Intended for teachers in Tasmania, this booklet discusses the importance of providing well chosen books for children at an early age. The booklet suggests that from the earliest years, in home and school, the young child needs a supply of books that are read aloud by adults who encourage the child to talk about the story and the child's experience…

Arguing that the use of peer groups in a writing classroom theoretically supports the goals of the paradigm shift from emphasis on written product to writing process that has occurred in recent years, this paper examines the complexities confronting teachers who attempt to use groups for instructional purposes. Following a brief introduction, the…

A compendium of reading instructional practices from approximately 1950 through 1970, this compilation of essays supplies a theoretical background of the reading discipline for elementary and secondary school reading instructors. The five articles deal with different aspects of the reading curriculum. "The Basics in the Reading Curriculum"…

Commercially developed basal reading programs are used in most elementary school classrooms in the United States. Yet often neither the publishers developing these programs nor the members of textbook adoption committees selecting programs are able to take advantage of the best available knowledge about the reading process and reading instruction.…

The articles in this journal issue explore current theories of the reading/writing relationship and practices in writing instruction. The titles and their authors are as follows: (1) "Cognitive Processes in Writing and Reading" (Roderic C. Botts); (2) "Brainstorming and Writing" (Brock Dethier); (3) "Group Writing:…

To obtain rural school superintendents' assessment of research needs, questionnaires were sent in 1986 to 752 superintendents from schools with less than 1,000 K-12 student population. The questionnaires, adapted from the research agenda of the Rural Education Association (REA), consisted of 51 research topics grouped under 9 thematic categories.…

A study investigated how text features influence the amount of vocabulary knowledge students acquired incidentally while reading expositions. Three sets of text features were identified from studies on comprehension: (1) features associated with the macrostructure, (2) features associated with logical and temporal relations in the microstructure,…

Teachers' utilization of personal practical knowledge in effecting school reform was analyzed in a three-year project in a Toronto inner city elementary school. The major unit of study was the school, investigated through the eyes of teachers, principal, and other people responsible for school policy. The study was pursued in the context of the…

Teachers' utilization of personal practical knowledge in effecting school reform was analyzed in a three-year project in a Toronto inner city elementary school. The major unit of study was the school, investigated through the eyes of people responsible for school policy. The study, presented in four volumes, focused on the school board's Race…

A study examined the nonformal extension education impacts of farming systems research in three prototype areas in rural Lesotho. The extension education programs that were carried out in Lesotho from 1979 through 1984 in conjunction with a farming systems research development strategy were found to have tentative, but indicative, impacts on…

During the summer of 1986 a conference funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) was organized to assess the current state of cognitive research on the psychology of physics problem solving, and to examine the needs of physics instructors and instructional designers that must be addressed by a psychological theory of physics problem solving.…

During 1987 the ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education (ERIC/SMEAC) conducted a survey of the state education agencies, asking respondents to summarize their perceptions as to how schools include environmental topics in their curricula by responding to a questionnaire. Also requested was information concerning…

Literacy should be viewed as the ability to enlist a repertoire of discourse forms to explore and extend thinking and learning. In this view of literacy and literacy learning, various forms of reading and writing are seen as distinct ways of knowing and acquiring knowledge for ones' own purposes. Supporting this view of literacy are theoretical…

This paper argues that current and impending changes in the media industries in Britain, France, and Belgium will stimulate a more positive relationship between these industries and undergraduate communication studies. Topics discussed include: (1) the attitudes of both the industry and academic researchers toward research and its relationship…

As follow-up to a five-year Council for Cultural Cooperation project on migrants, a seminar and roundtable discussion on the theory and practice of intercultural education in Europe is presented. Seminar participants include educators and administrators from Belgium, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden as well as a representative from the…