A class of reluctant readers and writers responded positively when topics were discussed orally before writing. As writing improved, the author of this article introduced "Coffee House"--themed settings for oral performance of student writing. After modeling her own writing, the author invited students to perform, gratified when even the most…

High/Scope's approach to education is a blend of Jean Piaget's constructivist theory of child development and the best of traditional teacher experience. The High/Scope approach is about helping students gain knowledge and skills in important content areas, such as language and literacy, initiative and social relations, movement, music, and…

In working with preparatory teachers, we have tried to "place diversity front and center" to help students "see culture" as a prerequisite for culturally responsive teaching. The language arts methods-course students who, like the authors, are White women from middle-or upper-income families, participated in learning opportunities that included…

Little is known about the way that teachers articulate notions of variation in their own words. The study reported here was conducted with 17 prospective secondary math and science teachers enrolled in a preservice teacher education course which engaged them in statistical inquiry of testing data. This qualitative study examines how these…

Eventual success with the school learning experience requires students to master skills and educational concepts, which can only result from maintaining appropriate behavior. For immigrant children and youth with limited English ability, adaptation has somewhat of a different connotation than what this entails for nonimmigrant learners and…

This investigation examined the effects of authentic Francophone web sites on cultural learning at the intermediate level. Fifty-four students "surfed" eight web sites. A pre-posttest design assessed long-term gains in culture and the learning of practices, products, and perspectives from exposure to a curriculum with Internet activities. Eight…

This article describes a case study that explored relationships between theory and practice in a teacher candidate's learning to teach. Using a personal, narrative style, it explores one teacher-candidate's reflections about her learning with a Grade 4 student. The study was part of an innovative, inquiry-driven collaboration between school and…

Becoming a teacher is hard work. A sizable body of research indicates that student teaching internships or other field-based practica are a particularly difficult part of this process. Many preservice teachers have misconceptions about the work of teachers and teaching; when they begin their field placements they often feel disillusioned by the…

While the debate over the optimal age for second language (L2) acquisition continues into the 21st century--that is, whether or not there is a clearly established critical period beyond which L2 learning cannot take place--most people believe (rightly or wrongly) that "earlier is better." In this article, the authors begin with the premise that…

Borrowing the title of Raymond Williams' famous study, the following reflections--sometimes collective and sometimes individual--are based on a series of "Keywords", specifically: "fear" "community" and "creativity". By reflecting on the meanings these words have for us today, we attempt to capture their…

Through a detailed case study of one preservice teacher's development, the author examines the tension between basic skills and whole language discourses in literacy education. The author frames "the basic skills/whole language binary" as a "social imaginary,"--"an image that exists within the popular imagination or unconscious" and a force that…

Rodrigo, Chamizo, McLaren, & Mackintosh (1997) demonstrated the blocking effect in a navigational task using a swimming pool: rats initially trained to use three landmarks (ABC) to find an invisible platform learned less about a fourth landmark (X) added later than did rats trained from the outset with these four landmarks (ABCX). The aim of the…

Community colleges--institutions that serve disproportionate numbers of poor, working-class, first-generation, non-traditional, and minority students--are uniquely positioned to provide liberating educational experiences to a diverse spectrum of society. Cross (2000) aptly describes the current interest in cooperative and/or collaborative learning…

This monograph examines and discusses the context for diversity leadership roles and practices in higher education by using research and theoretical and applied literatures from a variety of fields, including the social sciences, business, and higher education. Framing the discussion on leadership in this monograph is the perspective that American…

A set of tri-zygotic quadruplets, three girls and one boy, participated in weekly observations from 1;2 to 1;10 (years;months), a period of transition from prelinguistic gesture to 50 words. In the study, one girl served as a genetic mate to her identical twin and a biological risk mate to her fraternal sister. The biological risk mates achieved…