The study described here studied perspectives of mid-career teachers from minority and Anglo backgrounds on collaborative intellectual work and examined the ideologies underlying these perspectives. Analysis focused on the teachers' dialogical interaction in a small group (4 teachers) and a large group (28 teachers) in relation to immediate and…

In light of concerns that previous staff development projects did not truly capture life in the classroom, and that there may be a gap between one's previous elementary and current university teaching experiences, a teacher educator used a semester sabbatical to shadow six first-grade teachers in order to inform thinking and practice in teaching…

This paper presents a case study describing the collaboration between a state university, a local school district, and Dialog Information Services, Inc. that was designed to include the use of online searching in a social studies methodology course and to encourage school curriculum reform in the area of technology by integrating online searching…

The case study presented in this paper describes the thinking-in-action of a first grade teacher who, within the natural setting of her classroom, was constructing a new way of teaching language arts by changing to a whole language approach. In contrast to traditional implementation models, this study highlights the constitutive nature of…

This final volume of a six-volume study of an elementary school called "Kensington" in a school district code-named "Milford," examines its own assumptions and procedures. After the brief, introductory chapter, which presents the methodological appendixes of the preceding volumes as a serial, chapter 2 discusses exploratory and…

The practice of interviewing individuals rather than groups has been based largely upon methodological concerns for preventing contamination of data. The assumptions that (1) the data provided by individuals can, in aggregate, yield social truth; (2) individuals are conscious of social phenomena; and (3) the whole of social reality is equal to the…

Designed to help local government officials, agency personnel, and members of citizen groups involved in the planning process for a rapidly growing community, this introduction to community needs assessment provides background information on the reasons for conducting community needs assessment, guidelines for determining which techniques are most…

This article draws on data collected during a year-long ethnographic study of six Spanish-dominant English language learners, enrolled in both English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and Spanish Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE) "pull-out" programs, in an English kindergarten classroom. The study is based on a theoretical framework that…

There is a multitude of research on vocabulary methods or strategies, how many relate to second language learners and the importance of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. Researchers have explored the possibility that grouping words in a manner other than the traditional list of nouns, all fitting under a common theme, might be more…

A literature review and analysis, and a case study of two "mainstream" student teachers working in a minority elementary school explored how teacher education prepares teachers to work in diverse settings. The literature review and analysis addressed both macro level issues (program policies) and micro level initiatives (specific studies…

A teacher educator took over a high school physics teachers' class for a semester in exchange for the physics teacher taking over his university physics methods classes. The paper presents the perceptions of people involved in the experience. Students at both schools accepted the situation well. University students, invited to observe their…

An in-depth investigation of the inner components of cooperative learning methodologies was made, concentrating on five basic research questions. These were: (1) Do teacher's focusing questions and interaction with students during cooperative learning facilitate students' critical thinking skills? (2) In what ways do cooperative learning groups…

This report is based on an ethnographic study of a multicultural "college prep" program catering to minority students. It was part of the elective bilingual education offering at a large urban high school, and recorded an 11-year history of successfully graduating Hispanic high school students and sending at least 65% of them on to college. The…

An assessment model was developed to produce change in adult basic education (ABE) programs and thereby improve learning for adult students. During the development of the model, 89 ABE programs were analyzed. To determine the effect that ABE has on the quality of life of its students, researchers observed 77 of the 89 programs included in the…

The Action Research on Change in Schools (ARCS) project was a collaborative action research study that involved two levels of research: a specific research project in each of two junior high schools in Michigan and New Hampshire, and a simultaneous study of the collaborative action research process itself as it relates to teachers' individual…