Analyzes the teaching of linguistics and ethics of representing linguistic issues in a persuasive way, examining tensions between telling it like it is and telling it in a way that students will listen. The paper highlights persuasion, the introduction of linguistic concepts, the importance of understanding dialects and their role in education,…

Observed all 12 kindergarten classrooms from a small town/rural Midwestern county for the full session on the first day of school to determine teachers' language and classroom practices. Found evidence of demands for entering kindergartners to process complex language, organize themselves and their materials, and comply with many new rules and…

Provides physical educators and athletic coaches strategies for empowering students to make positive ethical and moral choices. Strategies include: put on theme days to encourage respect and courtesy; develop community service projects; use encouragement rather than praise; read to the students; implement proven special programs; and stay in the…

This paper examines the co-constructed nature of classroom life, and what became constituted as one child's story of literacy learning in first grade. It takes an over-time look at how opportunities for literacy learning were constructed within multiple, intermingling contexts (classroom, school, district, and family). Derek's literacy learning…

Like Chip Anderson, whose essay you read earlier in this issue, I was initially taught to use the deficit-remediation model with my students. Even in that negative context, though, and with no exposure at all to strengths-based education, I unconsciously based my early teaching on four of my five Clifton StrengthsFinder signature themes:…

A company's college recruitment practices, as well as its socialization processes for graduates once they have joined the organization, can be improved when there is understanding of college graduates' experience during the first year of employment. This study recorded the experiences of eight college graduates who were employed by a medical…

For 40 years, researchers have been exploring the teacher-expectation phenomenon. Few have examined the possibility that teacher expectations may be class centered rather than individually centered. The current study aimed to track the self-perception outcomes of students (N = 256) whose teachers had high or low class-level expectations. Students…

A study was conducted to examine the gendered expectations of academic failure among 52 students preparing to enter a teacher-credentialing program at a California state university. As part of a technology class, student pairs completed a database and mail-merge assignment in which they named three imaginary students and identified one of the…

Literature on teaching and learning in college classrooms is reviewed and findings are discussed through a generational lens. From assumptions about generations of students, recommendations for enhancing student learning--especially for Millennial students--are provided.

An era of high-stakes testing and accountability may be producing classroom conditions that undermine student learning. When teachers must focus their energies on preparing students for the test, they have less time to get to know students personally or make them feel valued, respected, and supported. The author reviews research showing that…

In this article, the authors discuss the reality of today's current students and their expectations of the institutions they attend. Specifically, they describe the current generation, the Net Generation, of traditional-age college students who have grown up with computers and the Internet, living in a rapid-response, multimedia, anytime-anywhere…

Drawing on status attainment models, the authors examine the effects of family, peer, and school factors on expectations to graduate from a university for a sample of high school students in Bogota, Colombia, and La Paz, Bolivia. The expansion of higher education in these countries has followed different strategies. In Bolivia, the policy has been…

In this article, the author focuses on how names affect children's performance on tests and cites the study of a University of Florida researcher regarding teacher's expectations for children. Economics professor David Figlio says children with unique or unusual sounding names do worse on standardized tests than their siblings who have more…

In this article, the author states that no matter how experienced and exposed to life college freshmen may appear, no matter how sophisticated they may seem, they are vulnerable and unsure of themselves a lot of the time. The child in them grapples with the emerging adult; they are eager to enter adulthood but understandably fearful of what they…

How has our society typically responded to the challenging problems facing youths? Communities have, more often than not, focused resources on prevention programs that have attempted to stop youths from taking drugs, joining gangs, getting pregnant, and dropping out of school, among other things. A problem is identified, and the response is to…