In this article, the author shares her experience in teaching a new first-grade student with a severe learning disability. Reading the reports from numerous experts, including medical doctors, school psychologists, veteran teachers, and one neurologist, she discovered that Sally Jo had repeated kindergarten and that it was her second year in first…

The piece that follows had its first hearing as part of a symposium at the 1990 annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Boston. Sigrun Gudmundsdottir and Grace Grant were at the podium, presenting their two narrative accounts of one schoolteacher's practice. The schoolteacher was present as well, through the medium of a…

Bipolar disorder is characterized by a chronic and fluctuating course of illness. Although nonadherence to pharmacotherapy is a frequent problem in the disorder, few studies have systematically explored psychosocial factors related to treatment discontinuation. Previous research with depressed patients receiving psychotherapy has suggested that…

Beliefs about the consequences of using alcohol, alcohol expectancies, are powerful predictors of underage drinking. The Alcohol Expectancies Questionnaire-Adolescent form (AEQ-A) has been widely used to measure expectancies in youth. Despite its broad use, the factor structure of the AEQ-A has not been firmly established. It is also not known…

For many young people, the "pipeline" to educational and economic success is truly broken. This report describes how some of the Annie E. Casey Foundation's education grantees in Atlanta are working to mend the pipeline for young people in their communities by connecting standards and expectations for learning from early childhood to college entry…

Many forms of e-learning (such as online courses with authentic tasks and computer-supported collaborative learning) have become important in distance education. Very often, such e-learning courses or tasks are set up following constructivist design principles. Often, this leads to learning environments with authentic problems in ill-structured…

Although previous research provides empirical support for the "Freshman Myth," qualitative inquiry is necessary to enhance our understanding of the content, complexities, and impact of students' expectations about college. The current study analyzes in-depth interview data from nine students at three key time points in their transition from high…

This article explores the expectations of support for and the experiences of substitute teachers in an urban school division in Saskatchewan. Data were collected in semistructured interviews with seven substitute teachers. The purpose of the study was to explore how substitute teachers frame their professional experiences and construct their roles…

The authors employ a unique longitudinal data set of British Columbia high school graduates that followed respondents 1, 5, and 10 years after graduation to examine the extent to which educational expectations change over time in relation to parental socioeconomic status and eventual postsecondary attainment. Using the method of correspondence…

This two-part series describes the structure of the stoichiometry course at North Carolina State University. The course had a variety of learning objectives, and several nontraditional pedagogies were used in the course delivery. The first paper outlined the course structure and policies, the preparation given to the teaching assistants who played…

Commencing each class session with a class quiz, which emphasizes the previous week's work and is supported by immediate feedback, encourages students to revise their notes ahead of the session, undertake more reading and keep pace with course progression. It reduces the necessity for any spoken review of the previous week's work, provides…

Using the biological and adoptive families in the Minnesota-based Sibling Interaction and Behavior Study, we investigated the associations among genetic and environmental influences on IQ, parenting, parental expectations for offspring educational attainment, engagement in school, and school grades. All variables showed substantial genetic…

This article attempts to clarify some of the problems and challenges currently met by the teaching profession in special education, in particular those relating to why students choose to study special needs education and what they expect to learn. There are two major reasons why students choose to become a "special needs" teacher: to…

School counselors bring special skills to the effort of educating low-income children. A review of literature on poverty and social class as correlates of student success, teacher expectations, and parent involvement provides a rationale for school counselors expanding their leadership roles in high-poverty schools by (a) serving as cultural…

In late 2006, the National Library of Australia (NLA) implemented a trial Instant Messaging (IM) service that ran in parallel with the AskNow chat reference service for a six month period. The trial was a resounding success, proving both a demand for an IM service and the suitability of the medium for reference service provision in a collaborative…