Suggests that children enter school with a great deal of informal intuitive knowledge of mathematics that can serve as the basis for developing much of the formal mathematics of the primary school curriculum. Describes a research-based model of children's thinking that teachers can use to interpret, transform, and reframe their informal or…

Discusses the reactions to two empowering styles of teaching introduced into a newly developed interdisciplinary unit in geography and environmental sciences. Peer assessment was embraced more thoroughly than group work which was eventually accepted with some reservations. Includes charts illustrating student reactions to both innovations. (MJP)

Examines a six-step "lesson plan" for teaching writing. Details the pairing of eighth-grade students with first graders about whom they will write a story, the collection of information about the main character, the composition and revision of the stories, and the sharing of the final product with the students participating in the project. (AA)

Presents activities to create designs with different arrangements of square tiles, which gives students an opportunity to make conjectures about perimeter and to make convincing arguments to justify those conjectures. Includes worksheets. (MKR)

Describes a technique using a color-coded holistic scoring system to achieve greater understanding of the assessment process on the part of students by having them score classmates' solutions to a problem. (MKR)

Examines whether or not communication strategies (CS) can be taught and suggests reasons for the controversy surrounding the teachability of CS. Also reports on a study of CS training with Hungarian secondary students, the results of which suggest that quantity and quality of learners' use of CS does improve with focused instruction. (Contains 62…

Investigates the real-time costs of sentence processing in early Spanish-English bilinguals. Bilinguals use an amalgam of monolingual strategies in choosing the agent of a sentence. The reaction time data reveal a larger language-specific component than the choice data. (37 references) (Author/CK)

Asserts that price comparison is a good way to interest students in the study of cultural diversity and global understanding. Presents data comparing consumer goods prices in Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States. Includes 14 classroom activities and an 18-item annotated bibliography of children's fiction books on China and Japan. (CFR)

Asserts that, although international understanding is essential for survival, most high school students do not acquire the necessary skills and knowledge for competing in the global community. Finds that geographic knowledge can be integrated into literature courses and includes exemplary lesson plans. (CFR)

Maintains that most high school social studies instruction emphasizes coverage and memorization of fragmented information. Presents a definition of in-depth study and describes its implementation in an issues-centered classroom. Provides suggestions and caveats for instituting issues-oriented instruction. (CFR)

Presents a fictitious dialogue between a student teaching supervisor and a student teacher about cooperative learning in the classroom. Reviews and evaluates the classroom procedures used by the student teacher. Concludes that cooperative groups improve student interaction and discussion skills. (CFR)

Describes how college science laboratory activities can be developed by student teams in which original questions are formulated as testable hypotheses and refined into experimental designs on the basis of personal observations. Distinguishes this "minds-on" approach from traditional college science laboratories with respect to students'…

Presents a study to examine the effects of a verbal teaching strategy versus a strategy providing instruction using activities and manipulatives in four seventh grade earth science classes with students of varying cognitive abilities (n=83). Results indicate that students with more cognitive structures perform better and that using manipulatives…

Compares models of the classroom dynamics for a traditional laboratory setting and a problem-solving-centered environment, both at the eighth grade science level. Descriptive data indicate no differences in the models, whereas path analyses suggest that, in the problem-solving model, student behaviors significantly correlate to lesson structure,…

Reports findings of two experiments examining perceived differences among teaching styles and identifying subjects' perceptions of their own teaching styles. Teaching styles were rated by 188 elementary education students and 99 music students using transcripts from audiotape recordings of music classroom sessions. Found feedback more effective…