Argues that collaborative research by practicing teachers and university faculty can promote educational reform. Looks at educational reform in North America, teachers' roles in educational reform, classroom action research at the Cambridge Institute of Education Network, team research involving teachers and university faculty, and advantages of…

This Fourth Edition contains many lesson plans that cover a variety of subject areas and grade levels (1-12), as well as action research activities that investigate the various dimensions of teaching. Many of the lesson plans are written by actual classroom teachers, and all of them have been examined by practicing teachers. More than simply a…

"Using Action Research to Foster Positive Social Values" provides teachers with a unique framework in which to consider classroom violence. It uses actual case studies and working models done through classroom research to produce more effective classrooms that foster positive social values. The author lays out a theoretical framework for: (1)…

What should the curriculum of a graduate program that focuses on education, technology, and society be? What would be the proper balance of skills, theory, and concepts? What should be the difference between such a program in the School of Education and a computer science program? What do students expect of such a program? These were questions…

This report describes a plan for using authentic assessment tools in the Fine Arts classroom. The targeted populations were classes of fourth and eighth grade students in two suburban school settings. Analysis of the data about the Fine Arts classes, based on surveys completed by teachers, parents, and students, showed that traditional assessment…

The main purpose of this study was to look at how we used specific writing assignments in our courses to encourage metacognitive reflection in order to increase the learning that takes place. The study also aimed to aid in the development of higher order processing skills through the development of student reflection. The students involved in the…

This paper describes a course for education majors, Educational Inquiry, in which students completed action research investigations in their public school classrooms. The primary responsibility of designing, implementing, and sharing study results belonged to the college students rather than their cooperating teachers. Action research based on new…

This study describes a recruiting method designed to increase the number of students involved in beginning band. The targeted population consisted of fifth and sixth grade students in a growing urban community in the Midwest. Evidence for the existence of the problem included numerical data and surveys. Analysis of probable causes was evidenced by…

An action research project was conducted to measure any difference in spelling achievement after Word Study activities were used during spelling instruction. Word Study approaches to spelling instruction offer hands-on experiences with the manipulation of letters to form words. It was hypothesized that students taught spelling skills with a Word…

In an effort to meet the new challenges for improving teacher education and student learning in P-12 schools in New York, and to develop a shared vision among partners of a National Council for Accreditation in Teacher Education (NCATE) conceptual framework, the faculty and staff of a school of education in New York conducted a school-college…

A teacher had always allowed 20 minutes for silent reading in her classroom. But when she looked at her Year 3/4 composite class, she noticed that although some students were reading, some were not. She decided to explore why they might not be reading. She focused on three students--a boy with severe learning difficulties and an auditory…

This paper reports on the processes and results of a project on the instruction and practices of mathematics problem solving and strategies. Students in the second, third, and fifth grades were targeted to increase achievement in the area of math problem solving. Problem solving achievement was measured using performance tasks, rubrics, and tests…

Elementary teachers collaborated on a research project that investigated how a constructivist approach to gifted and talented integrated curriculum strategies and techniques could be developed and implemented. The collaborative group action research cycle involved planning, collecting baseline data, intervening strategies/modifying interventions,…

This report describes a program for improving vocabulary development thorough balanced literacy. The targeted population consisted of three elementary classrooms in a community located in a southern suburb of Chicago. A lack of vocabulary knowledge that interfered with student academic success was documented in state and standardized test results,…

This report describes a program for improving students' spelling skills through the use of effective teaching strategies. Because the literature review of solutions named these categories: using various instructional strategies, moving away from simple memorization, and supporting students with freedom to take risks in spelling, these researchers…