This article describes the development of "content negotiable" activities for teacher development sessions used with South African teachers of English as a Second Language in the United Kingdom. Using input from the teachers involved, sessions focused on teaching speaking and listening to secondary pupils. Contains 13 references. (MDM)

An Australian study compared Southeast Asian foreign students' ways of thinking about learning, their learning goals, and their perceptions of the usefulness of typical university study with those of local students at the beginning of their studies in Australia and after one semester. Evidence of cultural differences in these areas tended to…

Interviews with 154 elementary school students in Northern Ireland and the United States found that students in both countries were very interested in history and learned about history from family and the media, as well as school. However, the two groups of students had different views on the importance of history and reasons for studying it.…

Interview with three Hawaiian educators discusses Hawaiian educational philosophy focused on the importance of family and community and the relationary nature of knowledge; educational self-determination; the politics of promoting culture-based education; and the spiritual aspect of helping students pursue both a career and a destiny. (SV)

Twenty urban Canadian community health and social workers received six hours of training in family-literacy development-strategies As a result, participants demonstrated a shift in attitudes about literacy, from skills-achievement to sociocultural perspectives on literacy-achievement, and included literacy events more frequently in their own…

Examines cultural factors that may create tension between relationship-oriented and educational goals for Mexican American men and women. A survey of 546 Mexican American college students assessed cultural orientation (ethnic loyalty, ethnic social orientation, and cultural awareness) and marriage and gender role attitudes. Ethnic loyalty most…

Although high academic standards are widely accepted in concept, there is little consensus on the practical matter of testing. Examples from Northwestern states illustrate critical questions related to narrowing of curriculum and overemphasis on test preparation, the validity of standardized tests, effects on minority students and those with…

All professional workers need to be "developed." Moreover, there should be no end to this process--the true professional knows that learning is for life. The author wants to explore how these two propositions have come to be true for academics and other professional workers at the beginning of the new millennium, and with what effects.…

In the Government media, and public mind the relationship between "race" and education is overwhelmingly negative. In Britain when we talk of "Black and ethnic minorities in schools" we think of underachievement, rising exclusions and low aspirations. However, research evidence shows racialized people, particularly the women,…

Teacher educators and researchers have studied the improvement of teacher education programs so that pre-service teachers may be well prepared. Research has shown that not only teachers' knowledge but also their beliefs have major influence on their approach to teaching. This present research examined the mathematics and science pre-service…

The classified honours degree has so much prestige and so venerable a tradition that only very serious and systemic changes could justify the question as to whether classification has a future. However, while this paper argues that such changes have indeed taken place in the past 30 years, the main arguments for change are pedagogical. The…

Parents of upper-secondary students in public schools in New South Wales, Australia, gave accounts of their experience of education and their wider thinking about educational issues. Working-class families are bearers of educational histories which are often difficult or truncated, leaving parents with little familiarity with upper-secondary or…

Subjugated to the anachronistic rhetoric of nineteenth century literature, Australian boarding schools are habitually depicted as the remanence of a pre-colonial era. These images continue to be dominated by the paradigm of cruelty popularised by Tom Brown's School Days. This paper analyses the aspirations and attitudes of a study group of…

In this article, the author uses a comparison of various measures of success for developmental students at Patrick Henry Community College with the faculty's perceptions of these measures to break down misconceptions and stereotypes about developmental education and provide ever-needed credibility and acceptance for developmental programs.…

Geography is at once described as valuable and misunderstood. Its continued place in the curriculum arguably depends on reconciling these contrasting perceptions, and ensuring that curriculum decisions are based on realistic assumptions. This includes students' assumptions about the subject. This research employed synergetic focus groups to…