This article presents six principles designed to prevent writing difficulties as well as to build writing skills: providing effective writing instruction, tailoring instruction to meet the individual needs, intervening early, expecting that each child will learn to write, identifying and addressing roadblocks to writing, and employing…

Discusses differences in student and faculty expectations in completing student research papers and considers possible implications for academic libraries and the librarian's role. Topics include the library's role in academic life; students' perspectives; professors' perspectives; the research process; and communication breakdowns. (LRW)

Classroom discipline methods are changing with the times. Assertive Discipline is a 20-year-old program designed to help teachers successfully manage students' behavior. In the 1990s, it involves building a rapport with students and creating a discipline plan at the same time. The paper details the basic principles of the Assertive Discipline…

Younger employees in school admissions and records offices wishing to advance within the organization are encouraged to distinguish themselves, find a specialty, focus on customer relations, communicate expectations in leadership situations, keep priorities straight, embrace change and cultivate flexibility, keep integrity intact, and develop a…

Examines the historical construction of classroom management, arguing that in order to understand its current metamorphosis in education, it is necessary to examine it within a genealogically apprehended historical context. The discussion reviews the general context from which the inquiry grew and its philosophical assumptions regarding the…

Describes the author's experiences and thoughts about being black and attending Yale University during the school's early years of racial integration. The author also highlights black, middle-class development and its promise for the future of blacks in America. (GR)

Despite steps toward sex equity, there is evidence that educators treat girls differently from boys. Studies show that teachers' attitudes, treatment, and expectations influence girls' performance. Teachers clearly influence girls' self-image, yet teachers' colleges do not offer courses on gender issues. The problem is so insidious that separate…

Researchers compared the self-reported mental activities of first-year and experienced kindergarten teachers during 10 common teaching episodes. Teachers recorded and later coded their thoughts during the episodes. The three mental deliberations of the beginning teacher as compared to the experienced teacher were judgmental, nonfacilitative, and…

Describes how three principles of leadership presented by Heifetz (1994) in "Leadership Without Easy Answers" can be translated into the leadership parenting of young children. Focuses on distinguishing between child-rearing issues that require parents to act as trainers versus those demanding a problem-solving role, on responding to…

Presents two short articles. Discusses implementation of a K-W-E-L framework (What I Know, What I Want to Know, What the School District Expects, and What I Learned) in junior-level high school American literature courses. Presents a teacher's personal literacy history, which he wrote along with his students. Suggests successful teaching and…

Examines four explanations for the low academic achievement of black and poor urban students: socioeconomic, sociopathological, cultural, and genetic. Acknowledges the merits of the first three, noting their specific weaknesses and limitations. Describes key characteristics of teachers who make a difference in reversing the cycle of despair and…

Discusses the need for college science teachers to show students the fundamentals before expecting them to "dive in." Argues for the importance of homework in post-secondary science classes. (WRM)

Examines future teachers' judgments of acceptability for two common treatments for children with the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) label. In this study, the ADHD label evoked greater expectations of attentional difficulties even when the pattern of functioning was similar to nonlabeled children. On the other hand, children with…

Explains that the amount and quality of talk in the classroom directly affects student achievement and describes how to avoid the initiation-response-evaluation pattern by asking open-ended questions, igniting rich conversations, and increasing wait time with students. The paper also includes Internet resources for boosting talk in the classroom,…

Robert P. Moses, teacher and Civil Rights activist, discusses contributions of his Algebra Project for predominantly minority youngsters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Taking and passing algebra in the eighth grade qualifies students for high-school honors math courses and improves their chances to enter college. Transforming neighborhood schools is…