Attracting top teachers to small school systems involves a different recruiting process: advertise widely, use telephone contacts, get there first, don't overweight interviews, do classroom observations, and keep up personal contact. (MD)

Focusing on "interpreting speaker/hearers" as a method to show how classroom discourse facilitates or fetters education, the author suggests that the key issue is the type of elicitation a question might apprear to be to students. (MD)

Presents a checklist designed to measure the reading attitudes of beginning readers. Discusses the methods used to develop the instrument. (FL)

Examines groups of conduct-disordered and normal children in order to (1) test the potential usefulness of observational techniques in assessing therapeutic outcomes and (2) identify possible differences between deviant children and normal peers in aggressive and prosocial behavior. (RH)

An "ideal lesson" method was used to observe how teachers were providing instruction in text summarization. Teachers prepared a lesson and audiotaped the presentation. Although teachers were prompted to assist students in improving text summaries, only two teachers actually discussed more than one summarization rule. Staff development…

Presents five lessons to help secondary level art students see the subjects they draw as they actually appear. The lessons involve portraits, void/solid drawings, surface textures, detailed drawings, and figure drawings. (RM)

The model for assessing young developmentally handicapped children provides for general assessment through interviews (with parents and teachers); a developmental checklist, observations (in natural and training settings and with structured materials); identification of instructional targets; individual instruction; and a four-component assessment…

After a preface, the first chapter of this book sets out to explore the nature of intelligence. It considers the labels used to describe gifted and talented children and looks at how the adult's beliefs about intelligence will impact on what they do, say and look for in the early years setting. It challenges educators to think about the nature of…

Much research links collaborative experiences to the professional development of teachers. The author of this study designed a project, called the Buddy System, which provided opportunities for teachers to observe one another in the classroom and to interact with one another collaboratively. The goal was to determine if these activities provided…

This conference proceedings compiles papers presented at the Institute of Early Childhood in September 1999, the fourth in a series examining the challenges which the schools of Reggio Emilia present the early childhood profession in Australia. The conference focused on the practices of observing children and documenting their thinking, the…

A set of linear conditions on the item response functions is derived that guarantees identical observed-score distributions on two test forms. The conditions can be added as constraints to a linear programming model for test assembly that assembles a new test form to have an observed-score distribution optimally equated to the distribution of the…

This book provides information for teachers and administrators about peer coaching, and it centers on classroom observation by other team members. The book describes stages of the observation process, explaining how a peer coaching program can make teachers more effective and co-learners with colleagues. Each chapter includes scenarios describing…

Based upon principles of inquiry, collaboration, and action research, the Quest project supports and investigates ongoing school improvement efforts in a four-state region (Kentucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Virginia). Since 1996, Quest activities have included biannual conferences and summer symposia for school improvement teams, a Scholars…

This book provides an inside look at an extraordinary teacher, Linda Rief--specifically, how she converses with students and promotes their conversations among one another. The book offers insights into Linda's teaching that even she had not seen. It presents an inside look at Linda Rief in action as she establishes goals, teaches, triumphs, and…

This paper discusses research methods used to examine children's art. The first part of the paper presents information on four theoretical approaches to the examination of children's art and discusses the teacher's role within that approach: (1) psychological approach, using art to discover the child's inner conflicts; (2) behavioral psychological…