Describes an interdisciplinary high school course that used contemporary films to illustrate overarching themes in the U.S. experience. Themes included individualism/social responsibility, isolation/internationalism, and liberal/conservative. Emphasis was on conceptual rather than historic relationships (e.g. "Norma Rae" illustrated…

Describes an English-language reading course for science and engineering students at a Mexican university. The course used science and cyberpunk fiction to address moral and ethical issues concerning technological advancement. Synthesizes students' commentaries and includes lists of reading materials, films, and discussion questions. (MJP)

This paper presents data gathered as part of an evaluation study of a grant-making initiative undertaken by a national organization involved with Jewish day schooling. The initiative disbursed grants to 30 established Jewish day schools for use during the 2002-2003 school year. The goal of the initiative was to encourage and support day schools to…

This paper presents an example of an approach that involves both the student and the instructor in the evaluation of an online discussion in a context of teaching and learning. According to this approach, the student conducts a self analysis of his or her contributions to the discussion, using criteria supplied in advance of the discussion. One…

Utilizing a pre- and posttest research design, with an instructional intervention of good practices in notetaking, the notes taken by examinees during a computer-based listening comprehension test prior to and following the instructional intervention were examined for particular notetaking strategies. Questionnaires probed perceptions of the…

A content analysis was conducted of three educational research journals published by the American Educational Research Association to review the quantitative and qualitative techniques used in educational research. All articles appearing in these three journals from 1988 through 1995 (total n=1,715) were considered. Research methods were…

Portfolio assessment has become a widely cited technique for obtaining a rich demonstration of the skills that students have acquired, and it is often implied that portfolio assessment provides different types of information from that obtained from standardized tests. This paper provides support for the contention that portfolio assessments do…

A component of preservice teacher education is the methodology of teaching mathematics using manipulatives. To enhance prospective teachers' understanding of the use of manipulatives to teach mathematics, interactive video can provide an effective medium to bring the reality of the school classroom to the university classroom. Two interactive…

The Newspaper section of the Proceedings contains the following 14 papers: "Caught in the Web: Newspaper Use of the Internet and Other Online Resources" (Bruce Garrison); "'Powerful' Attributive Verbs and 'Body Language' Statements Revisited" (Sherrie L. Wilson); "Community Journalism at Work: Newspapers Putting More…

This qualitative study is a two-part analysis of first year algebra textbooks adopted for use in South Carolina. Part 1 examines the five books selected in the 1984 adoption. This comparison of first year algebra textbooks examined: (1) whether the textbook authors had adjusted the traditional context of math texts at this level to reflect…

A study determined the extent to which graduate students have contributed to the body of adult education knowledge through published research. It described content of graduate research articles and identified graduate programs, faculty who supported its production, and levels of graduate study involved in research publication. The study also…

A study examined the influence of national political and economic interests, culture, and history on the portrayal of Arabs in two weekly news magazines. Sample articles from the American weekly "Time" magazine and the British weekly "The Economist" were examined for coverage of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli war and the June…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 18 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) effects of creative drama instruction on the story grammar knowledge of field-dependent and field-independent primary grade students; (2) a content assessment…

This study compared the results of four different methods of observing teacher training. In addition, it used the results to identify those training techniques which seemed to be better at changing teachers' behavior in their classrooms. Twenty-nine teachers were trained by five trainers in five weekly training sessions, which were tape recorded.…

This study examined literature coverage of issues related to ethnic and cultural minorities in two publications in the field of special education: "Exceptional Children" and "Teaching Exceptional Children." Leadership personnel within the Council for Exceptional Children (n=76) were surveyed concerning their opinions of…