Describes a high school citizenship class unit that contrasted Aristotle's concept of a public citizen with the actions of Meursault in Albert Camus's "The Stranger." Through writing assignments and class activities, the students connected their own ideas of citizenship, freedom, and conformity with Aristotelian and existentialist…

Analysis of response strategies employed by 261 undergraduate chemistry students when answering multiple-choice and stem-equivalent constructed-response questions revealed no significant differences in types of solution strategies or types of errors across test format. However, analysis of student oral reports revealed a higher frequency of…

Reports on a simulation used in intercultural communication in an English-as-a-Second-Language/English-as-a-Foreign-Language teacher education program. The simulation created an uncomfortable cultural atmosphere, similar to that in a foreign environment, and focused on helping the teachers in training recognize themselves as cultural beings whose…

Examines effects of the Persian Gulf War on elementary school and secondary school students and school responses through focus groups and interviews with school personnel, a survey of 97 students, and a discussion with 4 Chaldean-American middle school girls. Diverse attitudes required varying school responses. (SLD)

Examines influence of classroom environments, measured by the Classroom Environment Scale, Form R (CESR), on vocal and instrumental ensembles' musical achievement at festival contests. Using random sample, reveals subjects with higher scores on CESR scales of involvement, affiliation, teacher support, and organization received better contest…

Effects of a theoretically based LOGO programing environment on executive metacognitive abilities were studied for 48 third graders who took pretests and posttests after LOGO training or no training. The LOGO group scored higher than comparisons on two metacomponential measures: correctness of response and use of an individual metacomponent. (SLD)

Results of a microanalysis of 3,003 oral reading errors by 116 second and third graders support the idea that the actions of students and teachers during error episodes are situated in social contexts, emerging in response to a dynamic interplay of factors that converge at particular moments. (SLD)

ArtView, developed at Cornell University, allows groups of learners to converse at a distance while viewing an image that has been pre-loaded by the instructor. Results of user-testing revealed that ArtView lacked the elements of personal choice and outstanding physical viewing environment provided by museums; however, most students reported…

Interviews and observations of a first-grade mathematics class to determine the influence of Proposition 227 on limited-English-speaking students found that many initial fears about Proposition 227 were unfounded; student ability to cope was underestimated; teacher knowledge of Spanish and Latino culture was critical; and students' limited English…

Asserts that students familiarity with African American athletes and sports make it an effective lens to examine the nature versus nurture debate. Includes salient discussion questions and relevant examples drawn from articles and books illustrating opposing points of view. Concludes with a brief discussion of student response. (MJP)

Describes a six-week project culminating in a student-designed exit survey for graduating seniors. Exit surveys assess a department's strengths and weaknesses in curricula, instruction, and advising. Discusses the students' design and implementation of the survey. Students felt that the project enhanced their critical thinking and research skills.…

Presents the results of a study where students rated audiotape excerpts of vocal instruction that featured teacher approval or disapproval behavior. Correlated this information with the students' grade level, gender, and responses to questions concerning attributes for success. Most students attributed success to internal rather than external…

Discusses interviews with 50 sixth-grade students about their experience of using the Web to find information for a class project. The children overall demonstrated a sophistication both in their appreciation of the Web's strengths and weaknesses as an information source, and in their information retrieval strategies. In their reaction to the Web…

This chapter reports the results of research into how frequently students perceive faculty to engage in classroom improprieties and what they tend to do about it. (Contains 1 table.)

Theory has always possessed an elusive, intangible, and almost ethereal quality. Comprising nothing but ideas compressed into words, it is supposed to guide literacy interactions and transactions. Theory provides the "why" that underlies the "how to" of teaching. Yet the author, a teacher, has often struggled with the effort of translating theory…