Examines white teachers' perceptions of racism in their schools. A survey of 222 midwestern teachers indicated that most operated from an impaired consciousness about racism. Nearly half attributed racial problems to blacks. However, 40% perceived racism as coming from white colleagues, parents, or students. Most of those who witnessed racism by…

Assesses predictors of teachers' responsible environmental behavior (REB). Stepwise multiple-regression analysis showed that most of the parsimonious set of predictors of REB for all teachers included perceived knowledge of environmental-action strategies (KNOW), intention to act (IA), and perceived skill in using environmental-action strategies…

Explored the forms and functions of ritual in structuring teaching in preschool settings. Found that rituals have both invariant qualities that stabilize the framework within the school system and variant qualities that foster personalized and flexible approaches to teaching. When teachers attend to rituals, rituals have a greater pedagogical…

Describes several riddle and game settings used in preschool classrooms, reports observations of responses from young children, and suggests avenues of intervention. Addresses importance of the teacher's role, careful orchestration of questions and discussion, listening with skill, and appropriate positive feedback in assisting children in…

Examines whether a teacher's managerial statements could be assessed as sequences and if a scripting procedure could be used to modify these sequences while retaining the overall structure of teacher/student interactions. Results show that the scripted interaction sequence increased levels of appropriate play behavior among children (N=5). (RJM)

To deliver powerful presentations to parents, teachers should prepare handouts; indicate preferences for being contacted; find out what information parents have already received; provide a signup sheet for individual conferences; be organized, clear, concise, and cordial; deflect unrealistic suggestions; leave time for questions; anticipate…

Finds that, in making "good reader" judgments, upper-elementary children mentioned 15 separate criterial categories, clustered into four major category groupings, most frequently referencing the "public performance/fluency" category (word recognition, word analysis, and reading rate), but also mentioning "teacher practices,""affect," and…

Explains and illustrates the features of practical argument engagement, noting it is one way to understand why teachers do what they do. Observations, interviews, and dialogs with teachers illustrate that, by working with partners to examine actions occurring in their daily work, teachers can enhance their capacity for reflection, change beliefs…

College students (n=265) reported their impressions of business faculty's personal appearance, body language, behavior, and office appearance. Findings indicate that impression management is useful for professors who want to convey credibility, authority, and interest in students. (JOW)

Describes how an encounter in a graduate poetry seminar with a teacher when the author was a graduate student and instructor helped the author to reevaluate his pedagogical stances and classroom practices. Notes that being a teacher and a student simultaneously made him acutely aware of the asymmetry on both sides of that educational relation. (RS)

In the ethical arena, our society offers the choice of an ethics of emotion versus an ethics of rules, inadequate choices when compared to ethics based in strong moral character. Moral education and character development are basic elements of adventure and experiential education, and practitioners achieve excellence in practice only when they…

Presents a narrative using the metaphors of "hard" and "soft" to raise and discuss questions about pedagogy and the institutional settings of college writing instruction. Analyzes transformations that have occurred in the author's teaching practices in relation to the feminization of composition and an "ethic of care." (SG)

Describes a teacher's use of videotape of a series of lessons to show that setting and negotiating assessment criteria with students was good practice. Discusses guidelines for enhancing standards of good teaching practice. Highlights this visual case model in the hope that colleagues will see its merits as a vehicle for articulating teaching…

Clarifies the relationships between schools and families by contrasting the responses of over 400 teachers to a survey regarding the attitudes towards, involvement in, and perceptions of partnership practices at their schools. Results indicate that while teachers value family involvement, middle and upper grade level teachers used fewer strategies…

Considers the question: During classroom observation, what phenomena should be focused on, and what will be the focal points of the "snapshots"? Uses observations from a mathematics classroom to illustrate the need to modify traditional focal points to include student primary activity(s), teacher and student "misbehaviors,"…