A study examined "Learning Community" meetings at the College of Education and Human Services at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh in which professors, inservice teachers, and preservice teachers in a 15-hour semester block connected with a clinical field experience meet and engage in dialogue about the program. A total of four…

Rituals provide a latent structure for teachers that goes beyond the surface meaning of conformity and control to a deeper symbolic meaning for the participants. They are used as a way of defining what is to be taught and how it is to be taught, reflect the teacher's decisions about what is pedagogically sound, and are based on their personal…

A study examined shifts that occur in teachers' behaviors and teaching repertoires as they become more strategic teachers, and the types of instruction that lead to the greatest growth in at-risk students' comprehension and reading abilities. A literacy initiative coordinator and a college researcher worked collaboratively with nine teachers to…

Teachers can follow several guidelines for conducting productive parent-teacher conferences. These include: (1) respecting the parents; (2) being patient; (3) avoiding the use of jargon; (4) discussing the importance of homework and independent reading; (5) establishing a friendly atmosphere; (6) discussing reading and television viewing habits;…

Community college students can be characterized by factors that typically relate to students at-risk. On the whole, community college students are members of minority groups, older, attend school on a part-time basis, have taken on family responsibilities, and are less well-prepared than students in four-year colleges and universities. Although…

This paper addresses the legal tension between a teacher's right to privacy and a school board's right to demand exemplary conduct by teachers in and out of school. The watershed case in the area of a teacher's right to a private life appears to be "Morrison v. Board of Education" (California 1969), which identified factors that a board may…

A qualitative study examined what is taught in a whole language classroom, how it is taught, and what changes in curriculum and instruction occur and why. A third-grade teacher, who had taught for 5 years and was considered an exemplary teacher by her principal and colleagues, was interviewed. Nineteen children in the teacher's heterogeneous…

A study compared the effectiveness of collaborative teaching and the more traditional skills based approach to remedial reading instruction. The Descriptive Test of Language Skills (DTLS) was used as a placement/exit test and a pre/posttest instrument. Two instructors taught a total of 50 subjects (who were good decoders but poor comprehenders) in…

A study examined strategies for embedding literacy skills within a whole language program. A questionnaire was given to full-time whole language elementary school teachers who taught in kindergarten through second-grade classrooms. All the participants teach in suburban school districts in the Bay Area including San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, and…

The diverse student body at Illinois Central College has an average age of 30. For such students, life-long learning equips them to move beyond provincial aspects of their own communities and to place value on other heritages as well. To reach the diversity of the students found in the community college composition classroom, teachers need to…

A quasi-experimental design was used to investigate changes in learning outcomes for students enrolled in large-lecture/break-out sections versus in self-contained sections of the basic communication course. More precisely, the study explores the relationship between communication apprehension, immediacy and learning outcomes for the two class…

This paper describes processes used by the state of Florida to ensure that existing subject matter competencies were sufficient to guide preservice health education teacher programs. The project was designed to develop new subject matter competencies for Florida's preK-12 health educators. Procedures included: (1) reviewing existing competencies,…

This study uses interviews with the principals of five elementary schools in Seattle (Washington) to identify effective strategies and practices associated with schools that demonstrated high gains in reading and mathematics achievement. The results of each interview are presented in the form of a case study illustrating the principal's behavior.…

Many scholars have made recommendations about how to improve content area materials and instruction, but the recommendations have been made apart from the study of existing content area materials and instruction. A review of detailed studies describing elementary and secondary content area materials and the extent of their use indicate that:…

A study examined the interaction of teacher and student in a methods preparation course for undergraduate special education majors. The course was structured around several projects, two types of writing logs, and readings. Fieldnotes from an observer participant, records of a debriefing meeting, students' weekly entries on content learning logs…