This technical assistance paper presents information designed to assist school personnel in assessing the strengths and needs of children and planning developmentally appropriate curriculum strategies. The first topic addressed is assessment strategies, which include developmental screening, diagnostic instruments, teacher observation, parent…

At Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida, faculty evaluation has been redefined as "review for professional development," and faculty professional development has evolved into a program involving many people, with a philosophy of its own--"everyone's responsibility and benefit." It is an ongoing process throughout the…

Descriptive statements of evaluation practices by principals were studied concerning normative expectations and J. Dewey's general logic of experience. Focus was on describing what principals think and do in terms of evaluation as a step toward bringing evaluation specialists and educational practitioners into a closer working relationship. Four…

Educational assessment is discussed, describing three images of instructional design that can be used to construct classroom learning environments, and focusing on the nature and uses of portfolios and authentic assessment. The following three designs for schooling are considered: (1) discipline-centered schooling, the most familiar vision of…

Studying or finding out about children is exceptionally difficult--intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Physical, social, cognitive, and political distances between adult and the child make their relationship very different from the relationships among adults. This book explains the art and science of doing qualitative research involving…

This action research study developed a framework for moving teachers toward an inquiry-based approach to teaching science, emphasizing elements, strategies, and supports necessary to encourage and sustain teachers' use of inquiry-based science instruction. The study involved a literature review, participant observation, focus group discussions,…

A process evaluation was conducted to determine the status of the School District of the City of Saginaw's Adult Basic Education (ABE) program operations during 1991-92. The instrument focused on nine aspects of an ABE classroom: start of class; time spent in instruction (for three subject areas and total); modes of instruction; extent of…

This study was conducted to analyze the process of learning to teach from the perspective of the student teacher. Issues associated with how student teachers perceive experiences contributing to their learning process form the basis of the analysis. Data referred to come from a larger study conducted over 3 years which explored the perceptions of…

When student and novice teachers see themselves as learners or researchers and spend some of their energy trying to understand their students and their students' perspectives, they become less attached to pedagogical techniques and move quickly to a responsive and reflective way of teaching that is more commonly associated with experienced…

A project undertaken to observe an instructor in three college courses in three consecutive quarters provided an opportunity to examine the teaching process in a holistic way, seek students' views in the classroom, and describe a collaborative approach to teaching assessment and development. Factors taken into account in the holistic model of…

College faculty are unlike other teachers in that they are not trained to teach and have little supervision. Effectiveness of language instruction is more difficult than most to evaluate. Contemporary models of supervision tend to emphasize training, not evaluation, even for teaching assistants. Some see teaching as an art, not susceptible to…

Peer coaching, in which two teachers observe each other's classes with the objective of helping each other improve their instructional abilities, empowers teaching professionals by enabling them to develop their own criteria for evaluation of and responsibility for quality classroom performance. Peer coaching can involve collaborative, expert, or…

The Calculators in Primary Mathematics Project was a long-term investigation into the effects of the introduction of calculators on the learning and teaching of primary mathematics. The Australian project commenced with children who were in kindergarten and grade 1 in 1990, moving up through the schools to grade 4 level by 1993. Children were…

A research plan for investigating the effects of student portfolios on teaching and learning at three different school sites is described. The plan accommodates two categories of research questions: (1) broad, cross-site questions; and (2) site-specific questions generated by participants at each individual site. Data collection strategies…

An ethnographic study examined ways in which the writing behaviors of adult literacy students in a classroom setting were either similar to or different from current theories of language acquisition. Three students were selected from an adult literacy class at the Fordham Library Center in the Bronx. The research plan had a three-pronged approach:…