Noting that children evaluate their reading comprehension more effectively when they are informed about the standards of evaluation they should use, a study examined whether training in the use of certain standards would show generalization from one level of processing to the other, and also maintenance of standard use. The study also examined…

Focusing on recent composition theory, this paper offers suggestions for writing teachers in applying concepts of dialogic discourse directly to the pedagogy of the college writing course. The first section of the paper addresses the influence of the social constructionist work on interpretation theory by Richard Rorty, Clifford Geertz, and…

This paper designs a theoretical construct that integrates a number of mainstream systems of inquiry available to educational policymakers. Each system of inquiry has postulates, basic and derived concepts that characterize its epistemological foundations and methodological directives. None of these systems of inquiries, however, is proscriptive…

A computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software evaluation form that looks directly at important aspects of language teaching approaches is presented. Examples of typical evaluation checklists are described to illustrate how they fail to address the appropriate questions for language teaching software. Three major categories of language…

This practicum report describes a community college program developed for the purpose of increasing the awareness of early childhood personnel in a central Ontario (Canada) community concerning the benefits of developmentally appropriate practices. The need for the program arose from a discrepancy between the emphasis in community college courses…

Because application of reading research and theory development to the English as a second language (ESL) classroom has not always been forthcoming, this monograph is aimed at helping teachers develop better, sounder reading instruction in the ESL classroom through a better understanding of the reading processes, of the factors that affect reading…

A study was conducted to determine the appropriateness of a particular whole language program, entitled "Project Victory," designed specifically for a group of high-risk, seventh-grade students in a predominately urban intermediate public school. Subjects were 20 students identified as high-risk by their school district on the basis of…

In the last four decades, many of the studies on contrastive linguistics have been intended for and directed to second language teachers, on the assumption that a major problem in language learning arises from interference caused by structural differences in the native and target languages. However, this effort has had little impact on the…

Whole language has to do with beliefs about language and learners that lead to beliefs about curriculum and instructional procedures. The term emerged as a label for the way language is thought to be learned: as a cohesive organization of systems working together as one--as a whole. The term whole language also refers to the learner as being…

Guidelines are offered to institutional researchers and planning analysts for presenting research results in formats and levels of sophistication that are accessible to top management. Fundamental principles include: (1) know what is needed; (2) know when the information is needed; (3) match format to analytical sophistication and learning…

A child's success in learning to read in the first grade appears to be the best predictor of his or her ultimate success in schooling as well as all of the events and outcomes that correlate with that. Yet, across the research literature reviewed for a recent book, "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print," children's…

Studied was the development of the school subject English in the Norwegian compulsory elementary and junior high school system, stressing the period of 1945 to 1970. Historically, the relation of educational reform to the school subject English is described with identification of the influencing forces and mediating agencies. This report is…

The product of a course at the University of Pittsburgh, this book offers educators the opportunity to see how the acts of reading, writing, and thinking that characterize work in academia appear to those students who lack adequate preparation for such work--namely, basic writers. The introduction to the book presents an overview of the course and…

This book is the first in a set of three study guides designed to help students of educational administration critically analyze contemporary theory in the field, examine the field from a new viewpoint, and develop their own, more practical knowledge base. The first of this volume's two sections, by W. John Smyth, focuses upon the traditional or…

To assist textbook adoption committees in answering the questions that arise as they consider basal reading series, this paper provides a discussion of readability. Following a brief introduction, the second section of the paper offers a background discussion of what readability really means. In addition, this section looks at three factors to…