A study of 58 doctoral students in four departments notes four general tasks of transition and initial socialization into graduate student life and future career: intellectual mastery; learning realities of graduate student life; learning about the profession; and integrating into the department. Some reasons for leaving a doctoral program are…

Uses journal analysis techniques to examine how six female student teachers participating in secondary-school inclusion programs constructed their professional lives. Teachers believe their professional success is tightly aligned with their sense of empowerment and control over the educational environment. Confidence wanes at the prospect of…

Reports on the ways in which one teacher's teaching of trainee-teachers was adapted to reflect the principles she wanted them to explore in relation to their own work. Drawing on Vygotsky's concept of relational imitation and Dewey's notion of learning through direct experience, suggests ways of challenging the transmission paradigm and…

Describes the development of a program for helping postgraduate students overcome both the cultural and linguistic problems they face when they go on to study in a country with very different traditions and ways of working than they are accustomed. (Author/VWL)

Surveyed preservice teachers regarding their beliefs about student diversity (types of diversity they considered important, benefits of classroom diversity, and concerns about their ability to teach in diverse classrooms). Results found that respondents were predominantly white, female, middle-to-upper class English speakers with limited exposure…

This article describes the construction of instruments for evaluating statistics texts that are grounded in the statistical education and text evaluation literatures. Student, instructor, and expert evaluator instruments were piloted with 36 graduate students and 5 faculty members. Results suggest the usefulness of the developed instruments. (SLD)

Examines challenges facing scholarship in cultural fields at the university level. These challenges include economic concerns, political hostility, and a change in the status of foreign literatures. Departments of foreign languages and literatures must redefine their goal as foreign cultural literacy in order to remain viable. (nine references)…

Students study foreign languages to increase their awareness of other cultures, learn a language for practical use, prepare for graduate study, and understand their family heritage. The article maintains that American graduate schools are best at educating professors to prepare more students for graduate study and that colleges must tailor their…

This article discusses the history and changes in the teaching of Chinese in the United States. It suggests that there is 1 standard Chinese language and no need to learn dialects, but that to be literate in Chinese means learning 3,500 characters. (CK)

A discussion of faculty tenure focuses on the system used at Colby College (Maine). Policies and practices are described, with attention given to the four evaluations made before tenure is awarded, efforts to ensure instructional quality and research productivity after the tenure decision, and the balance of teaching and scholarship in the faculty…

A study of 250 new teaching assistants and 122 tenure-track faculty investigated their endorsement of 4 norms defining appropriate and inappropriate teaching behavior: (1) interpersonal disregard; (2) particularistic grading; (3) moral turpitude; and (4) inadequate planning. Both groups accorded the norms similar levels of impropriety. Questions…

A review of the literature, data from a national study involving faculty in 23 administrator preparation programs and 457 educational administration students, and interviews with 6 principals indicate that special education is treated inadequately, if at all, in programs designed to prepare school administrators. (SLD)

Examines the decentralized and discipline-specific nature of graduate education and how it creates a unique and diverse climate for graduate students. The current population of graduate students is described, research on graduate students is described, focusing on four factors that influence the student environment and five types of student.…

Describes a case study of a graduate class that investigated how students learn and collaborate in a Web-based course designed according to the current social-constructivist conception of learning. Discusses independent and collaborative activities; how student learn to use technology; communication; student preferences; learner differences;…

Surveys counselor education students (N=68) using Defining Issues Test and White Racial Identity Scale to determine relationships among multicultural training and moral racial identity development. Results indicated that training could help change modes of information processing about racial attitudes, but may not promote cognitive complexity…