The reflections of two social scientists regarding an inservice education program for elementary school teachers were the basis of their approach to inservice programs: Teachers need to have analytical and inquiry skills that will allow them to read research reports and listen to inservice presentations, digest the information, and then apply what…

This paper discusses several interrelated features of microethnography that are relevant and useful for the study of bilingual schooling. It is argued that an interactional approach provides a powerful way to study systematically the organization of bilingual learning environment, identify areas of difficulty, and suggest concrete interventions…

To assess structural coupling in schools, investigators must first have measures with established reliability and validity levels. Structural coupling refers to the mechanisms and norms in organizations that influence interactions among individuals. For three structural coupling measurement techniques--participant observation, interviews, and…

This manual, intended to assist teachers in identifying students with limited-English proficiency who may have special needs, concentrates on four areas: language, observation, testing, and learning problems. The main part of the manual has eight sections dealing with the following topics: (1) observation techniques and methods; (2) modifications…

A finding in the 1975-76 evaluation of several California programs designed to improve the academic achievement of young children indicated that in schools whose students scored at or below the twentieth percentile on the Entry Level Test in 1973-74, third grade reading test scores had declined relative to their predicted scores over the…

The overall purpose of the national Head Start evaluation is to assess the impact, on the children and parents being served, of: the educational services component of Head Start, and a new demonstration program within Head Start, Basic Educational Skills. The evaluation deals with a total of 65 Head Start programs and their families. These…

This inquiry was conducted to determine whether an early field experience influences the academic achievement of teaching candidates in subsequent teaching methods coursework. The subjects were secondary education students who had successfully completed a field experience program preceding their enrollment in the methods course. The course was…

A study of the written language that was produced within one junior high school social studies classroom over a 38-minute period was based on the assumptions that (1) written language is not only affected by the context of the communicative event in which it is involved, but is also involved in the construction of the communicative event; (2) the…

A seven-member research team conducted participant observer field research at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland during the October 15th, 1969, moratorium in order to obtain an account of what transpired on the campus as a whole. The following eight events or places were covered by the researchers: teach-in, classroom area,…

A review of selected literature on classroom processes indicates that the primary preoccupation of educational researchers is with the dominance and centrality of the teacher. The research has primarily been concerned with documenting the strong relationship between the teacher's expectations of a pupil's performance and the actual performance of…

A longitudinal study was conducted in three Maryland counties to determine the predictive validity of the Maryland Systematic Teacher Observation Instrument (MSTOI) and other initial assessment instruments as screening devices to identify kindergarten children with potential reading and/or learning difficulties. The MSTOI was also examined to…

This case study of a kindergarten boy in the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) suggests that specific operant training in school-relevant behaviors can facilitate classroom adjustment if the training is coordinated with the regular classroom teacher. The subject, considered unmanageable, hyperactive, and aggressive by the staff at his…

This study investigates the impact of family configuration and parent education-income level on parental beliefs, the relationship between these beliefs and actual parental practices, and the effect of parental practices on children's problem-solving abilities. One hundred twenty intact families participated in the study. Forty families consisted…

Five author contributed chapters explore the social environment of the schools as it relates to mainstreaming handicapped children. M. Reynolds discusses "The Changing Social Environment" in the first chapter. Emphasis is placed on the use of developmental scales in the organization of improved schools. "The Social Integration of Handicapped…

An ongoing research project, Dimensions of Classroom Instruction (DCI) is described. The primary data source is a study of reading in nine second-grade classrooms using such observation techniques as categorical observation, ethnographic observation, and videotaping. Three major objectives for the project are stated: 1) developing methods of…