This study focuses on observations of classroom conversation as an approach to assessment of relationships between a teacher's teaching and pupils' learning and identity-development processes. Detailed observation notes from two conventional conversation situations from a first grade classroom are written down as narratives and analysed within a…

As a result of recent changes to U.S. undergraduate mathematics instruction, graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) may now be asked to teach in ways that they did not themselves experience as students. One such example is the use of collaborative group learning. The preparation TAs receive to teach in these new ways has the potential to shape…

Postcards Home using photography, scanning, digital image manipulation, text and colour printing was the third Download project devised by the education department of the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, England. It was led by artist Laurie Long with teachers and pupils from Pooles Park primary school in Islington, an inner city borough in North…

The first portion of this article describes the development and validation of a classroom observation measure. The goal of the measure was to assess the quality of reading instruction provided to first-grade English learners. We report the internal consistency reliability, interrater reliability, the development of empirically derived subscales,…

Peer observation has become a feature of university practice over the last decade, the primary impetus for its introduction being the political drive to raise teaching quality via the development and sharing of 'good practice'. Peer observation within higher education (HE) involves observing colleagues in the classroom and has the further aim of…

Many national policymakers and experts believe that professional development, which teachers often have regarded as wasted time, is potentially an important tool for improving student learning. Some of the current attention to professional development grows out of several studies in recent years that have highlighted the central role that teachers…

With the publication of the National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy, people now have a thorough idea of what an inquiry-based teacher is, and what he or she needs to do within a classroom in order to be successful. However, one major barrier in learning how to become an effective inquiry-based science teacher…

This study investigated the similarity of information provided from a daily behavior report card (DBRC) as rated by the teacher to direct observation data obtained from external observers. In addition, the similarity of ratings was compared with variations of problem severity (mild, severe) and teacher training (none, some). Results suggested a…

This report presents data on 9-month-old twin pairs (n[MZ]=172; n[DZ]=333) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, demonstrating that the role of genetic variation among infants is trivial and the shared and nonshared environment is substantial in accounting for the observed quality of infant-caregiver relationships. In contrast, maternal…

This study examined teacher candidates' observations and perceptions of classroom print-rich environments during field observations. The focus is on what the teacher candidates report and believe they have observed in classrooms regarding print-rich environments. The subjects were 35 undergraduate teacher candidates enrolled in two language arts…

Within the framework of a longitudinal study of deaf children with cochlear implants, 11 children with implants were interviewed. The objective was to shed light on what it is like for a child to use a cochlear implant, based on these children's own experience with implants, which ranged from 5.0 to 7.5 years. Six of the children were in schools…

This paper reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the literacy teaching of two teachers who were involved in a large-scale government initiative to change the way literacy is taught. These two teachers were identified at the outset of the study as being very different in ways in which they thought about the teaching of reading and…

This article draws on 3 ethnographic and participant observation studies of African American parents and adults from 3 northern California communities. Although studies have shown that African American parents hold the same folk theories about mathematics as other parents, stressing it as an important school subject, few studies have sought to…

This paper reports a study on classroom organization, carried out in 2000 in kindergartens in Hong Kong. The findings contribute to understandings of current cross-cultural studies on classroom organization. Half-day session classroom observations of nine kindergarten teachers from three schools in Hong Kong were carried out. Data sources included…

The best place for students to begin to understand complex environmental relationships is in their own back yards. Doing investigations of ants allows students to establish a baseline survey of ant fauna, test the importance of ants in nutrient cycling and soil structure maintenance, and increase their understanding of the environment and their…