This paper examines the use of network technologies in higher education and explores how adaptable network tools are for particular learning and teaching environments. The study included a review of the literature describing World Wide Web use to support learning in postsecondary courses in the United States and Canada. Additionally, interviews…

The goals of this assessment of electronic government information products were to: identify medium and format standards that are the most appropriate for permanent public access; assess the cost-effectiveness and usefulness of various alternative medium/format standards; and identify public and private medium/format standards that could be used…

This paper describes and examines the experiences of eight learners and two teachers in an online distance education graduate course taught using an asynchronous program and a problem-based learning (PBL) pedagogy. The course, "Integrating the Internet across the Curriculum," was offered by Indiana University Bloomington as a 6-week…

This dissertation is a qualitative case study examining the feelings, attitudes, and opinions of secondary school, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students toward collaborative e-mail exchange for the purpose of learning English between 10th and 11th grade between students in Hong Kong and Green River, Iowa, USA. The research looks at the…

As common as the accomplishments of students who have been home schooled is public speculation about the quality and value of at-home education. This sociological study, focusing on home schooling as a social movement, provides an account of a novel education movement and provides analysis of the relationship between cultural context and a social…

This work explores the process of devising effective recruitment, hiring, training, and retention strategies for new teachers. Chapter 1, "The Need for New Teachers," documents the growing need for teachers due to growing enrollment, retirement, and increasing specialization. Chapter 2, "Envisioning and Defining the New…

This report describes the outcomes of a study that examined teacher efficacy in order to generate an exploratory and explanatory theory of teacher efficacy in the context of four heterogeneous fifth and sixth grade classrooms. It investigated how the four elementary teachers identified as being efficacious described the relationships between…

This paper seeks to understand the role of culturally-specific styles of discourse in the classroom. The paper uses and expands upon three categories of classroom language use (control, curriculum, and critique) to present data on how a Puerto Rican American teacher uses repetition and discourse styles that have African and African American…

This paper is a report on the findings of a study conducted in a graduate level course for teaching and learning with the Internet for high school teachers working with students having severe learning and emotional disabilities. Qualitative interview data were used to explore issues throughout the course as teachers used information in their…

Created through Woodrow Wilson's Responsive Ph.D. initiative, "Diversity and the Ph.D." looks at a range of mechanisms through which foundations, government agencies, and nonprofits have sought to recruit and retain more minority students in U.S. doctoral programs. Drawing on interviews with the leaders of 13 such programs, the report also points…

Limited information is available regarding the factors that promote persistence by women in engineering programs. Stated simply, the problem is that the number of women engineers continues to fall short in comparison to the gender ratio of women to men in the population in the U.S. (BEST, 2002) and worldwide (Hersh, 2000). More women engineers are…

Analyzes data from interviews with teachers in LINC (Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada) classrooms regarding the political and cultural aspects of teaching English as a Second Language. Findings indicate that teachers perceive language policy in ways determined by the local situations in which they teach and that there are differences…

This study of 25 teachers in literature-based language arts programs in poor urban areas found that assessment issues produce considerable conflict for teachers as they attempt to understand and track children's literacy development and their own effectiveness in teaching children to read and write. Results suggest that assessment is not merely a…

Examines two initiatives to revitalize Quechua, the language of the Incas: Bolivia's 1994 reform incorporating the provision of bilingual intercultural education; and a community-based effort to incorporate Quichua as a second language instruction in a school in Ecuador. Points out that census records and sociolinguistic studies document a…

Recounts the experiences of a California middle school class that produces an ongoing magazine of oral histories. The multilingual, multicultural, working-class students have interviewed hundreds of participants. In the process they have learned how to research, interview, transcribe, and publish. Includes sample transcripts from the magazine.…