In this article, the author describes some of the ways that journals can be used as teaching tools in the language classroom; in fact, the suggestions he makes could be applied to the use of journals in teaching just about any subject. He begins by describing the concept of writing to learn, which is the theoretical foundation that journals are…

A daily diary method was used to examine the daily dynamics of adolescent conflict and perceived relationship satisfaction with mothers, fathers, and best friends among a sample of 72 Dutch adolescents (M = 15.59 years). Multilevel analyses revealed that perceived relationship satisfaction with mothers, fathers, and best friends was lower on days…

Students write definitions or explanations of mathematical words or symbols in their own words. These can be collated and added to as the year progresses to form a class dictionary that all students can access as required, or students could create their own personal dictionaries. This article presents a collection of ideas for incorporating…

The authors investigated the experiences of counseling students on a 1-week cultural immersion trip to New Mexico. Students' journals were analyzed, using the open coding procedure from grounded theory. Five major categories emerged that reflected students' internal reactions to the experience. The findings and their instructional implications are…

Although the potentials of ICT such as blogs seem to be obvious, universities find challenges in using them pedagogically. For example, there is dissonance between blogging and pedagogy, or rather a gap between rhetoric about blog potential and blog practice, which has prompted this investigation and professional development in the use of blogs at…

Experiential learning and reflective writing are important components of college instructors' repertoires. Learning is not complete without proper reflection. The purpose of this study was to examine undergraduate students' perceptions of learning in a leadership course that emphasized experiential learning methods. The respondents included the…

This study investigated the impact of an open inquiry experience on elementary science methods students' understanding of celestial motion as well as the methods developed by students to answer their own research questions. Pre/post interviews and assessments were used to measure change in participants' understanding (N = 18). A qualitative…

Purpose: This study examines the feasibility and utility of a daily log for measuring principal leadership practice. Setting and Sample: The study was conducted in an urban district with approximately 50 principals. Approach: The log was assessed against two criteria: (a) Is it feasible to induce strong cooperation and high response rates among…

In this qualitative study, the author examined the ways middle school literacy teachers responded to their boys' dialogue journals. The participants were 3 middle school literacy teachers and 19 middle school boys. The findings of this study indicated that the teachers took 4 roles (teacher as reader, teacher as responder, teacher as facilitator,…

In this study, the author implemented a problem-based learning (PBL) experience that allowed students in an advanced science methodology course to explore differentiated instruction. Through working systematically in small, collaborative groups, students explored the nature of differentiated instruction. The objective of the study was to examine…

While many educators call for having students use reflective journaling in the classroom as both a way of getting students to engage in content matter and as a way to help the students find some level of personal connection to content material, research shows that many students see reflective journaling as merely busy work and, consequently, fail…

In this article I present some findings of an action research study intended to find out to what extent a teacher-student partnership in writing assessment could promote high school students' autonomy. The study was conducted in a U.S. school. Two main action strategies in the assessment process were the use of symbols as the form of feedback…

Among the coursework offered to preservice teachers at the first author's institution in 2007 was the course "Second Language Acquisition" (SLA). This course was designed to develop multicultural awareness by introducing the theory and practice of second language acquisition and helping future teachers become familiar with the struggles…

The role of culture as a phenomenon guided this qualitative study, which examined the influence of diverse Hispanic cultures on the attitudes and perceptions towards college writing courses of female Hispanic students who are non-native speakers of English. With the increasing number of Hispanic immigrants coming to the U.S., the minority student…

Young children living in poor urban neighborhoods are often at risk for reading difficulties, in part because developing listening comprehension strategies and vocabulary knowledge may not be a priority in their prekindergarten classrooms, whose curriculums typically focus heavily on phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge. Prereading…