Writing, an essential part of every young child's school life, is a complex affair involving cognitive, affective, and psychomotor elements. Most children learn to write, with varying degrees of success, and every school has children who can be classified as nonwriters. Some children are inhibited and frustrated by writing and are put off by the…

This article describes a case competition that reflects the four elements of a grounded learning exercise. These elements include creating a real-world experience, optimizing learning transfer, integrating theory and practice, and shifting learning responsibility to the students. The authors also provide details on implementing this exercise in an…

From an Invitational Education perspective, e-learning will only succeed as an educative environment if educators are able to provide an e-learning environment that preserves dignity and encourages communication. The converse: using an online environment to "throw information" at students has the opposite effect; it is experienced as deeply…

This study explored the relationship between school achievement levels and teachers' expectations, locus of control and efficacy in four elementary schools in Delta, Mississippi in keeping with the self-fulfilling prophecy theory. Data from surveys of 102 teachers, five focus groups, observations, and secondary information on teachers' grading…

Teacher education students placed in clinical settings for methods coursework need adequate guidance in order to make the most of their experiences. Guidance in terms of teaching, reflections, clinical settings, and other related activities offers these candidates a realistic view of teacher, teaching, and learning. Oftentimes, the clinical…

Assessment theorists and academics alike espouse the importance of feedback on performance assessment tasks for supporting improvement and progress in student learning achievement. Despite these espoused ideals, students claim a lack of adequate, timely feedback and their teachers claim that students fail to heed the advice given. This paper…

Experiences of a teacher using educational technology in the classroom are recounted. The teacher welcomed technology as it was being introduced over the two decades she spent first in the preschool and then in the middle-school special-education classroom, but she found adapting to technological advances slow going at first. Eventually she came…

Documenting the 1995 spring session, this report provides resolutions considered by the Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges. The three sections of the report detail 72 resolutions that passed, 7 that were referred, and 9 that failed. The resolutions that passed are further divided into the following sections: (1) the Academic…

Higher education relies on student ratings to evaluate faculty teaching, partly because the alternatives (expert peer appraisals or objective performance criteria) are costly or unavailable. Because student ratings are crucial not only to improving instruction, but also in making or breaking faculty careers, it is important to assure that they…

This paper contains two scenario-type assignments for students in a university tests and measurements class as well as a collection of materials developed by actual students in response to these assignments. An opening explanation argues that education students, often nearing the end of their program when they take the tests and measurement…

The result of an investigation into the grading writing by the National Council of Teachers of English Committee on Alternatives to Grading Student Writing, this collection of essays offers the writing teacher several innovative and interesting options. Following an introduction by the editor (chair of the Committee), in which he delineates the…

Undergraduate sociology students at Rust College, Mississippi, an historically black college, have been given the opportunity to connect with the lives of others in institutional settings, thus making a generational connection between the college and a local nursing home. During the 1995-96 academic year, students in three sociology courses…

This manual, written by a classroom practitioner, addresses concerns frequently voiced by beginning teachers. It is designed as a practical approach to what works in the classroom. The chapters focus on the following issues: Classroom Management; Classroom Discipline (student behavior, easy ways to establish control, major issues, calling home,…

Documenting the 1991 fall session, this report provides resolutions adopted by the Academic Senate for the California Community Colleges. The resolutions are divided into the following 13 categories and topics: (1) the Academic Senate, including research, rules and procedures, and attendance at meetings; (2) accreditation, including self-study…

The sources of multidimensionality found in several different forms of a licensure examination were studied. The relationship between one source of multidimensionality, differential item functioning (DIF) (or factors producing DIF), and content characteristics was explored in an attempt to isolate aspects of training or curriculum that could…