Describes the influences of early childhood experiences, family, and education on the development of environmental concern and pro-environmental behaviors in environmental educators. Childhood experiences were more influential for older respondents while media had a greater influence on younger respondents. Also describes the nature of…

Uses microfilm copies of the 1880 and 1900 census records which tallied information about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family to teach about using census data. Suggests activities that develop vocabulary skills, teach document analysis, utilize map skills, and require research and synthesis skills. (LS)

Describes the Science for Early Adolescence Teachers (Science FEAT) program, a three-year teacher enhancement program for middle-grade teachers of science based at the Florida State University. Discusses the courses for the teacher-participants as well as the activities for administrators. (JRH)

Maintains that achieving the social studies goal of helping children make good decisions about their world requires data interpretation. Includes activities and accompanying charts for classroom activities that combine social studies content and data interpretation and classification skills. (CFR)

The development of a science education that includes a focus upon the nature of science suggests the need for "pedagogic tools" that can be used to engage children with the procedural understandings that are central to the scientific approach to enquiry. This paper reports on a collaborative action research project that focused on the…

Internationalisation of education, and more specifically tertiary education, all over the world has contributed to a significant overhaul in student composition. Parallel to this runs the need for graduates to leave university with a range of professional skills. In response to this, universities actively encourage the development of such skills…

This manual offers practical guidelines validated by research for applying instructional strategies to adults with mental retardation who are learning community-based tasks. It provides a sequenced strategy for: (1) selecting person-centered instructional goals; (2) developing quality task analyses of community-based, chained tasks; (3) selecting…

To determine the factors that influence interpretation of a research study description, 8 descriptions of research studies were interpreted by 320 undergraduate students in psychology, mathematics, and economics statistics and research methods classes at the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada), Millersville University (Pennsylvania),…

The ability of the microcomputer to compile voluminous and detailed measures of students' learning activities automatically has seemingly outpaced the ability of commonly-used data analysis methods to make effective utilization of this wealth of potentially useful information. This study explores the use of computer-based quantitative methods,…

Common elements identified as context variables that may affect student evaluation of instruction are explored, and the literature on student ratings of teacher effectiveness is reviewed. Sociocultural context variables (gender, race, ethnicity, and social class variables) are discussed in terms of stereotyping and prejudice found with…

The papers collected in this volume are intended both to present a summary 'history' and description of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) and to illustrate a variety of approaches to the analysis of the data that emerged from SIMS. The papers are intended…

The study of consciousness requires a language for exact and precise communication. This research project investigated how workers from different cultural contexts value information that is relevant to their job performance. Thirty-five randomly selected mechanics, from Sweden, England, West Germany, Italy, and the United States, were selected as…

Foreign language (FL) needs is a new interdisciplinary area of research developing between applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, and educational planning and evaluation. FL needs consist of the demands, wishes, and expectations of the whole society, its groups and individuals, reflecting the relationship of their contemporary and future existence…

This summary describes the results of a survey that served as a needs assessment, preceding the development of a curriculum for both Arab and Jewish elementary schools in Israel. The curriculum's goals were to educate children to create interethnic contacts on a basis of mutual equality and respect for each other and their cultures. Previous…

Basic issues concerning interpretive research, and theories and methods of using interpretive research to study teaching are discussed. The concept of interpretive research may also be known as ethnographic, qualitative, participant observational, case study, symbolic interactionist, phenomenological, or constructivist. Interpretive research…