A prerequisite for learning is admitting simply that one "does not know." In order to discover and truly "know," one must have an open mind, suspend all preconceptions and assumptions, and be able to tolerate the ambiguity experienced when the line between formal subject matter and those assumptions begins to blur. Many community college students…

The guide presents content and techniques for teaching conversational Spanish in the elementary grades. It contains an introductory section and 20 units for classroom instruction. The introduction includes notes on the overall objectives of the course, general guidelines on classroom procedure, and specific techniques for use of the materials…

The education process of hearing-impaired students in 18 public secondary mathematics classrooms was examined in order to account for achievement and social adjustment differences between 11 mainstreamed and 7 self-contained classrooms. The classrooms were compared on the following dimensions: (1) social interactions among students, (2) teacher…

This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

This speech addresses the relation of effective discipline to the pursuit of academic excellence in schools. The proposed blend of specific strategies, methods, and ways of being conducive to excellence is characterized as "three dimensional discipline." This approach involves: (1) listening to what students are thinking and feeling; (2) clearly…

This paper reviews the traditional relationship established between teaching and learning, in which teaching and teachers' concerns take focus. The maintenance of this hierarchical relationshp has resulted in a communication breakdown between educators and students, and a situation into which students have little or no input in terms of changing…

Attention to the quality of the learning environment (both the physical and human dimensions) is critical to positive outcomes for adult disadvantaged learners in basic education. It is necessary to understand the characteristics of the adult disadvantaged student, his/her social and cultural or ethnic background, and how these factors influence…

Data gathered during a year-long sociolinguistic study of participant perspectives of classroom discourse are presented in this final report. Elementary school students gave their perceptions of (1) the formal rules or expectations governing discourse at school, in play groups, and at home; (2) appropriate forms to get attention or influence…

Part of a year-long sociolinguistic study of teacher and pupil perceptions of classroom discourse, this study focused on the following methodological question: how might the approach selected for analysis of language as a linguistic system affect what is learned about language in a given social situation? Subjects were 165 children and their…

THIS REPORT OF A THREE-YEAR RESEARCH PROGRAM ON PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES CONSIDERS THE CLASSROOM TO BE AN INTEGRATED SOCIAL SYSTEM. ITS CONCERNS ARE WITH EDUCATIONAL PROCESSES THAT MAY BE OBSERVED IN THE CLASSROOM, WITH THE CONCEPTUALIZATION OF CLASSROOM EVENTS, WITH THEORY ABOUT THOSE EVENTS, AND WITH DATA BEARING ON THAT THEORY.…

Research shows that a very large percentage of Japanese university students are apprehensive about communicating orally, to the degree that their fear may be debilitating, weakening their effectiveness as oral interactants in social and classroom situations. This uneasiness with speech has been culturally ingrained for centuries. Children are…

This pamphlet is the first in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet contains a description of an informal study…

NOTING THAT RECENT RESEARCH POINTS TO LINGUISTIC CODE DIFFERENCES AS AN IMPORTANT FACET OF CULTURAL DEPRIVATION AND THAT THE MAJORITY OF EDUCABLE MENTALLY RETARDED (EMR) CHILDREN COME FROM LOW SOCIOECONOMIC LEVELS, IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT ONE OF THE KEYS TO LEARNING FOR EMR CHILDREN IS THE COMPLEXITY OF THE TEACHER'S LANGUAGE IN RELATION TO THAT…

The study analyzed teacher-pupil interaction in the classes of nine experimental (E) and eight control (C) teachers and their 167 mentally retarded pupils (mean age = 10.2, mean IQ = 68.76) The E-teachers were given 32 training sessions in an experimental curriculum and the inductive teaching method. Classes were tape recorded for 1 day. Analysis…

Flanders' Interaction Analysis, which classifies verbal interaction into 10 categories, was used to compare two groups consisting of seven trainable mentally retarded (TMR) classrooms each. The sample was selected from the extremes of a population of 87 TMR classrooms on the basis of their teachers' high (tending to flexibility and harmony) or low…