Studies conducted in the US consistently demonstrate that parenting self-efficacy and construction of the parent role are critical elements associated with parents' involvement in their children's elementary school education. Less is known about the dynamics of parent involvement during the preschool period, or in nations outside the US. This…

How do international speakers of English assert their identities as legitimate teachers of English given the privileged position of the native speaker? To answer this question, we present case studies of two students from Taiwan in their first year of study in a 2-year master of arts in TESOL (MATESOL) program. The data included interviews after…

This paper explores the relationship between parents and schools. Over the last 30 years the importance attached to parents' views on education has increased significantly throughout the Western world. Policy-makers encourage parental participation and involvement through the creation of councils in which parents have a say. In Flanders in Belgium…

The present study used a within-subjects design to examine the effect of the type of written exercise on L2 vocabulary retention. Using input for the meaning and usage of the new words from a specially prepared minidictionary, university intensive English program students (n = 154) practiced target vocabulary in three types of written exercises…

In this article, the author explores the experiences of teaching staff on the conflicts and contradictions of working in a mass higher education system in the UK. The author conducted an in-depth interview with members of staff working in the area of the social sciences at different universities in the UK. She focuses on how her interview…

Employment interviews are widely used in the selection of quality teachers, and indeed research confirms administrators' belief in the validity of the procedure. However, many key recommendations for improving the general reliability of interviews including selecting questions that are job-related and research grounded, including well designed…

Teaching culture in the foreign language (L2) classroom can be a real dilemma for instructors: What culture do we teach? What does it mean to learn about a culture? How can students learn culture? In order to answer these questions, we evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of two types of culture portfolios: a traditional one that used on-line…

With his 10th book, Improving Test Scores: A Practical Approach for Teachers and Administrators, Scott Mandel outlines steps educators can take to boost achievement on standardized exams while maintaining the integrity of their day-to-day teaching. Mandel, who holds a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from USC, teaches history and English at…

This report presents findings from the second-year evaluation of the Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program. The GEEG program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high…

Purpose: The application of a new technology (YouTube) can help lecturers in solving some of the issues related to workload and shifts support to students by giving them more responsibilities in their assessment. The purpose of this paper is to re-characterize the role of the students in the assessment process. Design/methodology/approach:…

For the purpose of this research project an outdoor education program was developed for students (aged between 10-14) displaying signs of emotional difficulties in engaging with school and family life. The project investigated the effective use of an Integrated Adventure Based Educational program delivered in a complimentary milieu of classroom,…

Like many other culturally and linguistically diverse students, Native Hawaiians are over-represented among those in special education, score lower on standardized achievement tests, and are at greater risk for dropping-out. The Hawaiian Studies Program (HSP) was a culturally relevant academic program that incorporated learning about Hawaiian…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the writing processes of second language (L2) writers, specifically examining the writing strategies of three Chinese post-graduate students in an Australian higher education institution. The study was prompted by the paucity of second language writing strategies of Chinese students in an authentic…

Past studies have identified the impact of situational and enduring variables on second language (L2) learners' willingness to communicate (WTC) in the L2. This qualitative study triangulates data from two classroom observations, semi-structured interviews with four students and class instructor, and personal experiences including communication…

Research in second language acquisition and reading in particular indicate that certain literacy skills transfer across languages. This study examines the reading strategies used by advanced Korean and Chinese ESL learners. Particular attention is devoted to how word recognition and processing skills developed in learners' native languages (L1)…