Examines the effect of foreign language education on the basic skills of elementary school students. A group of third-grade students given three 30-minute Spanish language lessons per week performed as well as or better than a control group (given no second-language instruction) on academic achievement tests. (ER)

Reviews the worker's theater movement of the 1930s that attempted to unite actors and audience in devising solutions to societal problems. Maintains that re-enacting its dramatic forms is a thought-provoking way to introduce students to the issues of the time. Includes instructions for suggested activities. (MJP)

The purposes of this study were to (a) gain an understanding of the views of inquiry held by faculty members involved in undergraduate science teaching and (b) describe the challenges, constraints, and opportunities that they perceived in designing and teaching inquiry-based laboratories. Participants included 19 college professors, representing…

This chapter provides general insights into American Indian epistemologies that can assist student affairs professionals in their work and examines the shared understandings of American Indians with regard to tribal knowledge and education.

Across America, colleges and universities proclaim their commitment to liberal education through general education mission statements touting outcomes such as increased intellectual awareness, breadth of learning, communication skills, and critical thinking. According to this author, however, general education programs are burdened by several…

Cites three critical questions to examine reasons for inconclusive findings relating middle school practices recommended in "Turning Points" to student achievement: (1) shortcomings in operationalizing variables; (2) what is measured; or (3) uncontrolled variables. Notes schools implementing more "Turning Points"…

Integrating the liberal arts perspective in the study of international commerce allows students to examine the human side of doing business outside the U.S. and stimulates the imagination by exploring the contributions made to business practices by other cultures. This approach is one way to enrich the student learning experience and to make the…

School districts write mission statements about creating citizens of the world, but more and more, they want teachers to become robotic hands who deliver education programs designed and shipped from sites outside of classrooms. If people want an educated citizenry, they need teachers who know how to think about their students' needs and write…

As additional funding and new legislation increase our focus on literacy, we should consider the findings of a study by the National Staff Development Council and the National Education Association on what works. The study reviews programs that have demonstrated improvements in student learning, and issues key findings for every grade level.

To refocus its professional development plan, Chaska Middle School East (Minnesota) looked at where student achievement was lagging. Using the Killion back-mapping model, a student-focused, data-driven, multi-step process by which teachers gather and study student data to determine where professional growth, development, or training is most…

In 2001, the U.S. government allocated $4.5 billion to after-school programs through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) grant directed at high-poverty, low-performing schools. Since 2003, 6,800 rural and urban public schools have been served around the country, at county, city, and district levels as well as some organizations…

Standardization discourse is dominantly linked to tests; yet standardization occurs in practices of everyday social life, too. This research seeks to understand standardization processes involved in the writing done by a class of seventh grade students, half of whom did not do well in school or on tests. Acting as participant observer in a…

All teacher education programs face the challenge of ensuring that their graduates know their subject matter and can teach it effectively. For graduate level teacher education programs, whose candidates may complete their education in the content area at various institutions, this challenge is even greater. The following article describes one…

Teachers from an urban public high school and from a preK-12 private school in one metropolitan area discussed selections from John Dewey's works on education, art, and experience, in small study groups between 1996 and 1998. I facilitated these study groups as a joint inquiry with teachers about connections between Dewey's aesthetics and thinking…

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' use of literature-based collaborative Internet projects (CIP) in their elementary classrooms. These practices require two or more classrooms to read and analyze texts on specified topics and then share responses over the Internet. The participants, all female, represented 15 different U.S. states…