This paper describes three alternative perspectives--information processing, social constructivism, and Piagetian/naturalist--of reading/writing connections and suggests instructional implications influenced by the three perspectives. The paper explores each theory in terms of basic assumptions, related research, and strengths and limitations and…

The idea of the teacher as researcher is presented from several different perspectives--the teacher's, the administrator's, and the university based researcher's--to convey a sense of what it means to be a teacher/researcher. The following chapters are included: (1) The Teacher as Researcher--A Historical Perspective (Mary W. Olson); (2) The Door…

This paper describes the rationale, the processes and the outcomes of a teacher-based research project which was undertaken during 1987-88. In the course of the project, university faculty and local school district teachers came together to work, forming two kinds of collegial relationships--teachers working with their fellow teachers and…

A report is given of a collaborative 3-year teacher education improvement project which was begun in 1986. Project participants included the Catholic University Department of Education, District of Columbia and Montgomery County (Maryland) public schools, Washington, D.C. parochial schools, and a private school. The aim of the project was to…

Noting that skills and knowledge taught in schools have become abstracted from their uses in the world, this paper clarifies some of the implications for the nature of the knowledge that students acquire through a proposal for the retooling of apprenticeship methods for the teaching and learning of cognitive skills. The paper specifically proposes…

Intended for educators, politicians, and the corporate community, this book examines the facts and the serious implications of the complicated problem of illiteracy, placing it squarely within the context of America's history and current cultural environment, and recommending far-reaching, programmatic solutions rather than "quick fixes." The book…

English education continues to be threatened by standards for research, measurement, and evaluation that ignore the nature of the discipline and devalue teachers' practices. The dominant models for assessing the effectiveness of English teachers reflect assumptions taken from quantitative social sciences or, in the case of models of…

The study attempted to: (1) identify and examine college teachers' espoused and implicit theories of teaching, using Menges and Rando's analysis categories; and (2) explore differences between assumptions about traditional and non-traditional students when college teachers based their diagnoses of problematic events on untested speculations.…

Research on teaching does not play a significant role in the practice of teaching in schools despite the fact that the first scientific studies of teaching were reported nearly 90 years ago. Although there is clear evidence that practical classroom experience unaided by research is not a sufficient basis for effective teaching, it is also true…

A review of recent literature and commission reports identifies persistent problems in two areas of educational administration: research and preparation programs. The two problems are linked in that they are often supervised by faculty who direct but do not themselves perform research. Two areas of research needs are the poor research skills of…

A review of recent research in child language development examines how this research can be used to inform policy that will enhance the capabilities of English-speaking and non-English-speaking children to develop strong language skills and promote the success of at-risk children. Focus is on the research most applicable to policy planning. First,…

The purpose of a review of course materials and teaching methods in the area of adult development and learning was to identify commonalities that existed in course titles, objectives, content areas, texts, required reading, resources used, course requirements, and instructional processes. Thirty-two course syllabi and 1 curriculum guide from 24…

Intended for practitioners, this book presents a curricular framework for classroom reading and writing experiences that help students understand how reading and writing relate to reasoning and learning. The two sections of the book are organized around three major components of curriculum and how each component was realized in three Indiana…

Data from science and mathematics tests administered to 12th graders in Massachusetts were analyzed to compare the use of multiple-choice items with that of open-ended questions. Specifically, the study was designed to determine the statistical equivalence of the two types of test items, the information yielded by the items, and the grounds upon…

Four experiments were conducted to determine if the California Critical Thinking Skills Test--College Level (CCTST) measured the growth in critical thinking (CT) skills achieved by college students completing approved CT courses. The experiments, conducted at California State University (Fullerton) involved 1,169 college students in 5 courses with…