To analyze a student's conceptual changes, analyzing transcriptions of writing and verbal statements may not provide enough information. In a study of 25 sixth graders learning about matter and molecules, concept mapping of students' stated ideas was used to analyze the kinds of organizational changes the students made to use new science…

The lives and places in society of urban youth at risk of dropping out of the Los Angeles (California) Unified School District schools are explored through interviews of adolescents whom the author met when doing field work in Los Angeles County. Data come from interviews conducted in the course of the 1991 Drug Use Forecasting Study (DUF) and the…

This paper describes the development, validation, and research application of the Computer-Delivered Instruction Configuration Matrix (CDICM), an instrument for evaluating the implementation of Integrated Learning Systems (ILS). The CDICM consists of a 15-item checklist, describing the major components of implementation of ILS technology, to be…

Based on interviews and classroom observation, this book presents the "collected wisdom" of 60 teachers of American Indian students in all parts of the United States, as well as teachers of indigenous students in Australia and Costa Rica. Chapter 1, "Introduction: The Teacher as Learner" presents the authors' backgrounds, the study's emerging…

The guide is one section of a resource kit designed to assist Peace Corps language instruction coordinators in countries around the world in understanding the principles underlying second language learning and teaching and in organizing instructional programs. This section focuses on selection and supervision of language teachers. An introductory…

The goals of this study at Charles Sturt University (Australia) were to collect and interpret data about the way that students used various features of an electronic study guide in the context of a distance education setting and to uncover any relationship that affected the desirability of this medium of delivering educational materials. The study…

This study of the school board agenda-setting role among 30 Minnesota superintendents interprets their perceptions in relation to environmental contexts, group demands, issues control, and district enrollment size. A microperspective of David Easton's political systems model provided the guiding conceptual framework. Respondents were interviewed…

This curriculum guide is intended for a high school senior seminar program in which students (gifted, talented, and of all abilities) progress through three main stages: (1) identifying a project; (2) identifying a mentor; and (3) completing the project. The guide includes lesson plans, suggested activities, organizational diagrams, suggested…

A study investigated the occupational, educational, personal, and social benefits of obtaining the General Educational Development (GED) credential for Wisconsin GED recipients. It examined differences in the benefits experienced and factors that affected the nature and extent of these benefits. A questionnaire was mailed to 1,028 individuals who…

The Single Parent/Homemaker Center, located at Hopkinsville Community College (Kentucky), provided immediate outreach and referral services to single parents and displaced homemakers between July 1989 and June 1990. The following services were offered to participants: personal and academic counseling, resume and interviewing workshops, referral…

The Support Teacher Program is a professional development program created to increase teachers' mathematical knowledge, improve instructional practices for conceptual understanding, and prepare teachers to conduct staff development activities in their schools with their colleagues. This paper is presented in three sections. The first section…

Classroom boredom in the secondary mathematics classroom is a problem that can be addressed from knowledge of the intrinsic motivational variable of "interestingness." The lack of a theoretical model of interest is an obstacle in research that investigates this variable. This paper describes the three stages in the development of a model…

Recent documents like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" have described coming changes in the mathematics curriculum and evaluation. Operating from the point of view that instruction and assessment are closely linked, that good teachers constantly assess students…

A review of the literature indicates that, in the 1990s, production workers will need significant amounts of human capital investments in terms of education, training, and retraining, to have the new and updated computer and technical skills required by American employers. The present empirical study determines and defines seven factors that are…

This publication explores the relationship between state systemic reform initiatives and state student assessment programs using a database established by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and interviews with state assessment directors in California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, and Vermont. States throughout the country are…