In this ethnographic study, I contrast the educational experiences of two Central American immigrant women in an English as a second language (ESL) family literacy program in the San Francisco Bay area in 2002. Based on life-history interviews and classroom observations, I argue that these learners' second language and literacy development can…

Feedback plays a central role in writing development. This is particularly so in tertiary education in China because of both the attitudes of tutors and staff and also the move towards a more process orientation to teaching writing. However, constraints resulting from examination-focused programmes and the number of students in each class mean…

A cognitive/metacognitive framework is presented for analysing applications tasks and responses to these. Conditions facilitating or impeding access to such tasks at the upper secondary level were identified using qualitative data analysis techniques within this framework. Strategies employed in exploiting, or overcoming these conditions were…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the literacy difficulties experienced by people with physical disabilities, and the factors that prevent them from improving their literacy skills. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 25 individuals with physical disabilities who defined themselves as having literacy difficulties. Four…

How do teachers conceptualize and deal with context of mathematics word problems in their teaching? This question is discussed based on a study of 14 experienced teachers at the elementary, junior high and senior high school levels. Bruner's notions of paradigmatic and narrative modes of knowing formed the basis of analysis of data from sources…

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of attitudes held by parents of Jewish Hebrew students at a Boston area Sunday school. Five parents of diverse backgrounds were interviewed in-depth to discuss the nature of their attitudes. Three common themes emerged related to the reasons for their high levels of involvement with the Sunday…

Broad support exists within the science education community for the incorporation of socioscientific issues (SSI) and argumentation in the science curriculum. This study investigates how content knowledge and morality contribute to the quality of SSI argumentation among high school students. We employed a mixed-methods approach: 56 participants…

This article explores the training needs in speech and language of teachers and other early years educators in education settings. Results from the interviews demonstrate that practitioners have clear ideas about preferred training formats and they specifically want more training in identifying children with communication difficulties and…

The authors explore the interdependent relationships between learning English(es) and learning digital literacies in global contexts, and, collaborating with two women, Lu Liu and Yi-Huey Guo, who have moved and continue to move between the United States and Asia, highlight the crucial role that the practice of guanxi has played in advancing…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how five middle school students examined humor and characterization used in adolescent literature according to Louise Rosenblatt's (1995) reader response transactional theory. The study was conducted with a focus group of five 6th-grade students, three girls and two boys, from a public…

In a case study, I applied philosophical hermeneutic principles in an advanced level EFL writing class in Taiwan. A "fusion of horizons" occurs at the junction of two intertwined interpretations: one from our socio-historical tradition and the other from our experience of novel phenomena. I explored students' hermeneutic horizons in…

This paper addresses the controversial issues of improving the reading skills of young learners through technology-assisted reading programmes. On reporting the results of primary school learners from grade 2 to grade 7 who participated in a computer-based reading programme for seven months, we try to answer the critical questions of whether…

In this study, researchers evaluated the usability of game environments for teaching and learning about mathematical functions. A 3-Dimensional multi-user computer game called as "Quest Atlantis" has been used, and an educational game about mathematical functions has been developed in parallel to the Quest Atlantis' technical and…

This paper reports the results of a doctoral research pilot study that paired a researcher with an experienced classroom teacher for a 12-week time span with the goal of effectively integrating the use of Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) into the classroom teacher's practice. Using a teacher development experiment, the researcher created an…

In Spring 2007, the State Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges awarded, based on a competitive grant competition, the Transfer Leadership Center (TLC) study to investigate two-to-four year transfer practices and strategies. As part of the study's qualitative component, research teams from the Center for Student Success of the…