Describes 13 practical ideas for classroom teaching at the elementary level, including writing classmates' biographies, keeping a class diary, and improving emergent readers' vocabulary with word cards. (MM)

Describes an eighth grade reading teacher's program which involved students visiting elderly adults in nursing homes. Argues that the experience provided the context for students to deal with responsibility in a realistic setting, and that the positive circumstances encouraged them to share their experiences in oral and written form. (RS)

Reports a study that examined how specific reflective pedagogical strategies influenced preservice physical educators to reflect on practice. Six students participated in groups that promoted one of two levels of reflection. Results supported the positive influence of new pedagogical reflective strategies in promoting preservice teachers'…

Reports on a study of two introductory sociology courses to determine whether informal writing assignments can aid learning. Finds that requiring students to keep journals did not significantly improve performance on essay tests. Asserts that teachers may be justified in requiring attendance as a strategy for increased learning. (CFR)

Discusses the use of dialogue journals with aspiring teachers of French as a Second Language at the University of Ottawa. An analysis of 35 journals kept by the students found that many were concerned with cultural issues, teaching skills, their role as teachers, and other educational issues. (13 references) (MDM)

Art and writing are valuable tools for helping students develop sensitivity to the world around them and for encouraging them to respond to their feelings. Activities combining art and writing include writing a detailed description of an object; writing about a personally created collage; journal-keeping; self-appraisals; and writing step-by-step…

Describes how keeping a journal can help counselors analyze their professional development as they move from training to practice. The three-step process entails keeping an unstructured journal, writing a retrospective summary of the journal, and carefully analyzing this summary. Such reflection offers a framework for examining one's…

Presents stories from a student and a teacher regarding efforts to have university-level pedagogy encourage students to identify and pursue personally relevant educational topics. Information comes from a teacher education course organized around individual focus projects designed to promote action research. Highlights of the student's journal are…

Relationships between language, literacy, and school learning are investigated in a case study of a first grader. Examination of his journal-writing during a school year focuses on a two-month period in which he wrote almost exclusively about superheroes. An individual approach to sociolinguistic research on childhood learning is advocated. (48…

Describes the concept of reflective teaching which involves recollecting and giving a voice to previously adopted presuppositions that influence an individual's life. This article presents journal entries which document one student teacher's personal explication of the learning community as it is enacted moment by moment. (SM)

A list of reflective strategies that can be used in elementary science methods classes is presented and includes science education autobiography, critical incidents, reaction papers, scenarios, role playing/peer teaching, journal, instructor-student dialogue, and self-evaluation. The reflective approach to teacher education and science, a…

Study analyzed the writing assignments of two secondary preservice teachers involved in a university teacher education practicum designed to promote reflective thinking. Found that written assignments were more useful in making participants' cognitive processes explicit than in their actively constructing knowledge about teaching and learning.…

Notes that alternative assessment techniques provide more comprehensive and authentic information about the learner than do traditional assessment techniques. Describes a variety of alternative assessment techniques (portfolios, journals, observations, self-assessment, classroom communication, surveys, and interviews) and illustrates how to use…

Describes the development of a graduate preservice education course in which students integrated personal life histories with other views and perspectives, thus broadening their outlooks. Students kept journals in which they reacted personally to reading material and related it to their own life histories. This encouraged them to examine their own…

Examined the effect of differential feedback (corrections, commentaries), and a combination of the two) on the journal writing accuracy of minority- and majority-language students being educated in the same classrooms. Journal writing samples were collected from 112 fifth grade students over 4 months. Outcomes of the study are discussed in light…