English education continues to be threatened by standards for research, measurement, and evaluation that ignore the nature of the discipline and devalue teachers' practices. The dominant models for assessing the effectiveness of English teachers reflect assumptions taken from quantitative social sciences or, in the case of models of…

The study attempted to: (1) identify and examine college teachers' espoused and implicit theories of teaching, using Menges and Rando's analysis categories; and (2) explore differences between assumptions about traditional and non-traditional students when college teachers based their diagnoses of problematic events on untested speculations.…

Research on teaching does not play a significant role in the practice of teaching in schools despite the fact that the first scientific studies of teaching were reported nearly 90 years ago. Although there is clear evidence that practical classroom experience unaided by research is not a sufficient basis for effective teaching, it is also true…

A review of recent literature and commission reports identifies persistent problems in two areas of educational administration: research and preparation programs. The two problems are linked in that they are often supervised by faculty who direct but do not themselves perform research. Two areas of research needs are the poor research skills of…

A review of recent research in child language development examines how this research can be used to inform policy that will enhance the capabilities of English-speaking and non-English-speaking children to develop strong language skills and promote the success of at-risk children. Focus is on the research most applicable to policy planning. First,…

The purpose of a review of course materials and teaching methods in the area of adult development and learning was to identify commonalities that existed in course titles, objectives, content areas, texts, required reading, resources used, course requirements, and instructional processes. Thirty-two course syllabi and 1 curriculum guide from 24…

Intended for practitioners, this book presents a curricular framework for classroom reading and writing experiences that help students understand how reading and writing relate to reasoning and learning. The two sections of the book are organized around three major components of curriculum and how each component was realized in three Indiana…

Data from science and mathematics tests administered to 12th graders in Massachusetts were analyzed to compare the use of multiple-choice items with that of open-ended questions. Specifically, the study was designed to determine the statistical equivalence of the two types of test items, the information yielded by the items, and the grounds upon…

Four experiments were conducted to determine if the California Critical Thinking Skills Test--College Level (CCTST) measured the growth in critical thinking (CT) skills achieved by college students completing approved CT courses. The experiments, conducted at California State University (Fullerton) involved 1,169 college students in 5 courses with…

Intended for teachers in Tasmania, this booklet discusses the importance of providing well chosen books for children at an early age. The booklet suggests that from the earliest years, in home and school, the young child needs a supply of books that are read aloud by adults who encourage the child to talk about the story and the child's experience…

Arguing that the use of peer groups in a writing classroom theoretically supports the goals of the paradigm shift from emphasis on written product to writing process that has occurred in recent years, this paper examines the complexities confronting teachers who attempt to use groups for instructional purposes. Following a brief introduction, the…

A compendium of reading instructional practices from approximately 1950 through 1970, this compilation of essays supplies a theoretical background of the reading discipline for elementary and secondary school reading instructors. The five articles deal with different aspects of the reading curriculum. "The Basics in the Reading Curriculum"…

Commercially developed basal reading programs are used in most elementary school classrooms in the United States. Yet often neither the publishers developing these programs nor the members of textbook adoption committees selecting programs are able to take advantage of the best available knowledge about the reading process and reading instruction.…

The articles in this journal issue explore current theories of the reading/writing relationship and practices in writing instruction. The titles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Cognitive Processes in Writing and Reading" (Roderic C. Botts); (2) "Brainstorming and Writing" (Brock Dethier); (3) "Group Writing:…

To obtain rural school superintendents' assessment of research needs, questionnaires were sent in 1986 to 752 superintendents from schools with less than 1,000 K-12 student population. The questionnaires, adapted from the research agenda of the Rural Education Association (REA), consisted of 51 research topics grouped under 9 thematic categories.…