Describes a study that evaluated implementing a constructivist process approach to learning information skills in school library media programs. Training institutes for media specialists, a longitudinal case study, and the identification of inhibitors and enablers of successful programs are discussed. (Contains 13 references.) (EAM)

Discusses roles and needed skills of systems analysts and describes a course developed at Massey University's (New Zealand) department of information systems that incorporated social and interpersonal skills as well as cooperative learning to promote higher level thinking skills. Learning strategies, teaching strategies, the teacher's role,…

Metaphor development and videotape analysis were used within a student teaching seminar to examine elementary student teachers' ideas about classroom management and ways those ideas changed with experience. The student teachers had complex views of management. They thought about management in preventive, nonpunitive terms but seemed more…

Based on intensive case studies of two school districts, this study compared two teacher work reforms: merit pay and job enlargement. Interviews with 64 teachers and 53 administrators, supplemented by over 1,300 survey responses, indicate the efficacy of each approach and the potential advantages of job enlargement. (SLD)

Examines how children respond to reading. Develops a program that cultivates the growth of response. Shares how these experiences with oral discussions of literature gave insights into the role of participant/facilitator for language arts teachers. (MG)

The teaching behavior and instructional methods of elementary school teachers were investigated to determine whether teachers with positive attitudes toward mathematics employ different methods in mathematics instruction than those with negative attitudes. Overall, teachers with negative attitudes employed methods that fostered dependency whereas…

Discusses the political ideology and basic principles of the school-centered reforms of New South Wales. Describes the reform package; reports on progress during the first year of implementation; and evaluates major issues that have delayed the process of change. Concludes with an attempt to predict future outcomes. (23 references) (MLF)

This essay explores the complex relationship between policy talk and institutional change in educational reform. Bursts of reform rhetoric must be distinguished from long-term trends in educational practice. The case study of a comprehensive reform effort helps illustrate why some kinds of reform last and others do not. (SLD)

Discusses how an understanding of how children learn can be used to teach them to read nonnarrative information books. Includes how to nurture reading of nonnarrative writing and text features that link with children's ability to learn. Concludes that spoken language reinforces student efforts to make sense of ideas being read. (DK)

Examples from related case studies illustrate possible consequences of a social constructivist approach to learning and teaching mathematics. Discusses student tasks that promote flexibility in mathematizing subject matter; constructive versus Euclidean geometry approaches; working with real-life mathematics problems; and product versus process…

Explores the term "story" as it defines method and object of inquiry in teaching and learning, and explores story as a mode of knowing. Considers the political context of the story and issues of gender, power, ownership, and voice and the contributions of stories to case studies. (SLD)

Some organizations are having difficulty with the Total Quality Management (TQM) approach. Problems appear to come from reliance on prepackaged TQM programs, large-scale, diffuse implementation, mass training programs, measurement paralysis, overemphasis on tools, process selection, outmoded reward structures, and simplistic views of change and…

Recounts how a fifth-grade class applied the extended case study strategy to study a regional environmental issue, the Timber Wolf Recovery Plan. Students wrote essays; identified involved players' positions, beliefs, and values; conducted a survey of local residents' beliefs and attitudes; and devised a plan of action. (MDH)

Explores teaching African-American history as a form of African-American cultural empowerment, laying out arguments supporting this position and an alternative view. A case study of a school system shows how empowerment aspects of African-American history compete against other aspects of classroom practice as it examines how empowering…

This study examined three districts that redesigned teaching, two with career ladders and one with shared governance. The reforms, both professional and bureaucratic, had important consequences for the process and outcomes of the redesign of teaching. Discrete organizational and political factors were identified. (TJH)