Based on the author's experience working with the French minority in the Yukon, this study investigated the contributions of the school and of the family to the success at Ecole Emilie-Tremblay, a school of children from exogamous families (those with parents from different language groups). Three areas of parental involvement were…

During the summer of 1995 a group of educators in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) created an innovative program, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) Summer Institute on Nonviolence, to help young people learn alternatives to violent behavior. The program was designed to train peer leaders in nonviolence so they could return to their schools and…

A study investigated the effectiveness of an innovative approach to the case study in teaching educational administrators in master's and doctoral programs. Subjects were 80 students in three institutions. The method uses "case stories," which differ from conventional case studies in that they are highly personal written accounts of real events…

This paper explores the concept of combining collaborative action research, used in examining teacher behaviors, with group dynamics, used to facilitate new ideas and increase motivation. Specifically, the study examines the effort by one team of middle school teachers to conduct teacher team collaborative research. After reviewing the literature…

This qualitative study examined the personal practical theories (PPTs) of the members of the supervisory triad--college supervisor, cooperating teacher, and student teacher--to discover whether PPTs could provide information about relationships within the triad. Three preservice teachers, three college supervisors, and five cooperating teachers…

Many colleges and universities are using a service-learning paradigm to structure service learning experiences for their students to reinforce and enhance the understanding of course material. Two studies were undertaken at a parochial college to address the benefits to students who perform service as part of their curricular studies. In the first…

The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods as a way to improve research into the clinical preparation of teachers was studied using varied clinical-instruction models to quantify preservice teachers' perceptions of being prepared for inservice teaching. A traditional professional model emphasizes the idea of the teacher as leader and…

A qualitative study examined the meaning-making processes involved as six struggling readers and a teacher interacted to make sense of a story during small group literature discussions. Students were low-achieving fifth graders. Instruction consisted of partner reading, written response followed by discussion and extended free journal writing.…

This qualitative study of teachers'"sensemaking" about changing professional relationships and inclusive education involved interviews and observations of three teachers over the course of a school year. The teachers, one each from regular and special education and a "collaborating teacher," were employed in an urban upper elementary school in the…

This review of literature organizes and categorizes recent research on at-risk students, concentrating on resilient at-risk students. Programs that have been effective in promoting the success of at-risk students are reviewed, and a file of resources on at-risk students has been compiled. The 61 resources located in this study are organized in the…

The progress of a novice ethnographic researcher is traced from problems associated with a pilot study through the production of a final draft of her dissertation--an observational case study. Focus is on the data analysis process, the development of conceptual maps leading to an emergent grounded theory, and writing the dissertation. Research…

The way in which graduate students in a course in school organization and administration at Washington State University (Pullman) have been guided through conducting original case studies of the administrators and others working in public schools and school districts was studied, as was the impact of these studies on the students. Students were…

This policy brief reports on a study of how families and agencies cope with growing waiting periods for community services for adults who have mental retardation or developmental disabilities (MR/DD). Preliminary information looks at reasons for long waits, characteristics of families waiting for services, and impact of adult members with MR/DD on…

A method of qualitative data analysis that used computer software as a tool to help organize and analyze open-ended survey responses was examined. Reasons for using open-ended, as opposed to closed-ended questionnaire items, are discussed, as well as the construction of open-ended questions and response analysis. Because the method is based on…

The experiences of novice users (freshman students at Ohio University) searching OCLC's FIRSTSEARCH set of databases were studied. The 13 subjects were asked to complete a search on the FIRSTSEARCH databases; and data were collected through observations, administration of a questionnaire, and a thinking-aloud protocol. Data were analyzed to…