This learning module was designed to familiarize community college instructors with the characteristics of nontraditional students and with strategies for providing these students with a positive learning environment. After introductory material offering a rationale for the module, Part I provides a list of key concepts, a statement of learning…

A study was conducted to determine whether and how children with diverse cultural backgrounds, including the cultural mainstream in North America, might differentially identify and acquire rules of discourse appropriate to becoming literate. This study examined the natural language used by teacher and students recorded within selected periods of…

This research provides a detailed analysis of the inner workings of a bilingual program implemented in San Diego, California. The children in the study divide their school day between two separate classrooms, one offering instruction in Spanish and the other in English. The same students were videotaped as they participated in reading lessons in…

This volume utilizes biography-social science research findings, classroom management techniques, and a language/communication analysis system to consider multi-ethnic interaction in the classroom. After defining ethnicity and making a case for "heritage ethnicity" and "scholastic ethnicity," the concept of stereotyping and its relation to…

This booklet describes a workshop dealing with various components of nonverbal communication, including environmental setting, proximity, physical appearance, and vocal manner, which influence the information conveyed to others. This workshop, designed for use with classroom teachers and school support personnel (N-12), presents activities which…

This publication features articles on school climate. Among the various concerns are: 1) the complexities of the educational environment, 2) low cost school climate programs, 3) implementation of changes for effective climates, 4) the roles of principals, teachers, and students in the educational environment, and 5) test anxiety and creativity as…

To test the hypothesis that if given a curriculum designed to develop cognitive functioning and taught by strategies designed to develop cognitive skills, students would then master more sophisticated symbolic thought earlier and more systematically than could be expected if this development had been left to the accidents of experience or if…

Research into teacher nonverbal behavior is needed. Although teachers are usually aware of their verbal behavior, they may be unaware of many nonverbal cues they express through gesture, facial expression, posture, vocal tone, or similar mechanisms. Such nonverbal expressions convey attitudes and impressions which may affect the teaching-learning…

This is a discussion on the role that cognitive and affective variables play in second language learning. The variables under consideration are: (1) intelligence; (2) language aptitude; (3) motivation; and (4) anxiety. Specifically, this report focuses on the importace of attitudinal and motivational factors in achievement. Research is reviewed…

The structure and quality of classroom interaction and the ways in which children learn how to interact appropriately was the initial focus of the research and field work described in this paper. The site was a kindergarten/first grade class in a suburban Boston Title I elementary school with many students from second and third generation…

An investigation of the interaction patterns of Polynesian and Pakeha (New Zealanders of European extraction) children and teachers in school and play areas of Auckland, New Zealand was undertaken to discover possible ethnic differences in modes of social interaction relevant to learning. Observations of children (ages 2 to 11) and their…

This paper argues for a reorganization of the educational procedures in the ESL classroom, in the interest of developing communicative competence. Special emphasis is placed on the use in the classroom of only structural and phonological patterns which are easily transferrable to real-life situations. In the interest of abolishing mechanical…

The crucial variable in good classroom teaching is the verbal behavior of the teacher. Through his questioning techniques--what questions he asks, how and when he asks them, how he replies to students, and how he stimulates students to reply to each other--the teacher can evoke a high level of class discussion and force students to go beyond the…

The relationships that exist between written compositions of fourth-grade students and various teacher influences were investigated in this study. Relationships examined were those between the student's achievements in composition and (1) his teacher's writing ability, (2) his perception of other students' writing, his classroom, his assignments,…

This report was designed mainly to develop information on the need and available resources for providing adult education programs for the hearing-impaired population of Illinois. Information was gathered through questionnaires mailed to persons identified through the records of the National Census of the Deaf, and follow-up interviews on a…