This article reports on two Mideast-themed schools which have attracted fierce controversy amplified in the news media and the blogosphere. A new public school with a focus on Arabic language and culture is set to open in New York City this week, after being assailed for months by opponents who claim it will be a taxpayer-funded Islamic school…

The research objectives were to identify the middle level mathematics teachers' conceptions of mathematics teaching and learning and ascertain changes in their conceptions and instructional behavior at the end of a three-year professional development (PD) project. These changes were studied through the qualitative analysis of their reflective…

This study describes the relationship between the instructor's feedback and students' metacognitive processes in an online course on democracy and multiculturalism, which was taught as part of a teacher education program. 700 postings, written by 68 students, were content analyzed along with 66 postings by the instructor, using tools designed for…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of using concept mapping to promote reflective instructional decision-making among junior level education preservice teachers when planning lessons for elementary and secondary students. The researchers were interested in determining if there was a connection between the use of concept mapping…

This study focused on a concept entitled shared ethnography. The researcher and youth participants share race in common. Critical Race Theory was used to analyze the reflective journal. An after school science program in a high poverty urban environment provided the context for this study. The findings of the study suggested that when researcher…

Although reading and writing exist only in relation to each other, writing plays little or no role in the usual instructional approaches to reading. Mostly, reading is taught as a sequence of discrete skills, which is ineffective since it accommodates the analytic reading style to the exclusion of global, kinesthetic, and auditory styles. Reading…

Within the education environment, writing journals are being used across the curriculum and for a variety of purposes--they are often recognized as a means for prompting students to apply the perspective of a particular discipline to their own lives or to facilitate their gaining perspective on personal transitions. Successful use of journals in…

This paper describes and explains how journal writing may be used as a qualitative research technique in long-term qualitative studies. Journal writing has a long and reliable history in the arts and humanities, and it provides qualitative researchers with a powerful heuristic tool. The notion of a comprehensive reflective journal to address the…

Combining the journal writing process with the concepts of collaboration can produce more focused writing and learning. Through the channel of collaborative situations, such as group journal writing, teachers can capitalize on the benefits achieved from the collaborative process and cultivate thinking and writing skills. A group journal writing…

This first volume of "Portals: A Journal of the Idaho Council International Reading Association" presents those interested in literacy development with a new forum for discussion of ideas, trends, and issues related to literacy teaching and learning. Articles in the first issue are: "Caleb's Journal" (Ann Desaulniers);…

This article addresses the concern many instructors have about students who do not complete assigned work, particularly the reading. The author explains briefly why extensive reading is so important in developmental writing classes and discusses a multi-step approach she has been using successfully for years. A list of short novels and stories…

After students' interest in literature has been stirred by journal writing, it is time for them to turn their private journal writing into writing for an audience. Instead of having students write the usual responses to literature, vary their assignments by offering them creative responses, either occasionally or as an individual alternative to…

Exploring the question of whether or not each writer has one "authentic voice", this document compared the private voice (as found in a personal journal) and the published voice, as well as these voices with those of other authors. Through the process of searching for the authentic voice, the document arrives at 12 conclusions, including…

Disclosing interpretation as a meaning-making process of the active mind to students in all humanities courses, and especially in literature classes, is possible in numerous, phased writing assignments with built-in exercises in recursive and reflective thinking. The exercises are written down in each student's log (journal), a process which…

Several forms of journal writing, both graded and ungraded and serving different purposes, were used to enhance instruction and outcomes of a basic course in oral communication. In-class journals, written in the first five minutes of class and intended to stimulate thought rather than to practice correct writing, were on a topic assigned by the…