This annual journal issue contains 17 papers on issues of faculty development, instructional improvement, faculty collaboration and collegiability, students, and educational practices in higher education. Many of the papers were developed for the annual conference of the Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education…

This book serves as a response to recurring questions from preservice teachers regarding the practice of student-centered teaching within the traditional school culture. The book uses the experience of one beginning teacher, Sheila, to develop its theme. It suggests that if practicing teachers have direct continuing access to teacher educators for…

A study was conducted at an American university to collect data on how native English-speaking students asked questions in class. The data were analyzed for use of syntactic forms, formulaic expressions or prefatory comments, terms of address, functions fulfilled by the questions, and politeness markers. The results were then compared with the…

Based on responses by 427 public two-year colleges in the United States to two surveys, this report provides comparative financial information for fiscal year 1993-94. The report provides space for colleges to compare their institutional statistics with national sample medians, quartile data for the national sample, and tables and graphs of…

This book proposes an "engagement" theory of program quality to evaluate and improve higher education programs at all degree levels. Based on interviews with 781 participants in a national study of Masters degree programs, it focuses on the interactive roles of students, faculty, and administrators in developing high-quality programs…

This is the first publication in this series on education in South Africa that provides a picture of education in the new South Africa. For the first time in 1995, data were collected by nonracial education departments in each of the nine new provinces. In the past, data had been collected for 17 different, racially based departments. Data…

The whole language approach to reading instruction emphasizes a literature-based program rather than the traditional skills-related approach. The principles and practices of whole language have engendered both educational and political debate for the following reasons: whole language challenges the traditional educational power arrangement, giving…

This ERIC digest focuses on students who are commonly described as shy (inhibited, lacking in confidence, socially anxious) or withdrawn (unresponsive, uncommunicative, or daydreaming). Symptoms of shyness or withdrawal may appear as part of the student's overall personality or as a situation-specific response to a particular stress factor.…

This book presents a theoretical framework that weaves together three threads: (1) the importance of play in the social, psychological, and intellectual development of children; (2) the human need for personal power and the gratification that challenge in active learning experiences brings to one's feelings of self-worth; and (3) the imperative of…

A study investigated Japanese college students' perceptions and assessments of their college English classes, and to what factors they attribute difficulty in acquiring oral English. Subjects were 189 students from a junior college and a university, in first- through third-year English conversation classes. Most were English majors required to…

A discussion of the use of movies for teaching English as a Second Language looks at some basic principles in using movies as instructional materials and discusses a number of issues in selecting materials and developing classroom instruction. It is argued that film communication offers links between classrooms and society, contains a wide range…

This book focuses on communication as the central feature in teaching and learning within second language classrooms. It examines the classroom as a unique communication context with highly regulated patterns of communicative behavior that are actively negotiated between teacher and students, and explores how and why these patterns of…

This book addresses the critical and difficult issues facing higher education in the 1990s including the need to improve the quality of teaching and learning, raise academic standards, protect freedom of expression, and enhance both the community of the whole and the individual and small groups that make up that community. The book also examines…

The 13 papers contained in this document represent a selection of presentations from a national forum on teacher education which addressed empowerment and professionalization of teachers. The papers are: (1) "Imagining Preservice Teachers" (Alison Brennan, M. Serra Goethals, Rose Howard); (2) "Corsini 4R Schools Empower…

This paper examines the use of oral dialogue journals as an integral part of foreign language instruction. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses of oral (audiotape) journals, and compares them to written journals. The paper then explores the use of oral dialogue journals in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to adult students…