Interviews with 55 of 260 adults who completed Access courses and progressed to British universities revealed areas in which they felt the courses left them underprepared: conducting library research, using information technology and the Internet, writing essays, and practicing for exams. They would have preferred a grading system similar to that…

Outlines challenges to classroom technology use (unrealistic expectations; hardware, software, and network reliability; copyright considerations; service capability; technological literacy; technological limitations; time; facility limitations; maintenance; working hours) and argues that while technological developments outstrip education's…

Describes the development of the Readiness Inventory (RI), a measure of readiness for first grade. The RI was completed on 139 first-grade children and analyzed using a model of Item Response Theory. Findings indicate that behaviors dealing with academic skills are less indicative of readiness than abilities dealing with role-governed behaviors or…

Fournier, coordinator of the School Achievement Indicators Program (SAIP), claims that score differences are associated with linguistic and gender differences. These results have long been substantiated. The expectation-setting process has little reliability or validity. SAIP does not help teachers, and should not determine what students learn.…

Examines research on sex differences in expectations regarding compliance-related behaviors and the resulting implications for early childhood practice. Identifies sex differences in problem-solving competence and the possible contribution of sex differences in compliance to and dependence on adults. Presents strategies to help preschoolers learn…

Explores the experiences of one preschool teacher as she introduced story writing activities into her classroom, including changes in teacher expectations. Describes children's story writing, which used pictures and letter-like forms, and notes the relationship between child temperament and eagerness to share stories with other children. Describes…

Comparison of 68 college students (most aged 18-22) with 83 adults 23 and over revealed significant differences in the expected income of students and actual income of nonstudents and in the amount of credit card debt. Those who perceived themselves as savers and their significant others as spenders reported significantly higher levels of…

Used a national sample to examine the influences of parent involvement in students' education on students' postsecondary educational expectations, assessing parent involvement during eighth grade and educational expectations 6 years later. Student-reported home-based parental involvement most strongly predicted high educational expectations.…

Four kinds of reputed evidence for semilingualism or limited bilingualism are rejected as spurious or irrelevant. An alternative explanation of school failure among language minority children focuses on the lack of first-language support and the absence of comprehensible instruction in content-area knowledge. Implications for bilingual education…

Analyzes the teaching of linguistics and ethics of representing linguistic issues in a persuasive way, examining tensions between telling it like it is and telling it in a way that students will listen. The paper highlights persuasion, the introduction of linguistic concepts, the importance of understanding dialects and their role in education,…

Observed all 12 kindergarten classrooms from a small town/rural Midwestern county for the full session on the first day of school to determine teachers' language and classroom practices. Found evidence of demands for entering kindergartners to process complex language, organize themselves and their materials, and comply with many new rules and…

Provides physical educators and athletic coaches strategies for empowering students to make positive ethical and moral choices. Strategies include: put on theme days to encourage respect and courtesy; develop community service projects; use encouragement rather than praise; read to the students; implement proven special programs; and stay in the…

This paper examines the co-constructed nature of classroom life, and what became constituted as one child's story of literacy learning in first grade. It takes an over-time look at how opportunities for literacy learning were constructed within multiple, intermingling contexts (classroom, school, district, and family). Derek's literacy learning…

Like Chip Anderson, whose essay you read earlier in this issue, I was initially taught to use the deficit-remediation model with my students. Even in that negative context, though, and with no exposure at all to strengths-based education, I unconsciously based my early teaching on four of my five Clifton StrengthsFinder signature themes:…

A company's college recruitment practices, as well as its socialization processes for graduates once they have joined the organization, can be improved when there is understanding of college graduates' experience during the first year of employment. This study recorded the experiences of eight college graduates who were employed by a medical…