A study involving three students (ages 7-9) with severe disabilities found they were academically engaged during a significantly higher number of intervals when a paraprofessional was positioned close to the student. Students and paraprofessionals were more likely to be verbally interactive than physically when the student was actively…

This study reports the results of a comprehensive survey (59 fixed and 3 open-ended response items) of a stratified (by grade) random sample of K-5 teachers in Indiana (n = 594; response rate = 49.5%). Results indicated that social studies is becoming increasingly marginalized in the K-5 curriculum relative to other core subject areas (e.g., math…

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effects of a cooperative learning strategy in physical education on academic learning time, the percentage of correct trials, the total number of trials, and the number of correct trials. A cooperative learning strategy, PACER (Performer and Coach Earn Rewards), was implemented in a sixth-grade…

This article examines the influence of instructional time on achievement, particularly from the perspective of national implementation of schooling and national levels of achievement in mathematics. The report is in four sections. The first section provides a brief introduction to the idea of instructional time as a fundamental educational…

In Spring 2007, educators in 63 participating Ohio school districts across the state spoke out on working conditions in their schools by participating in a web-based survey that addressed key teaching and learning conditions related to time, empowerment, school leadership, professional development, and facilities and resources. This is the final…

This paper examines the relationships of pupils' on-task orientation at school and their opposition to teachers with perceived cognitive competence, perceived relevance of schoolwork, and the belief that going against school norms increases peer status. The study was conducted as a survey among a national representative sample of 3834 pupils in…

Each month, "Special Report" summarizes a recent research study (or several studies related to the same topic) containing findings of importance to "Educational Leadership" readers. The purpose of this column is not to endorse or refute the conclusions of the study or studies summarised, but rather to keep readers informed about timely research…

Interest in creating conditions that enhance student learning and support students in achieving their educational goals is at an all-time high. The pool of prospective undergraduates is larger and more diverse than ever, and four-fifths of high school graduates will require some form of postsecondary education to acquire the knowledge and…

Learners' dictionaries are a resource which is often overlooked by both students and teachers of English as a Second Language. The wealth of grammatical information contained within them, however, can help students to improve their English language skills and, ipso facto, their academic writing. In this study, four groups of university ESL…

In higher education one of the most important learning goals is deep understanding. Achieving this goal needs time and effort. The authors discuss their observations of student time use on the basis of several case studies which they have conducted in the field of engineering education in Finland. The time that the students spend studying is…

This paper describes the long-term effects of a staff-development program, "Dealing with Multi-Grade Classes," based on selected findings from teaching-effectiveness research in schools with multi-grade or mixed-age classes. The short-term effects were examined in two studies conducted in 1986-87 and 1989-90. In 1992 a follow-up study…

At the end of the 1992-93 school year, Dutch schools finished their preparations for a new core curriculum for the first stage of secondary education. One of the problems teachers faced in implementing this curriculum was the problem of class heterogeneity. How teachers dealt with heterogeneity was studied through an examination of the use of…

The Education Council Act of 1991 established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body and called for a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. This document serves as a supplementary volume to the commission's first report released in May 1994, which found…

This publication offers suggestions for making more productive use of time, a scarce and valued educational resource. The chapter authors, authorities on the use of educational time, write about how to extend and enhance learning time within and outside schools. In "Productive Use of Time," Herbert Walberg describes how learning time can be…

While past research has reported moderate effects of learning-to-learn courses on grade-point averages (GPAs), number of hours completed, and attrition rates, little has been reported about how students fare in subsequent semesters. This study, which consisted of a five-phase interview process with 30 randomly selected male and female college…