Four naturalistic methods for assessing college student learning styles are discussed: direct observation of student behavior, in-depth interviews with students, analysis of self-directed learning projects, and analysis of the guiding metaphors used by students in describing the teaching-learning process. Each suggests ways teachers can adapt to…

Responds to Martyn Hammersley's critique of the authors' research concerning classroom participation of boys and girls. Agrees generally with Hammersley's critique. Defends the small-scale approach for its ability to examine interactive mechanisms by which inequality in participation was produced. (DB)

Observation of mixed-age undergraduate classes and analysis of students' interactions showed that older students tended to dominate the discourse; the cognitive level of discourse was not altered by the presence of older students; and andragogical practices may not be the most effective strategies for mixed-age classes. (SK)

Using a unit on earthworms, this article shows how science and language arts can be successfully integrated in a middle school classroom through hands-on observation, interviewing, and writing exercises. The integration process engages students, uses class time more efficiently, encourages dialog, and improves outcomes and appreciation of the…

Describes an activity in which students look at photographs of different cats to determine the genotypes of the various characteristics observed. Provides a student worksheet. (MDH)

The life history of the Chironomus tentans can be observed in easily established and maintained laboratory cultures. Projects for the classroom include observing hydration of an egg mass; embryonic development, hatching and larval feeding; larval activity; and mating activity. (MDH)

Examines a music teacher in a second-grade classroom in order to determine how the instructor taught and how the students learned. Identifies four themes related to the nature of teacher expertise and five themes on student learning. Reports that the teacher understood these issues and utilized the information to change teaching styles. (CMK)

Describes a tool that quantifies the number and kinds of interactions between students and teachers. Structured observation of classroom events indicates whether a teacher is interacting equitably with each student in the classroom. Science teachers were receptive to the relatively quantitative nature of the process. Both inservice and student…

Describes a California high school's collaborative teacher observation model. The Teacher-Guided Observation/Curriculum Analysis is a continuously evolving instructional and curricular development program that recognizes teachers' need to be treated like professionals, have nonthreatening growth opportunities, assume primary responsibility for…

Focuses on the assurance by the Alliance Francaise of Paris of professional development of future teachers of foreign languages. The article describes the members of the Alliance as professors at the Foreign Language School of Paris with university training in such diverse fields as linguistics, modern languages, education, and philosophy. Their…

An innovative preservice teacher education program at the State University of New York, College at Fredonia, provides many highly structured field-based experiences which include students with disabilities; systematic training in specific, validated intervention strategies; direct training in peer collaboration skills; and emphasis on reflective…

Classroom observation, a survey of several hundred primary grade teachers in the United Kingdom, and interviews with teachers found that National Curriculum requirements have produced considerable change in curriculum planning, management, assessment, and recordkeeping, against a backdrop of relative continuity of deeper pedagogy, especially in…

Examines the importance of English language teachers' knowledge about language, and their insights into the relationship between such knowledge and their classroom practice. With reference to grammar, data is presented from classroom observations and interviews with teachers. (Author/VWL)

Examines English school inspection before and since 1993 reforms, observations procedures that some schools have adopted, and procedures of various colleges. The balance of accountability and support for improvement varies depending on the details and culture of inspection. In the United States, some experiments with inspection are occurring, and…

Examined how the concept of quality in the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS) is concretized in pedagogical processes, in a comparison of classroom observations in Germany and Sweden. Observers from each country evaluated preschools in the other country, using the ECERS. Comparisons showed the benefits of using ECERS for facilitating…