The focus of this paper is the benefits and successes accruing from using cooperative learning in the classroom. The background of small group instruction as an effective learning strategy is discussed. Descriptions are given of several cooperative learning techniques--Student Teams-Achievement Divisions, Teams-Games-Tournaments, Jigsaw, and…

A study examined the effectiveness of writing response groups in changing the power relationships students maintain to empowering relationships in which students challenge authoritarian attitudes and generalizations. Subjects were three students in a freshman composition class at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Recorded conversations…

A common aim of teacher education is to have prospective teachers inquire about their teaching. In that regard, there has been concern about the effects of contexts within which such inquiry takes place. Recent deliberation and research about context has tended to focus on the structure and content of teacher education courses, the environmental…

The report describes a study which looked at two-way interactions among teachers and severely physically disabled and nondisabled children who were followed from kindergarten through first grade. Seven of the children had cerebral palsy and one a muscular disorders. Data collection included direct classroom observation on 74 days; interviews with…

While the aptitude treatment interaction (ATI) approach to educational measurement emphasizes establishing salient learner characteristics, systematic formative evaluation provides ongoing evaluation for instructional program modification. Systematic formative evaluation appears more tenable than ATI for developing individualized instructional…

As part of a larger study on the levels experienced by deaf children in acquiring knowledge about printed letters, words, and stories, an investigation was undertaken to discover the effects of a reciprocal teaching method on deaf children's learning of four prereading skills--finger spelling, book reading, story reciting, and word recognition.…

Learner and program control of content review within computer assisted instruction (CAI) were studied to determine their effects on the posttest performance and attitudes of eighth grade students. The science-related instructional treatments were completed by 98 students who were blocked by gender and reading ability and randomly assigned to…

This project investigated the effects of increasing teachers' wait times on general questioning skills in science teaching. Variables were separated through the use of four treatment groups, each containing ten science teachers. Schools were randomly assigned to four treatment conditions from a subsampling of middle schools in a central New York…

Natural helpers exist even among the most oppressed populations in this country, particularly migrant women, and recognition of their helping networks can give professional caregivers access to a resource that is often more adaptive, more efficient, and more humane than many static, impersonal, and obsolete human service bureaucracies. Migrant…

A study was conducted at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to determine the relationship between the use of verbal and nonverbal interaction by preservice education students and the grades assigned to them by vocational education teacher educators. The study also investigated the assignment of grades by vocational teacher…

Starting with laboratory research on the suppression of visualization in reading, this study investigates effects of treatments (reading vs. listening and pictures vs. no pictures, in a 2x2 design) and aptitudes on the learning of verbal and spatial types of content. Approximately 100 fifth grade pupils were given a battery of four ability tests,…

To learn more about the kind of learning that occurs when students read and receive response to their writing, a study was designed to develop an analytical system by which to describe the language of writing groups. Nine writing groups were examined, two from grade 5, four from grade 8, and three from grades 10 through 12. The data collected…

Aptitude treatment interaction (ATI) for the two most widely used science teaching strategies (lecture method and lecture method augmented with classroom activities) was investigated. The aptitude variables examined were cognitive ability level expressed in Piagetian terms and cognitive learning style (field independence/dependence). A sample of…

Two different methods of collecting information about student activity in the laboratory were compared using a series of videotape recordings. One method was based entirely on the systematic observation of student behavior (interaction analysis); the second method involved students describing their laboratory activities while watching excerpts…

Two studies were conducted to extend the application and explore the parameters of the concept tree and rational set generator instructional design techniques. The first study was conducted with high school English students. Results indicated that students who studied the concept tree performed no differently on the classification tests than…