Discusses the semistructured interview as a vehicle to understand the experience of taking an inservice education course in a foreign country through the eyes of the participants. This article demonstrates the details of the process based on two corpora of interviews with teachers of French as a Foreign Language studying in France, and with French…

Presents the second part of an interview with Vinton Cerf on issues of information technology. Discusses reading with laptop computers; the "extinction" of books; technological experiments by publishers; copyrights, intellectual property, and ownership; cable companies; the impact of the Internet on education; and the future of the…

In an interview, the incoming president of the Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO), Thomas L. Lewis, discusses his goals for the association, the challenges facing optometric education in the next decade, cooperation between ASCO and other professional organizations in optometry, his mentors in the profession, his focus as a…

Reviews an action research project undertaken by an EFL teacher with her Japanese students in a residential course in England. The study consisted of teacher-student interviews on differences between the British and Japanese ways of life. The article discusses the Japanese notion of "amae" and presents pedagogical implications for…

Samples of freshmen from an open, distance-learning university (n=34) and a traditional university (n=20) were interviewed about their cognitive strategies, regulation of learning, mental models of learning, affective processes concerning learning, learning orientations, and perceptions of effectiveness of instructional approaches. Four…

Presents a case for teaching the discourse-based features of English intonation to improve cross-cultural communication at receptive and productive stages. A systematic approach is suggested for teaching the pragmatic and discourse functions of English intonation through a consciousness-raising methodology that utilizes authentic oral texts. (34…

Compared traditional parent-teacher conferences with an alternative collaborative model that includes students (family-school conferences) in a suburban elementary school. Found that teachers and parents valued traditional conferences as opportunities for information exchange, but both groups reported anxiety that may interfere with communication.…

Explains a hands-on, classroom teacher/library media specialist collaborative model for implementing the inquiry approach to the research process into the classroom and school library media center. Topics include the investigation phase; source notes; primary sources; interviews; community resources; storyboards; and peer conferences. (LRW)

Interviews with a learning disabled student, parent activist, teacher, tutor, and researcher reveal that learning disabilities are neurologically caused, not the result of low motivation or dysfunctional families. A variety of educational practices are explained that accommodate different learning styles of children with learning disabilities. It…

Provides examples of how to integrate e-mail into elementary and secondary school curriculum. Topics include international and cross-cultural exchanges; interdisciplinary projects; interviewing; career information; activism and service; effective questioning; and reading and critiquing literary manuscripts. (LRW)

Describes a study of elementary and secondary school library media specialists in Oklahoma that compared current knowledge of policy to actual practice regarding off-air videotape recording for use in classrooms. Discussion focuses on strong versus weak educational justification and situational vignettes depicting each. Media specialists'…

Scholar Ivan Illich discusses his educational experiences, the people who influenced his views regarding education, his proposal for "deschooling" society, and how he has concluded that compulsory schooling is a form of social control that creates a class society with many more school failures and dropouts than successes. (LP)

A study with nine physics students in a Quebec university found they saw themselves learning primarily outside the classroom as they solved assigned problems, saw few new concepts being introduced, and felt they had moved beyond memorization to application of concepts to problem solving. Students' perceptions were sometimes at odds with teachers'…

Describes three types of functional assessment of young children with special needs: play-based, family interviews, and the evaluation of multiple intelligences. Claims that all three types are useful for planning developmentally appropriate interventions and are positive because the emphasis is on the children's and their families' strengths…

In semi-structured interviews, 11 British university lecturers were prompted to discuss their motivations for starting, continuing, and achieving closure in collaborative staff development. Motivations included learning how to teach and involve students in learning, and drawing support from faculty development experts. Findings suggest that…