This article reports an empirical study of classroom observation of two general English lessons that examined the effects of teachers' referential questions on learners' responses in two ESL classrooms. The study found that in both classes, the teachers asked many more referential questions than display questions, contrary to earlier findings.…

We describe a team-taught course entitled Chaos in Science and Literature. Our course goals were to place science in a nontechnological context, emphasizing its intellectual and cultural aspects, and to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas between "scientists" and "humanists," with the authors serving as role models. (Contains 4 figures.)

This paper describes the use of handheld computers in the Science classrooms of four Tasmanian schools over a year. Analysis was informed by theories of innovation and assisted by ecological perspectives. Teachers demonstrated a range of attitudes to innovative pedagogies associated with the devices, and these corresponded to student achievements.…

The teaching of highly valued scientific writing skills in the first year of university is challenging. This report describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a novel written assignment, "The Personal Response" and accompanying Peer Review, in the course, Human Biology (BIOL1015) at The University of Queensland. These assignments were…

This article examines the relative perceived importance of 19 instructor actions in online courses according to both instructors and students. The instructor actions were culled from guidelines in the online learning literature base and then reviewed and rated by 14 experts. Thirty-two online instructors and 170 students from their classes at a…

In this Voices Inside Schools essay, a veteran teacher shares her reflections on a classroom unit entitled "How Language Reveals Character." The goal of the unit is to help adolescents read and write critically through an exploration of literary characters' language. Beginning by drawing on adolescents' fascination with one another,…

Many teachers of students with mild disabilities experience difficulty writing IEPs, and they lack a foundation in the regular education curriculum of academic skills and sequences associated with each grade level. This book was designed to provide this foundation. Presented in the form of scope and sequence charts that can be used as objectives…

This is the Phase I report for a needs assessment and accompanying study sponsored by the Oklahoma State Department of Education which was conducted during the 2010 calendar year. This report seeks to determine the importance of nine essential elements to being classified as a school in need of improvement. 61 schools are involved in this study…

Taking an international comparative perspective, the paper seeks to identify conditions that favour or impede participation in continuing higher education (CHE), and to answer the question what lessons can be learned from other countries. To this end we present selected findings of a secondary analysis of data from seven countries and…

A study investigated the extent to which American university student interviewers perceived differences in certain nonverbal cues (conversational space and hand gestures) in interviews with persons from another culture and whether the American students perceived such observations affected their ability to listen to the interviewee. Subjects were…

Although the topic of homelessness receives a great deal of attention in journalism and throughout popular culture, the discourse of homelessness remains largely unexamined and unquestioned. This discourse creates stereotypes and perpetuates homelessness by portraying it as an inevitability rather than a contingency. Rhetoric and composition…

The study reported in this paper argues for a process model of postsecondary instruction where reader-response literary theory in general, and L. Rosenblatt's transactional theory specifically, provides a theoretical framework for strategies which use computers to teach postsecondary English. The paper begins with an examination of the historical…

A good way "to get at gender" is to ask students to write about their literacy because literacy is a good catalyst for discussion and analysis regarding the complexities of gender. A number of recent articles connect composition studies with issues of gender, including those by Elizabeth Flynn, Geoff Sirc, Linda Peterson, Don Kraemer…

An experimental study compared celebrity evaluations of a treatment group exposed to a celebrity endorsed prosocial message and a control group shown a picture of the celebrity. Subjects, 88 young adults (younger than 25 years) enrolled in an introductory communications class at a mid-size university in the northeastern United States, were…

A study examined the patterns of talk in discussions of literature in classrooms where students are labeled "average," and examined the perspectives of teachers and students in such classrooms on the goals and difficulties of discussions of literature. Five English teachers and their 8th- through 12th-grade students participated in…