This article discusses the author's use of a performance-based evaluation in his fifth grade Spanish class in a K-5 public elementary school located in Princeton, New Jersey. The author realized the need to break the old testing paradigm and discover a new way of demonstrating student language acquisition since the traditional tests did not seem…

The opening remarks offered by Swensen, Rozema, Young, McGrail, and Whitin (2005) make a significant contribution by creating a space for reflection and subsequent action at the intersection of English teacher preparation and technology. This brief commentary addresses several points in Swensen, et al.'s article relating to the adoption of new…

In the series introduction, Roblyer (2005) presents a conceptual framework for improving typical research on educational technology. This commentary is intended to extend and deepen Roblyer's very brief discussion of one particular type of research--studies of technology-based instructional designs--that she describes as "almost…

This paper examines some of the possible negative side effects of behavioral consultation and suggests that teacher resistance to behavioral methodology may be following basic learning principles that suggest that behaviors which lead to punishing conswquences often are terminated or avoided. Most of the negative consequences identified in this…

In 1987, the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention contracted with the Social Science Education Consortium to study how law-related education (LRE) programs become institutionalized and what factors influence institutionalization. Interviews were conducted in eight school districts in four states and narrative case studies…

More than 100 decontextualized, formalistic paradigms of the narrative process are in existence, but little work has been done to apply the insights narrative theory yields to news and journalistic form. Given the journalistic assumption that facts can be presented neutrally, news professionals tend to maintain that narratives do not exist outside…

An analysis of the content and a critique of the significance of President Jimmy Carter's 1977 commencement speech at the University of Notre Dame, show that technical weaknesses such as poor organization, inconsistent style, and overbreadth limited its intended effect. Carter had hoped that this speech would dispel confusion over some of his…

A study examined the role of emotion in organizational life (specifically, in a corrections organization) to determine the communicative circumstances and effects associated with emotional communication events. A detailed questionnaire administered to 105 employees of a state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation provided data on the nature…

Intended for teachers, this book demonstrates the importance of teaching with real books. The first three chapters outline the components of a literature program, the settings in which it operates, and the human communities that shape it. Chapter 4 discusses literary elements: character, time, mood, layers of story meaning, place, point of view,…

The cost-effectiveness and impact on response rate of variations in mailing procedures involved in a mail survey of teacher education graduates were assessed. Variables studied were use of a preliminary or advance letter, postcard versus letter reminders as the first follow-up mailing, timing of the reminder (1 versus 2 weeks after the first…

This study examined 665 elementary and secondary teachers with different levels of experience to discover differences and similarities in selected teaching behaviors. Of the 57 behaviors, 16 were clustered into teacher response to student response to a question or to a student initiation. Sixteen related to teacher response to inattentive or…

Following up research by Radway and others on readers of romance novels, a study, employing a reader-response approach, was conducted with 18 female adolescent readers of romances to discover if they perceived and enjoyed the novels in ways appreciably different from other readers. The subjects filled out questionnaires about their romance novel…

Theories of taste are efforts to understand the processes of signification by which cultural forms take on meaning, and how subjects are inserted into such processes. One of these theories is the notion of "taste cultures," set forth by Herbert Gans in the 1960s and continued by George Lewis into the 1980s. A taste culture is an…

The Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP) uses the Rasch model as the statistical framework for the analysis of test items and scores. This paper is designed to assist the reader in developing an understanding of the fit statistics in the Rasch model. Background materials on application of the Rasch model in statistical analysis of the MFTP…

A Gallup report presents the results and conclusions of a study designed to measure attitudes and perceptions among the nation's adults regarding higher education. The specific issues addressed cover the benefits of a college education to society at large, the focus of institutions of higher education, financial support of higher education…