Comments on several papers addressing professional development and instructional improvement for students with learning disabilities in regular classrooms. It urges the linking and alignment of professional development, classroom practice, and changes in student performance with measurement and training that expect the influence of one on the…

Presents a brief overview of the theoretical and historical developments surrounding questions about grouping students by ability. Aims to extend theoretical positions further by examining the way in which setting and mixed-ability teaching influenced the motivations, perceptions, and eventual attainment of students in two British schools. (DSK)

A decade-long research program is described that has focused on the development of the functional writing systems and its connections during the development with the aural/oral language and reading systems in school-age children. Applications of this research to assessment and educational intervention for specific writing disabilities are…

Describes how the Illinois School Library Media Program (ISLMP) used "Information Power" to help translate theory into practice that would impact student achievement. Discusses planning, implementation strategies, and a framework to assess the school library media program's role in meeting user needs. (LRW)

Discusses elementary teacher education in Brazil, examining problems teacher educators face (e.g., lack of direct communication between theoretical studies and the practical world and lack of inclusion of practical knowledge and expertise developed by successful teachers). Current educational policies are discussed, looking at: implementation of a…

Discusses how clinicians and researchers can critically evaluate information from efficacy studies of language intervention programs. It argues for combining both experimental and nonexperimental approaches and suggests that the use of matching in nonrandomized studies allows for comparison of groups of children participating in an intervention…

Describes gendered ideology of practice in teacher education programs in a research university-school collaborative setting in southeast United States. Shows how the themes of professor/father and teacher/mother are interwoven through the social construction of distinct power/knowledge relations in teacher education. (MMU)

Describes the development and implementation of a collaborative effort between a college professor and K-12 art teachers. The teachers acted as art education researchers investigating how people understand and interpret art works in their historical context. Explains how the teachers became collaborators in planning further studies and teaching…

Twelve school-based speech-language practitioners enlisted the assistance of a university clinical phonologist to implement a research project investigating phonological acquisition. The speech samples of 520 children (ages 2-8) were transcribed. The 3-year-olds had acquired all major phoneme classes except liquids, /l/ was acquired between 4- 5,…

This article summarizes a team process for making related services decisions called VISTA (Vermont Interdependent Services Team Approach) and nine research studies on the use and impact of VISTA with students with low incidence disabilities. It also addresses team size, consumer perspectives, and paraprofessional supports. Five major conclusions…

Developed and tested a cognitive theory-based intervention teaching a procedure for designing simple controlled experiments to fourth graders. Found that the intervention produced significant gains in students' ability to create controlled experiments, provide valid justifications for their experiments, and evaluate experiments designed by others.…

This article criticizes application of linguistic interdependence theory to the bilingual/bicultural model of English literacy for deaf students, suggesting that deaf learners do not match theory assumptions. It draws on the work of Vygotsky and Halliday to develop a conceptualization of literacy processes and argues that becoming literate…

Evaluates the effectiveness of a field-based doctoral program in educational administration on linking theory and research to the improvement of practice. Evaluation of the theory-practice emphasis at the University of Utah's program suggests that the program is successfully meeting its objective of promoting change in schools. (SLD)

A study sponsored by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) identifies key themes concerning American Catholic higher education in recent literature, and tests the resulting conceptual framework against a 1994 ACCU survey of administrators and faculty in Catholic institutions. It examines the extent to which theory and…

A college ethics course presents an alternative vision of ethics during the classroom component, then a 10-day wilderness backpacking trip allows students to internalize that vision and become motivated to develop themselves ethically. The field trip maximizes learning by bringing an experiential component to the usually…