Offers an alternative, structural-based explanation regarding American Indians' lower academic performance compared to their white counterparts. Findings from a sample of 352 American Indian and more than 1,000 white high school students show that perceived structural constraints play a significant role in reducing academic performance among…

Examines reasons for early school dropout among high school students and their plans to resume their education. Dropout data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 reveal various reasons for dropping out that include school-related, family-related, and job-related causes, as well as influences from peers and residential mobility.…

School choice is a market-driven reform in which schools compete for students. Discusses characteristics of choice and lessons drawn from the international experience: increased segregation, unimproved learning, low participation, parental criteria, inequity, lack of options, administrative emphasis on management, and right-wing support. Describes…

Reviews four perspectives that education and school-reform writings fall into: technological, psychological, ideological, and sociological. Focuses on implications for the emerging role of the teacher that flow from the four perspectives taken in concert. Discusses professional development and revitalizing teacher education through centers of…

Argues that understanding teachers' conceptions of discussion is a neglected and important issue. Reviews new insights from literacy research on text discussion; suggests how that literature provides a broader context for understanding social studies teachers' conceptions of classroom talk. Reflects on the relationship of open-forum discussion to…

Considers issues related to teachers' conceptions, the nature of classroom discussion, and future research on these topics. Addresses the role of discussion as a method of instruction and a goal of instruction. Argues that classroom discussion promotes civic competence and integration of knowledge and skills across disciplines. (DSK)

This article describes critical events that have shaped gifted education, including: publication of "A Nation At Risk," the Roeper School, differentiated curriculum, concepts of intelligence, the Marland Report, the Torrance Tests, Teachers' College at Columbia University achievements, the legacy of Leta S. Hollingworth, Sputnik, and…

Examines the question of Russian teachers' attitudes toward the profession and toward the work in a specific educational institution. Finds that teachers' sense of social well-being results from the perception of their social position, whereas their sense of professional well-being is discussed in terms of self-assessment of personal and…

The "Handbook" chapter on teaching describes market-oriented and constructivist reforms that are contradictory. The former constructs work as scripts for production; the latter constructs work as scaffolds for expression. Teaching must resist external scripting and assume responsibility for its own agency. Teachers' allegiance is to…

Current critical research in American-Indian education, grounded in self-determination and cultural integrity, offers insights into the kinds of research directions and questions required to assess educational success from a local perspective. While research based on cultural strengths has yielded significant sustainable results for some Indian…

Presents a case study of one second-grade teacher's classroom action research project in which she explores how and when students decided to use electronic editing tools to revise their writing. Discusses factors that influenced student's editing choices and their ability to work in pairs. Considers implications for the use of computers in…

This paper examines changes in children's concepts of health and illness following an action-oriented health education intervention in Bondo district of Western Kenya. The study is a feasibility study exploring a specific educational approach, and it combines elements of health education research and anthropological research. Forty primary…

The goal of this chapter is to lay out some new conceptualizations and research directions for understanding the relation of culture and learning in the shifting terrains of globalized economies and media flows, youth cultures, and transnational migration. In a time when young people's experiences and life pathways are increasingly forged in the…

This Spanish contribution to the STTIS (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society) investigations of transformations of curriculum innovations studies the implementation of a particular innovative teaching sequence on energy degradation in Spanish secondary schools. The paper describes the transformations found in teachers'…

As part of required coursework, 112 students in an educational psychology course made asynchronous postings to online study groups. Students permitted their course marks to be used for research purposes and completed a questionnaire that assessed a range of psycho-educational characteristics as well as personal interpretations of the online study…