Child care in New Zealand and Australia has become a crucial part of the child-rearing system, and most preschool children spend a prolonged period in at least one away-from-home environment for a substantial part of the day. Because so many preschool children are exposed to a child care environment before entering school, the transition from…

A study examined 78 experienced Northwest Ohio elementary school teachers' orientation toward whole language, teacher-made, and state-mandated tests. The teachers also described their grading policies and distributions and their attitudes toward basal readers and phonics skills. The majority (56%) labeled themselves as over 50% "whole…

This paper is concerned with factors affecting Chinese English-as-Second-Language (ESL) learner's acquisition in the Department of Foreign Languages at Tianjin Institute of Technology. These factors, which include language shock, culture differences, culture background knowledge, motivation, and ego permeability, create psychological distance…

Knowledge-in-action is a teacher's form of inherently knowing one's actions in the context of daily teaching activities. This article focuses on one physics teacher in a study and describes and analyzes his knowledge-in-action. Observations and interviews were used as data. Among the findings are the teacher's practice can be delineated into two…

In the area of language instruction, a network of ecological relationships exists among the teacher, the child, and the text--the sustaining and nurturing of these relationships is at the heart of whole language instruction. Moreover, this network of relationships falls prey to neither of the unsustainable extremities of "gericentrism"…

This study examined, through classroom observations and teacher surveys, the instructional beliefs and practices in reading of second- and third-grade teachers in selected schools in the United States and Australia. Australian participants consisted of 16 second-grade and 11 third-grade teachers in New South Wales; American participants were 17…

This report describes the collaboration of a teacher educator at Michigan State University and two experienced elementary school teachers who spent 3 years team teaching an integrated curriculum that they developed for their third grade students. Four themes are most indicative of the teachers' experiences with the difficulties and rewards of…

A study established the extent to which certain program materials and teaching methods were being utilized in elementary and middle grades schools in South Dakota. Each district that operated an elementary grades school, a middle grades school, or both was sent a two-part survey to complete. A total of 117 of 248 surveys were returned, for a…

Implicit communication theory (which posits that certain communication behaviors evoke emotional responses in receivers) is a plausible explanation for the teacher behavior-student learning link. An integrated approach to testing the theory is available in the form of the Continuous Attitudinal Response Technology (CART), which enables subjects to…

A study examined the communication climate of a graduate teaching assistant's (GTA) college classroom. Because the teaching role is often new to the GTA, establishing a communication climate may be a significant factor in classroom management. One section of a public speaking class taught by a new graduate teaching assistant at a large midwestern…

A study examined and analyzed the functions of written language for one writer during her first-grade year. Data included 516 pieces of writing done by the subject, transcriptions of interviews with the subject, and field notes. Results indicated that: (1) sources of the subject's writing ranged from extremely structured situations to…

A study investigated the styles teachers exhibit while interacting with children in literacy-enriched play settings, whether teachers switch between several different styles, and how different play interaction styles affect children's play behaviors. Subjects, seven 4-year-olds enrolled in a university laboratory preschool class, a lead teacher,…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) 1992 reading assessment was administered to nationally representative samples of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students attending public and private schools, and to state representative public-school samples of fourth graders in 43 jurisdictions. Nearly 140,000 students were assessed in…

It is suggested that second language teachers often view themselves and are viewed by others as technicians, passive purveyors of prescriptive content, but that they should be encouraged to perceive themselves as professionals. Professionals are defined as those who, by virtue of knowledge and experience in teaching and learning, make…

Designing multicultural curricula to the satisfaction of those concerned is a Herculean task, but, with equality in mind, it is worth educators' effort. Christine Sleeter has discussed five views of multicultural education: (1) teaching those exceptional and culturally different; (2) the human relations approach; (3) single-group studies; (4) the…