Peer coaching, in which two teachers observe each other's classes with the objective of helping each other improve their instructional abilities, empowers teaching professionals by enabling them to develop their own criteria for evaluation of and responsibility for quality classroom performance. Peer coaching can involve collaborative, expert, or…

This paper describes the application of peer teaching to the training of prospective special education teachers. This approach emphasizes practicing the teaching act in a safe environment, i.e., one in which young learners are not at risk and in which the prospective teacher can receive feedback from peers and the instructor without fear of being…

In the practicum reported in this document, the self-esteem of low achievers in a high school science class was improved through the use of strategies such as personal self-referent verbal statements (PSRVS), group activities, incentive programs, motivation techniques such as computer assisted instruction (CAI) and parental involvement. A…

"Lifewriting" provides a different model for the school composition class, a model that changes the traditional images of the student and teacher at work. Lifewriting--the composing of personal stories, anecdotes, and memoirs--has a beneficial effect in that while it begins with personal expression, the dynamics of the lifewriting group…

This manual is intended to train parents of handicapped children to assist other parents in accessing the special education resources available in the Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools. The training program's purposes include: to increase parents' understanding of special education services, to train parents to work as collaborators with school…

In 1986, the Keep Youth in School Project, a joint venture of the Catholic University of America, the Family and Child Services of Washington, D.C., the District of Columbia Department of Human Services, and the Marriott Corporation, began a 3-year research and demonstration program to develop a practice model for helping minority foster children…

During winter semester 1989, Monroe County Community College (MCCC) developed a Writing Fellows program and introduced a Writing Center into the Learning Assistance Lab (LAL). Both these iniatives were part of the school's writing-across-the-curriculum (WAC) efforts which had been launched in fall 1987. Writing Fellows are specially-trained peer…

In a cooperative task, American Indian elementary students produced bilingual natural history dictionaries using a Macintosh computer. Students in grades 3 through 8 attended weekly, multi-graded bilingual classes in Hupa/English or Yurok/English, held at two public school field sites for training elementary teaching-credential candidates. Teams…

On the basis of a model established for the teaching of various linguistic and writing classes, a collaborative learning model was used for class instruction and for the training of teachers of English as a Second Language (ESL). The model involved: (1) trainee presentations based on the explanation of material from assigned readings in the…

This study examined the variables that affect vocational teachers' implementation of an educational innovation--peer tutors for mainstreamed special education students. The researchers explored teachers' perceptions of the peer tutoring program prior to the inservice session, at the completion of a pilot test, and prior to the second year of…

This manual assists teachers in integrating three major components into a law-related education program: classroom visits by resource people, student field experience, and peer or cross-age teaching. Material is divided into five sections. A rationale for law-related education and background information on the Constitutional Rights Foundation are…

The primary purpose of the Joint Hampton-Michigan program was to train 15 post-doctoral minority and women faculty members from the Hampton Institute (Virginia) and the University of Michigan in educational research skills. A secondary purpose was to investigate the effectiveness of several models through which the researchers were trained. The…

The observations of a teacher educator who spent a semester teaching in a mainstreamed elementary classroom are recorded in this monograph. Case studies of students form the framework for the consideration of the broader implications and problems involved in mainstreaming. Illustrative classroom practices are offered to clarify such concepts as…

In the spring of 1979, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the possible effects on preservice teachers of Reflective Teaching, a new instructional alternative for teacher education that features peer teaching and evaluation. One of the hypotheses about Reflective Teaching stated that, as a result of engaging in Reflective Teaching,…

This practicum was developed (1) to improve, supervise, and disseminate a model cross-age tutoring program, and (2) to determine if a tutorial program would increase the sight vocabulary of 100 second grade students in the Dallas Independent School District. A secondary purpose was to determine if such a program would improve the reading grades,…