Examines how teachers allocate instructional time in reading classes. Indicates that teachers used 34% of time in reading and responding; 24.89% in listening and discussing; 8.36% waiting; 20.28% completing skill development; 7.52% in telling, writing, and narrating; 3.47% in other activities. Notes that the recommendation that time spent reading…

Discusses the effectiveness of computer mediated communication (CMC) in higher education. Highlights include a review of pertinent literature; factors associated with successful CMC resources; activity theory; helping users establish a shared purpose; methodological problems; evaluation methods; a conferencing system; and the patterns and content…

This article describes a multistep method for identifying effective teacher-developed instructional procedures and translating them for wide-scale use. The method employs both objective and naturalistic assessments of academic gain and engagement and was used to identify effective practices of teachers of 59 fourth- and fifth-grade students with…

A study involving three students (ages 7-9) with severe disabilities found they were academically engaged during a significantly higher number of intervals when a paraprofessional was positioned close to the student. Students and paraprofessionals were more likely to be verbally interactive than physically when the student was actively…

This study reports the results of a comprehensive survey (59 fixed and 3 open-ended response items) of a stratified (by grade) random sample of K-5 teachers in Indiana (n = 594; response rate = 49.5%). Results indicated that social studies is becoming increasingly marginalized in the K-5 curriculum relative to other core subject areas (e.g., math…

This paper argues that in the information age the closed book, invigilated final examination has become an anachronism. Most significantly, it is an assessment instrument that does not assess deep conceptual understanding and process skills. Indeed, the anecdotal evidence one often hears from students is that "cramming" the night before…

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effects of a cooperative learning strategy in physical education on academic learning time, the percentage of correct trials, the total number of trials, and the number of correct trials. A cooperative learning strategy, PACER (Performer and Coach Earn Rewards), was implemented in a sixth-grade…

This article examines the influence of instructional time on achievement, particularly from the perspective of national implementation of schooling and national levels of achievement in mathematics. The report is in four sections. The first section provides a brief introduction to the idea of instructional time as a fundamental educational…

In Spring 2007, educators in 63 participating Ohio school districts across the state spoke out on working conditions in their schools by participating in a web-based survey that addressed key teaching and learning conditions related to time, empowerment, school leadership, professional development, and facilities and resources. This is the final…

This paper describes the long-term effects of a staff-development program, "Dealing with Multi-Grade Classes," based on selected findings from teaching-effectiveness research in schools with multi-grade or mixed-age classes. The short-term effects were examined in two studies conducted in 1986-87 and 1989-90. In 1992 a follow-up study…

At the end of the 1992-93 school year, Dutch schools finished their preparations for a new core curriculum for the first stage of secondary education. One of the problems teachers faced in implementing this curriculum was the problem of class heterogeneity. How teachers dealt with heterogeneity was studied through an examination of the use of…

The Education Council Act of 1991 established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body and called for a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. This document serves as a supplementary volume to the commission's first report released in May 1994, which found…

This publication offers suggestions for making more productive use of time, a scarce and valued educational resource. The chapter authors, authorities on the use of educational time, write about how to extend and enhance learning time within and outside schools. In "Productive Use of Time," Herbert Walberg describes how learning time can be…

While past research has reported moderate effects of learning-to-learn courses on grade-point averages (GPAs), number of hours completed, and attrition rates, little has been reported about how students fare in subsequent semesters. This study, which consisted of a five-phase interview process with 30 randomly selected male and female college…

This practicum developed a self-recording procedure as a strategy for increasing on-task behavior, academic achievement, and self-esteem of 12 students (grades 6 to 8) with emotional disabilities in a self-contained class over a 12-week period. Students were taught to self-record at gradually decreasing frequencies as well to use their judgment in…