This annual journal presents the latest thinking and research on important issues of faculty, instructional, and organizational development in postsecondary education. Essays in this issue and their authors are as follows: "Faculty Development and the New American Scholar" (William B. Bondeson); "Improving Higher Education: Issues…

Many students are not actively engaged in learning in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to develop understandings about student engagement with the mathematics curriculum and its influence on student engagement. The research was conducted in two seventh-grade classes taught by the same teacher, who used direct instruction. The…

A qualitative study of an intensive week-long adult-training course taught with integrated hypermedia was conducted to document course implementation and to formulate questions and hypotheses about aspects of learning with hypermedia to guide future researchers. The hypermedia training was that of the Cities in Schools (CIS) Program Operations…

A set of self-evaluation procedures using videotape was developed to provide teachers with a means for observing their teaching and then reflecting on what occurred. The self-evaluation model consists of two components: (1) a transition observation instrument (TOI) which was designed based on classroom management variables known to influence…

This study investigated autonomous local home schooling parent support groups in Kansas. The home schooling movement in Kansas is an alternative educational entity whose membership has recently been increasing. Accompanying support groups have also increased in number. The purpose of this study was to conduct a naturalistic inquiry into the…

The validation of a classroom observation instrument to be used in evaluating teacher interns under the Kentucky Teacher Intern Program is described. The validation project began in 1988. Fourteen educators from state universities comprised a jury that judged the initial version of the instrument and compared it with the instrument previously…

This portrait of a middle school literature classroom is one of a series of several such portraits which depict diverse classroom settings of high school literature, and which result from the second year of a teacher-research project in the greater Albany, New York area. This article portrays teacher Will Blake and his honors class at an urban…

A number of studies indicate that student teachers can change their behavior quickly, sometimes dramatically, when under a supervisory program which focuses upon behavioral change during the experience. Such change is contingent upon the extent to which student teachers have specific objectives to achieve and regular, precise feedback about their…

Designed to lend support to South Carolina's mandated language arts goals and objectives and to provide a tool flexible enough to meet the needs of a changing society, this curriculum guide describes an integrated sequence of instruction in reading, writing, listening, speaking, and observing from kindergarten through grade 12. After a brief…

This observer training manual was developed as a central component of a research effort, Changing Teacher Practice (CTP), which was designed to increase the frequency of effective teaching behaviors and staff development strategies in an ongoing school system. The observations focused on two major aspects of classroom teaching--instruction and…

Effective schools research has delivered some relatively concrete findings on important issues facing this country's educators. The result has been an extensive collection of effective schooling practices which have potential for increasing performance in young people. In reviewing effective schools literature, implications of the data were found…

Teachers can develop reflection and evaluation options by keeping a classroom journal. A classroom journal is a record of the teacher's experience within the classroom itself, as well as experience outside the classroom which bears on classroom life. As an observor of one's own actions and reactions to classroom incidents, the teacher opens the…

A study was designed to provide an initial context for framing the most pressing questions in the teaching of literature. To do this, the teaching of English in the high school classrooms of teachers whose departments were considered excellent by other professionals in education was examined. The issues that emerged in the programs with…

The rationale for and nature of the videotaped portion of the pedagogy test of the Content Mastery Examinations for Educators (CMEE) available in fall 1990 are evaluated. The videotape subtest described is expansive and time consuming, but appears to be effective and acceptable for its target audience of beginning teachers. Each form of the CMEE…

The setting for this study was a basic education component of a summer youth program designed to increase chances of high risk adolescents, mostly minorities, whose ages ranged from 14-18, to experience more positive academic and employment outcomes. The instructional program used in both experimental and control classrooms emphasized mastery…