Student motivation is a cause of great concern for educators at all levels, but perhaps never more so than during the middle school years. Teachers' observations about declines in student interest and confidence in academic tasks are borne out by a number of large-scale empirical studies. In this article, the author examines how teachers create…

Although task-based teaching is frequently practiced in contemporary English language teaching, it is underresearched in state school settings. This article contributes to filling this gap in the literature by using qualitative case study data to explore how a task-based innovation was implemented in three primary school classrooms in Hong Kong.…

Language loss is a concern for the Cherokee Nation in northeastern Oklahoma. As part of language revitalisation efforts, in 2001 Cherokee Nation opened the Cherokee Immersion Preschool in which teachers use only Cherokee throughout the day with their monolingual English-speaking students. Based on a study of the Immersion Preschool that spanned…

This guidebook provides the basic information needed for inservice training in techniques for observing gifted characteristics in children from diverse population groups including economically disadvantaged and students with limited English proficiency. The training program is based on a specific Staff Development Model (SDM) and a Research-based…

The transition to elementary school spans several years in a child's life. For children to progress during this critical period, they must have learning opportunities that are appropriate to their changing developmental levels. Unfortunately, measurement technology that currently dominates assessment practice does not lend itself well to the task…

This study was designed to assess the roles played by middle school educators while participating in a collaborative teaching program which combined a regular educator, a special educator, and their respective students for one period of content instruction per day. During one semester, six teams of two teachers in three different middle schools…

This paper reports on a study that explored the possibility of measuring distance education classes using the Media Sensor, a device designed to sample and record various electronic impulses generated during a distance education session. Research questions explored: (1) the ability of the Media Sensor to identify patterns in the audio and video…

A contemporary mathematics curriculum emphasizes using a variety of evaluation techniques to determine student achievement. Too frequently in the past, standardized norm- referenced tests and their results provided the main information related to student achievement. These tests have not presented objectives for teachers to use in teaching…

During the first half of the 1990-91 school year, 446 children were served by the Chapter 1 Prekindergarten Program of the Saginaw, Michigan school district. A process evaluation was conducted to monitor the program and assess whether it was being implemented as planned. This year, the process evaluation consisted of half-day classroom…

This handbook is intended for teachers who supervise special education practicum students in the K-12 special education program at the School of Education, the University of Colorado at Denver. It describes the processes, relationships, responsibilities, and skills students are expected to demonstrate during their practicum. Individual sections…

This paper offers observations on how research and teaching can join forces to improve learning in the classroom by involving the faculty in classroom research. It explains the use of classroom assessment and techniques for gaining information on what students are learning and how well they are learning it. Classroom assessments are defined as…

A study analyzed some of the characteristics of junior high students' oral communication behavior that accompanied the assignment, production, and evaluation of a writing task. It involved fieldwork in three junior high school English classes--first in a six-month pilot study and then in a year-long period of observation. Through direct…

In 1979, Act 187, known now as the Educator Improvement Act, was mandated by the legislature of the State of South Carolina. One tenet of Act 187 was the establishment of an Educator Improvement Task Force to develop an instrument which could effectively measure minimal teaching competencies. To help in the content and design of the instrument,…

Twenty years ago, anyone proposing to help teachers with the problem of classroom discipline had few resources at hand. It was approximately at that time that Jacob Kounin began a series of investigations that have changed our way of talking and thinking about classroom discipline. He changed our focus from a sterile concern with exercising…

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of computers in educational settings. Since the technology became available for all ages, the amount of technology usage increased in early childhood classrooms (Haugland, 1997). Despite of the dramatic increase of computers in early childhood classrooms, there are still…