Discusses how teachers may videotape their own teaching as a method of self-evaluation. Offers ideas on questions to ask while viewing the tape. (SR)

Observation of nine subjects with mild intellectual disabilities working in competitive employment settings revealed that subjects' social networks lacked complexity, with few interconnections among the network modes. Major sources of social support emanated from the family and organizations catering to people with disabilities. Social support…

Principals may wonder how to evaluate teachers using student-centered, indirect teaching strategies with an assessment instrument geared to reward a more teacher-centered approach. This article offers some suggestions concerning the instructional cycle, classroom observation techniques, postobservation conferences, and the formal writeup. (MLH)

A principal need not be a musician to supervise a music program. Supervisory emphasis should be on elements of the musical process that can be taught, reinforced, and evaluated. At the core of the instructional program, there should be a method book, behavioral objectives, and a graded course of instruction. (MLH)

Argues that the use of nature literature in science, history, religion, geography, etc., classrooms can sharpen students' observation skills, help students learn to value the world around them, and introduce environmental issues such as man's threats to nature. Describes sample activities. (DMM)

Provides humorous look at the classroom from perspective of instructor. Focuses on test-taking behaviors of students, identifying 10 separate categories of test-takers: mysterious mystic, reliable rhythm master, antsy anguished, helpless header, persecuted pantomimer, equivocal eraser, pencil punctuator, conscientious chiropractor, miserable…

A researcher observed older adults participating in planning meetings and a Search Conference to identify community needs. Participants were successfully engaged in addressing important health and social needs. Participant observation was validated as a flexible, effective means of collecting data on older persons whose circumstances might make…

When carefully structured and appropriately used, cooperative learning can be highly effective at any grade level. To provide teachers with appropriate feedback, principals observing cooperative-learning classrooms must recognize whether the lesson is worth doing cooperatively, the students demonstrate positive interdependence and individual…

Discusses ethnographic studies in business and technical writing, noting that ethnography comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context, the site's cultural context, the research community context, and the researcher's interior context. Claims ethnographic accounts should balance the input of each of these areas rather…

The use of functional analysis is demonstrated with a case study of a preschool child with behavior problems in the classroom. Discussion focuses on the steps of a functional analysis: interview, direct observation, systematic environmental manipulations, and development of intervention procedures. (DB)

Describes a study that was conducted to determine the instructional techniques and behaviors that either reduced or exacerbated anxiety in an Internet class for novice adult students. Through observation, interviews, and document analysis it was determined that low self-efficacy played a role in students' anxiety. (Author/LRW)

The Nature Conservancy's Berkshire Program involves community volunteers in monitoring migration routes of amphibians that rely on vernal pools for breeding success. Vernal-pool workshops provide basic knowledge of amphibian lifecycles and detailed monitoring instructions. Nighttime field trips for adults and children and monitoring experiences…

Discusses using questioning to encourage nursery school children to develop skills of observation and communication. An effective way of exploring the ideas children hold is through productive questioning. (Author/CCM)

Examined impact of cued observation and discussion by 24 parents of their young children's play on parental thinking and reasoning about child development and parent-child relations. Found statistically significant changes in reasoning about eight issues after the eight-month intervention, demonstrating change within a range that could be viewed…

A study used a Personal Construct Theory/Repertory Grid approach to examine the work of 12 Welsh primary headteachers. Analysis of thematic work-activity grids suggests principals have a more coherent view of their work (as centered on children and education) than Henry Mintzberg's observational studies portrayed. (Contains 36 references.) (MLH)