Using the concept of triangles as a schematic conceptualization of service learning is a useful pedagogical tool in helping faculty, students, and community members to see the linkages among the component concepts in service learning approaches. Service learning, which is the linking of academic instruction with community service as guided by…

By providing illustrative examples from real classrooms and feedback from teachers, this teacher handbook brings to life ways teachers have modified their adult literacy classroom practice to be more learner contextualized. It provides guidance in moving toward contextualized literacy instruction; teachers must adapt suggestions to most suitably…

This manual is designed for beginning postsecondary instructors with no previous teacher training. It presents the essentials of the instructional planning and implementation process and explains key principles and practices that have been shown to enhance students' motivation to learn. An introduction describes the purpose, rationale, readers,…

This study examines whether students' age and/or gender impact their preferences for instructional practices thought to improve learning, and their preparation for college and performance in college. Students were asked which of 38 instructional practices they preferred, how often they experienced each practice, and how well prepared they felt in…

This booklet provides snapshots of teachers' work lives, using information obtained from previous Schools and Staffing Surveys (SASS). The SASS is a set of integrated questionnaires that collect information nationwide about schools and the staff who work in them. A wide variety of schools complete the surveys. The SASS Teacher Questionnaire asks…

A 4-week study at Goshen (Indiana) Middle School examined the internal and external factors affecting Hispanic student achievement. Data were collected through classroom observation, student interviews, and a survey of Latino parents. Although teacher responses to Hispanic student classroom participation were always positive, student responses,…

This book examines the implications of postmodern culture for adult education through a review of modernist culture and education and a comparative account of modernist and postmodernist culture that is configured as a set of six tensions in three domains: belief (situatedness and ambiguity); individual identity (determination and control); and…

This book, which is intended primarily for students and others interested in the theory and practice of adult education, contains nine essays demonstrating how traditional adult education values that are derived from philosophies of "individualism" also imply a "public" dimension that is referred to as "mutuality" and manifested not only in the…

This document, the third in a series on diversity in the classroom, examines the responsibility of teachers to their diverse students. Section 1, "Introduction," reviews the issue. Section 2, "A Shared Responsibility," describes the context within which to build practices that help children become stronger. Basic to this…

This paper presents the results of the work of nine teacher researchers who took an in-depth look at instructional practices and beliefs about oral language and its assessment. There are three sets of research questions: (1) How do teachers and students believe oral instruction should be handled in the classroom and to what extent do the beliefs…

The basic premise of this paper is that decisions about children and their early educational experiences are culturally situated and, by definition, will reflect varying interpretations of appropriate educational aims and strategies. Drawing upon three decades of experience in the Italian culture as well as preliminary findings from a…

Research has shown a decline in motivation and performance for many children as they move from elementary school into middle school; however, research has also shown that the nature of motivational change on entry to middle school depends on characteristics of the learning environment in which students find themselves. This Digest outlines some…

This report summarizes evaluation results for AISD's Summer Opportunity to Accelerate Reading (SOAR) program during summer 2001.

Summer Opportunity to Accelerate Reading (SOAR) 2002 was AISD's summer reading program serving 2,251 students completing kindergarten through grade 2 in June 2002. Among students with valid reading scores, 86% made reading gains during the program.

Concern over student opinion questionnaires expressing widespread dissatisfaction with the basic science curriculum of the University of Texas Medical Branch prompted efforts to improve the curriculum. With the help of the University's Office of Research in Medical Education, improvements were made that increased student satisfaction and improved…