, typical of what school administrators would face on the job, and small-group activities to encourage the novice (graduate students in school administration) to exhibit behaviors that result from reflective thought. The process involves classroom exercises that simulate situations typical of school…

A program of theoretical and empirical research focusing on the ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition is reviewed. An integrative framework for information-processing and cognitive ability determinants of skills is reviewed, along with principles for ability-skill relations. Experimental manipulations were used to…

By describing the characteristics of the educational and developmental belief systems of low-income African-American parents of kindergarten children, this study extended previous research on parents' beliefs about early education and development to more ethnically and socioeconomically diverse subject groups. A sample of 115 African-American…

This digest illustrates the variety of basic and theoretical issues in evaluation with which aspiring evaluators should be conversant in order to claim that they know the knowledge base of their profession. Coverage of the issues includes: the four steps in the logic of evaluation; whether qualitative evaluations are valid; whether it matters if…