This review investigated the available literature on diversity and its relationship to teacher thinking. The literature review produced 36 studies, from which five categories emerged: beliefs teachers hold about student diversity and student performance; effective teaching in diverse settings; the impact of teacher experience on teacher cognition…

This study investigated designer background characteristics and contextual variables that were hypothesized to influence the incorporation of motivational components in the design of instructional materials, as well as the factors that may affect the perceived level of a project's success. A hypothesized model was developed that depicted…

The current national debate about higher education has focused heavily on varying interpretations of the U.S. higher education system's accountability structures. Much of that debate has emphasized undergraduate learning and the specific issues of student engagement and outcomes. But relatively little attention has been paid at either the state or…

Notes that within certain spheres of international English language education, active student participation is seen as central to the "good" lesson and successful conference. Argues that this idea of participation is generated by a discourse of power belonging to a particular culture of professionalism and that it is ethnocentric and…

Examines the role that Yoruba greetings play in understanding the culture of the speakers. Illustrates that these greetings not only establish an atmosphere of sociability, but also communicate cultural information and serve as value reinforcement for participants and observers. Also emphasizes that teaching greetings in Yoruba involves teaching…

Reviews research on the role of context in learning how to teach physical education. Discusses how to develop strategies for learning teaching context, the integration of concepts into the teaching act, and ways to design teacher education programs that designate context and have deliberate strategies to prepare students for context. (SM)

Discusses a performance assessment tool that entails open-ended tasks requiring students not only to provide answers but to show their solution processes. Discusses several areas to address in developing open-ended tasks. Areas include the need to assess important mathematical content and cognitive processes, use of effective prompts, and use of…

Discusses an innovation second-language teacher education project for teachers of English as a foreign language from Egypt. The model program used was based on the premise that teacher education programs must provide trainees with opportunities to reflect critically upon their own teaching practices and beliefs in a context of collaboration with…

Addresses the accessibility of texts produced by the Overseas Development Administration. This research analyzes a corpus of texts and shows that factors making the texts difficult include poor linguistic structure, contextual structure, conceptual structure, and unclear operationalisation of the reader-writer relationship. (18 references)…

Examines why learners of Mandarin use overt nouns and pronouns to a greater extent than native speakers. Findings indicate that no single syntactic structure is a significant contributor to the different rates of optional ellipsis but that some learners use ellipsis only in syntactic contexts permissible in English and most use it in a narrower…

Challenges the assumption that contextualized vocabulary learning invariably leads to superior retention. The article compares two different instructional treatments in a university classroom experiment in China in the teaching of English as a foreign language: the study of contextualized versus decontextualized English word lists. (40 references)…

Examines the processes involved in language planning and policy and the role of English language teaching professionals in deciding and promoting language policies as well as how these professionals affect changes in their local contexts. Conclusions indicate that linguistic self-determinism is viable and desirable because it promotes social…

Considers the formal education of a group of Native American students who have not traditionally done well in school and suggests a cultural mismatch between the home culture of these students and the culture of the Western school. Findings indicate that culture influences discourse styles, expectations for classroom behavior, and classroom social…

Discusses conversations between tutor and student in British and Japanese culture, concentrating on face threatening acts such as criticisms, suggestions, and requests. The article distinguishes the attitudes of the "conciliator,""negotiator,""defender,""resigner," and "nonelaborator" and concludes…

Investigates whether children ages 1;6 just beginning to learn words can learn new words in a variety of nonostensive contexts. The results of two studies involving adults interacting with children in games of searching for objects suggest that from very early in language acquisition, children learn words through active attempts to understand…