The Early Field Experience (EFE) is the laboratory component of a "Reading in the Content Area" methods course. Preservice secondary education teacher candidates are required to tutor a middle or high school student on a one-to-one basis for a semester. Content area reading strategies are taught in class and the EFE students apply them in their…

In 1988, a study was conducted to examine the perspectives of community college students, faculty, and administrators concerning faculty behaviors that enhance students' ability to persist in college and transfer to a four-year institution. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 faculty members and 16 administrators to elicit…

In this module, developed by the Research Applications for Teaching (RAFT) project, preservice teachers study the major types of classroom interactions which occur between teachers and students and review the research findings showing how these interactions are related to effective teaching. Much effort is spent on describing procedures for…

This manual describes the Dimensions of Excellence Scales (DOES) and their use. The DOES have been developed to assist local education agencies in their efforts to diagnose problems, identify strengths, and improve school operations. There are survey scales for school staff, parents, and students. Each scale concerns dimensions that have been…

A case study of a seventh-grade mathematics classroom was conducted for almost three months in l985-86. The purpose was to investigate factors related to mathematics achievement. The 16 students consisted of 4 black females, 3 black males, 5 white females, and 4 white males; the teacher was a black male. The data came from field notes and audio…

Data are reported for the classroom observational portion of a cross-sectional study conducted in Tasmania, Australia to examine the acquisition and development of addition and subtraction skills in young children. During the study, a group of students in grades l, 2, and 3 who differed in cognitive processing skills were observed during…

This paper details how classroom reading instruction can be studied by using microethnographic techniques, wherein classroom events are videotaped and then carefully analyzed to determine their social organizational features. A short introduction to the use of microethnographic methods is presented, followed by an analysis of a lesson taught by a…

This study identified and conceptualized evidence of ideas about the nature of science to which elementary school students are exposed and the manner in which teachers provided these ideas. This was accomplished by developing a scheme for observing/analyzing classroom interaction (classroom dialogue and science activity). The scheme is…

The Developmental Teacher Evaluation Kit (DeTEK), a four-phase evaluation system, provides for ongoing, objective, systematic teacher evaluation in which teachers and administrators collaborate in making decisions leading to teacher improvement. Phase 1, prediagnostic survey, involves the teacher's self-analysis, using the Teacher Performance…

A study was conducted to determine the perceptions of community college teachers in Kansas of the competencies required for effective teaching. Questionnaires were sent to a random sample of 225 full-time instructors at 19 Kansas community colleges soliciting faculty opinions of the importance of 70 teaching competencies, organized into categories…

Literature on the efficacy of university faculty as supervisors of student teachers reveals the general opinion that university supervisors have a low impact on student teachers, and that their role is secondary to that of cooperating teachers. A cause for this is the lack of training to help student teachers respond appropriately to certain…

A program of self-evaluation was developed for teachers to use in creating a personal profile which could become the basis for designing a long-range professional development program. Seven areas for self-assessment were philosophical belief system, personality traits, interpersonal awareness traits, self-concept, learning style, teaching style,…

The National Science Foundation funded a project to: (1) identify major areas of science education research in which sufficient studies have been conducted to permit useful generalizations for educational practice; (2) conduct meta-analyses of each of these areas; and (3) prepare a compendium of these meta-analyses along with interpretative and…

This issue contains abstracts and critical comments for ten mathematics education journal articles, plus an editorial on teacher education needs by Thomas J. Cooney. Two articles focus on problem solving; the remainder concern instruction about and with computers, geometric perceptions, preservice teachers' conceptions of volume, attitudes toward…

To investigate whether teachers asked questions during reading lessons in order to evaluate rather than teach comprehension, the discourse of 11 reading lessons was audiotaped in four elementary school classrooms. Transcripts of the lessons were analyzed to identify the function and source of teacher questions and the accuracy, cognitive level,…