The decision to increase distance education enrollment hinges on the factors of pedagogical effectiveness, interactivity, audience, faculty incentives, retention, program type, and profitability. A complex interplay exists among these scalability concerns (i.e., issues related to meeting the growing enrollment demand), and any program's approach…

This document describes the process by which a consortium of media professionals was brought together to develop a graduate level, competency based, educational program for school media specialists. It is divided into four sections: (1) process description of program design, (2) competencies for the school media specialist, (3) an annotated…

This study describes rules of code-switching (choice between languages) in four six-year-old Spanish/English bilinguals in a school setting, to show that bilingualism is a sociolinguistic competency. Data included 306 episodes of situational code-switches and 64 episodes of conversational code-switches. The children consistently applied the…

This paper concentrates on incidents of severe conflict in eighth-grade classrooms observed in studies of four socially diverse junior high schools in two districts. Severe conflict is generated when teachers violate students' conceptions of the character of legitimate classroom authority. In a cosmopolitan community within an urban complex,…

Based on the results of a research project and on the conviction that functional speech communication behaviors must be developed in children, this paper proposes several directions for the effective development of speech communication instruction in schools. The research project consisted of three phases: input, synthesis, and implementation. The…

In this monograph research results of studies on the teaching of basic skills in elementary schools is synthesized with emphasis on the practical implications for actual practice in the classroom. Development of skills in reading and mathematics in the early grades is the focus. Four major factors in basic instruction are discussed. The importance…

Selected studies that examine social interaction variables which affect the language young children use in social play are reviewed. Interaction variables discussed in major sections of the paper are (1) the nature of social play; (2) egocentrism and its impact on verbal communication; (3) language as a functional behavior; (4) adaptation of…

This volume reports on several aspects of the Bristol (England) study of language development in pre-school children. The study was comprised of two overlapping investigations: the first covering the range from 15 to 42 months and the second, the range from 39 to 66 months. The introductory chapter gives an overview, and provides a statement of…

This paper discusses several interrelated features of microethnography that are relevant and useful for the study of bilingual schooling. It is argued that an interactional approach provides a powerful way to study systematically the organization of bilingual learning environment, identify areas of difficulty, and suggest concrete interventions…

This report focuses on the learning and development of primary and secondary school children, employing an "ecology of human development" model. This model is defined as involving the scientific study of the accommodation between growing human beings and the changing immediate settings in which they live and learn. The conceptual framework for the…

After 24 triads of college students discussed hypothetical situations of serious and moderately serious acts of plagiarism by either high or low status individuals, they designated a punishment. The hypothesis was that the severity of the sanction would be a joint function of the severity of the act, the attribution of responsibility for the act,…

This report offers the premise that a psychology of reading instruction has a set of questions of its own, questions that concern the ways in which the environmental interventions called instruction interact with cognitive processes to modify competence. The report discusses two streams of psychological research as they relate to reading…

A change strategy, known as "systematic ad hocism," is based on three assumptions: (1) A concentration on individual teacher concerns as a first step in the change process is justifiable; (2) Encouragement of dialogue among teachers who have taken individual actions leads to collaborative actions and provides bases for organizational…

A course for students of secondary education was designed to help them develop insights into human interaction and to develop and practice communication skills. It was hoped that these students would develop and practice communication skills in their daily lives, so that their chances of using them in the classroom would be improved. The class was…

Environmental influences on the development of children's reflective capacities and their knowledge of freehand drawing were investigated among preschool, kindergarten and first-grade children. One aspect of the social context of drawing was considered: the interactions that take place when children draw in the company of peers. Tapes of…