Pennsylvania has maintained a nontraditional pathway for the certification of secondary-level vocational teachers since the 1920s. The key that opens the door to that pathway is the verification of subject mastery via: (1) documentation of a learning period in the occupation; (2) documentation of related paid work experience beyond the learning…

This article guides readers through the decisions and considerations involved in conducting focus-group research investigations into students' learning experiences. One previously published focus-group study is used as an illustrative example, along with other examples from the field of pedagogic research in geography higher education. An approach…

AskNow! online answers Australia-wide, the first nation-wide chat reference service, has been a successful exercise in collaboration and cooperation. This article examines some of the lessons learnt, the challenges of collaboration and possible future directions. AskNow!, an initiative of the Council of Australian State Libraries (CASL), commenced…

The authors report on a project in which a new experiential form of professional learning combined ethical thinking processes with a collaborative meeting technology known as the Zing team learning system (ZTLS). A new software program called "Working Wisely" was built by the completion of the project. The ZTLS in combination with…

This hearing discussed how lack of coordination between laboratory exercises and classroom lectures, inadequately trained teachers, languishing facilities, and current high school organization diminish the value these exercises can have or prohibit them all together, and highlighted how a strong hands-on experience can create scientifically…

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors which help successful equity initiatives that had been seeded in technical and further education (TAFE) institutes through short-term funding to take root and spread. The report concludes that many equity programs remain stuck in the seeding stage and fail to thrive and grow. It suggests that…

The National FFA Organization's Partners in Active Learning Support (PALS) is a program that utilizes high school members from FFA chapters as peer mentors. The purpose of this study was to examine needs of a sample of PALS advisors and mentors. An on-site pilot study was initially conducted, which included 3 individual interviews with program…

Grassroot Soccer (GRS), a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, designed a curriculum and sport-based teaching model to build resiliency, targeting boys and girls in Lusaka, Zambia, and Johannesburg, South Africa, where most children are reminded daily of the devastation caused by AIDS and where many face chronic and acute hardship. Collaborating…

This study examines the characteristics of Texas youth designated as "most difficult to place" recipients of service under the "Exceptional Care Pilot Project" (N = 46). Findings include, among others, high levels of comorbid psychiatric disturbance (greater than 3 diagnostic groupings), physical (78.3%) and sexual (88%)…

This article focuses upon the use of the portfolio as a tool to assess professional performance in beginning classroom teachers and in special education applications. An Oregon pilot study, the Beginning Teacher Assessment Model (BTAM) for elementary teachers in their second or third year in the classroom, is described. The BTAM relies extensively…

Two pilot studies of a new science program called WEE Science were conducted in fifth-grade classrooms. The pilots lasted for 7 days in one of the classrooms and 9 days in the other. At the beginning of the program the students chose a science tradebook from among the many that the researchers, teachers, and librarians had selected and brought to…

This paper discusses a formative evaluation method by which to assess World-Wide-Web (WWW) documents. Also presented are the results from a pilot evaluation which examined users' interactions with Web documents and the effects of providing "document maps" to guide users to specific information. A video-split screen technique was used to…

A project in collaborative teacher-based research was undertaken at Madison Area Technical College in Wisconsin as a background study for eventual implementation of teacher research in the Adult Basic Education (ABE) classroom. Personnel involved included an individual who served as both a director and consultant and five part-time teachers. The…

A study analyzed postings over a week-long period to two electronic discussion lists to position them as communication forms and to assess their potential value to journalism educators, students and researchers. The lists--"Journet" and "Stumedia"-- were examined using both quantitative and qualitative techniques. Results indicated that the…

This paper presents the results of a pilot study of African American public administrators' attitudes toward cultural diversity management in the Fall of 1995. It is based on an open-ended national survey that was mailed to 394 federal, state, and local African American public administrators. The study asked respondents about the special knowledge…