A teacher at Upland Hills School (Royal Oaks, Michigan) describes how he and groups of seventh and eighth graders built a 175-foot bridge across a gully between the school and an outdoor environmental education area. Students received basic design and engineering instruction at a nearby university, and parents and community provided support and…

A survey of 216 special education teachers examined whether previously identified effective teaching practices for mildly handicapped students were being implemented in special education classrooms in rural Mississippi. Results indicate a high level of acceptance and implementation of best practices. Length of teaching experience was related to…

"Hungarolingua" is an audiovisual monolingual language teaching series developed by teachers of the Debreen Summer School (Hungary) to teach Hungarian as a second language to beginner and intermediate students. The experience of teaching the material to language learners with different motivation, native language, and grammatical…

Study assessed the opinions of sophomores and seniors in teacher education and practicing teachers about the use of classroom and standardized tests. Survey results indicated preservice teachers had less favorable attitudes toward classroom testing and more favorable attitudes toward standardized testing. There were no differences between…

Forty-seven senior education students' attitudes toward teaching special needs children in the mainstream did not change significantly after a four-month practicum. Subjects reported more positive attitudes to mainstreaming than did a similar group of interns from eight years prior. Characteristics such as age and gender were unrelated to…

Describes G. Kelly's repertory grid and autobiography, their application in educational research, how they might be applied to research into teacher thinking and student thinking about the process of teaching and learning, and ways they can be combined to raise teachers' and students' constructs to focal awareness. (RLC)

Condenses a research study of chief administrators' longevity in U.S. accredited international schools worldwide. Identifies several factors that significantly affect (usually brief) job duration, including school governing structure, the head's teaching experience and number of years in international education, and school characteristics. The…

Examines results of a survey documenting the current state of adolescent programs in the Montessori schools of North America. Includes information on the students, adults, and physical environment of such programs, as well as the programs' enrollment, grouping, activities, and materials. (HTH)

To study knowledge teachers acquire about students, researchers had student teachers describe several pupils at three points in time. Evaluations of professional growth indicated elementary teachers were more intimately involved with pupils and perceived them in more multifaceted terms. Secondary novices remained aloof and approached student…

A recently implemented British regulation requires that for teacher education program accreditation, program teaching staff have recent, successful experience teaching in the schools. Discrepancies between the intent of the regulation and the experience of one teacher educator in fulfilling its requirement are discussed, focusing on definitions of…

A Catholic-school teacher of grades five and six reflects on her first year of teaching and describes how Foxfire training led her to introduce group decision making and planning into her classroom. Resulting class projects including a newspaper, a play, and a booklet of ghost stories are described. (SV)

A fifth grade teacher in a rural Kentucky school discusses three years of classroom experiences applying the Foxfire approach, focuses on the democratic decision-making process and the importance of student self-esteem, describes student-project problems and successes, and lists student accomplishments. (SV)

Describes the beginnings of the Foxfire instructional approach; its spread in eastern Kentucky, supported by the Eastern Kentucky Teachers Network; and its special relevance for rural and Appalachian children. Includes comments by teachers and students about their educational experiences and class projects. (SV)

In an analysis of two American and two British texts, ethnographic studies of teachers are compared. The comparison reveals how different the approaches are, although both sets of texts use ethnographic methods, and how the role of the teacher is understood in contrasting ways in the two bodies of research. (IAH)

Study tested several hypotheses relating concept learning to the use of teaching skills in training settings. Data from 14 training studies that measured both factors were analyzed. Results showed significant relationships between the concept and skill variables and suggested that skill acquisition in a training setting is mediated by concept…