Because of concern about the harmful effects of placing children in low reading groups, this study tested the following "sacred cows" in reading: (1) the use of informal reading inventories for grouping children in reading instruction, (2) the homogeneous grouping practices currently utilized in most classrooms in the United States, (3)…

Validity is a central issue in use of self-report data for the investigation of teacher thinking. "Triangulation," or use of several data sets to test, corroborate and elaborate each other, is one method for increasing validity of findings. This paper illustrates a process of triangulation of data obtained by three different data…

The Arab states have come to realize the significance of nonformal education and its importance in achieving economic and social development. At present, however, support given by formal education for nonformal methods of education is minimal. In each of the Arab countries there exist many different kinds of nonformal education programs, all of…

A naturalistic study of two bilingual first grade classrooms was conducted to gain an increased understanding of the cultural literacy instruction beliefs in society and to better understand the process by which literacy instruction beliefs influence the classroom. One Anglo and one Hispanic teacher working in different midwestern school systems…

Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach that has been used successfully for over 30 years and continues to gain acceptance in multiple disciplines. It is an instructional (and curricular) learner-centered approach that empowers learners to conduct research, integrate theory and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop…

The effects of student instructional preference on performance in an engineering course offered both by Personalized Instruction (PSI) and lecture/discussion methods were explored in a study of 113 university sophomores and juniors. In lieu of random assignment to instruction mode, this study employed self-selection, the most common situation in…

This paper contains ideas intended to help the teacher preparing to teach Navaho children and offers suggestions for an independent reading and study program to enable the teacher to understand the culture in which he will be working. A brief history of the Navaho people is presented, followed by a discussion of some cultural differences between…

A comparison was made between disadvantaged, Spanish-speaking elementary school pupils taught science in English by the oral/aural (OAE) method and those taught the same science content in English with non-oral/aural (NOA) instruction. Both the Ott-Jameson Test of individual oral expression and a group, pencil and paper test of responses to spoken…

The major aim of this study was to obtain a measure of the relative teaching effectiveness of television instruction as compared to regular instruction, utilizing as subject matter parts of the Army basic training program. The study was not designed to reorganize the curriculum for television, nor was it designed to maximize the television…

The results of a critical survey of research on educational effectiveness, performed to assess the current state of knowledge regarding the determinants of educational outcomes, are reported. An input-output approach was used to analyze the relationship between the amounts of various resources provided to students and the educational outcomes.…

A study to compare the effects of reading achievement of informal and formal British infant schools is discussed. The informal school, for children from 5-8 years old, utilizes one or more of the following: integrated day, family or vertical grouping, open planning, and team teaching. The formal schools follow a prescribed curriculum and group…

Two studies combining teacher questionnaires, classroom observation, and pupil interviews were conducted to contrast formal and informal teaching practices in open plan and conventional classrooms. Study I sampled 12 teachers of classes including second year junior pupils (8-9 years of age); Study II sampled 30 teachers, including 13 with mixed…

This study was designed to fill the "implementation measurement" gap. A methodology to quantitatively measure the level of Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) implementation that can be used across a variety of CSR models was developed, and then applied to measure actual implementation of four different CSR models in a large number of schools. The…

This study compares the effectiveness of audio-taped feedback (ATF) with traditional written feedback (WF). Its focus is on the ATF and WF provided to 23 college sophomore English majors at a Taiwan university. Students were also asked at the end of the academic year to evaluate and compare both ATF and WF from their perspective. It is concluded…

This paper summarizes a quantitative synthesis of studies of the effectiveness of interactive distance education using videoconferencing and telecommunications for K-12 academic achievement. Effect sizes for 19 experimental and quasi-experimental studies including 929 student participants were analyzed across sample characteristics, study methods,…