Educational theorists frequently use the term "model" to denote a simplified picture of the reality of a theoretical approach or a school of thought. In branches of empirical science, including education, experimental data are often correlated with mathematical symbols, which makes it possible to interconnect these symbols in an exact way. Models…

Distance education can be examined in three ways. It can be analyzed from the standpoint of its teaching, administrative, and assessment systems. The three systems are interrelated, and examining each of them--first in isolation and then in conjunction with the other two--can provide a coherence that is useful in teaching and improving distance…

Intended as a resource for teachers of grades four and up who are eager to improve their students' thinking skills while teaching their regular curriculum, this booklet contains activities that can be used to teach a new concept or to review a previously taught skill. Following an introduction, the topics of the chapters of the resource guide and…

The use of the laserdisc in the classroom is described. Major advantages of the laserdisc are durability and large information storage capacity. Connecting the laserdisc with a microcomputer allows quick access to and interaction with the information it contains. Five uses of the system are further discussed: archival, demonstration, illustration…

The purpose of this study was to determine transfer of learning from an introductory to an advanced course in biology. All lecture sections in the advanced course at New York City Technical College were used for random sampling in the study. These lecture sections consisted of a mixture of students who were exposed to techniques of transfer of…

In this paper, which draws on a dissertation in process, one of the issues central to the role of content knowledge for teaching, "pedagogical content knowledge," is examined. This body of knowledge is an amalgam of pedagogy and content and makes teachers different from scholars in a field. General pedagogical knowledge is the teacher's knowledge…

Peer coaching has been identified as a methodology for increasing teacher effectiveness. This paper discusses the topic of peer coaching in three parts. First, a review of current literature on peer coaching defines the types of peer coaching and discusses their multiple benefits. The second section considers the factors influencing successful…

This booklet describes the four major components of the staff evaluation plan currently practiced at the Mitchell Wolfson New World Center Campus of Miami-Dade Community College. First, introductory material indicates that the essential elements of the plan include a concern for staff development, improvement, and accountability, as well as the…

This series of 34 one- to two-page essays provides brief descriptions of innovative approaches to various aspects of two-year college education. Included in the series are: "Debatable Learning," by Beti Thompson; "Mentors to the Rescue," by Cynthia A. Barnes; "How to Take Line Management Risks: Push Them Downward," by…

Implementation of global education in the classroom is possible only if the teachers themselves process a global content and are properly prepared to address the issue of globalness. In a discussion on traditional teacher education curriculum, it is noted that although virtually all teacher preparation programs include special methods courses at…

This study investigated the relationship between and among the results of three types of reading assessments in the first grade: a standardized reading test (the Stanford Achievement Tests); an informal reading inventory (the Classroom Reading Inventory); and teacher judgment of student rank in reading achievement. The study included 165 first…

This document describes the revision of the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) Program Evaluation Kit, including planning, development, and/or revisions of specific components. The kit is a set of books, originally developed in 1978, and designed to provide step-by-step procedural guides to help people conduct evaluations of educational…

The theoretical foundations of thinking skills models differ. One category of thinking skills programs uses the cognitive process approach on the premise that thinking abilities depend upon certain fundamental processes. Thinking skills programs that present a strategic approach to thinking are called heuristics-oriented programs, and focus on an…

A study was conducted to determine the ability of kindergarten children to match manuscript, cursive, italic, and D'Nealian handwritten letters to typeset letters, their ability to read letters in these five styles, and the relationship of reading and matching abilities. Children were asked to match typeset distractors to lower case letters…

Despite the impact of communicative approaches to language teaching methodology, most of the world's second language learners continue to learn from materials in which organization and presentation are grammatically based. Language testing research has contributed greatly to understanding the role of grammar in language proficiency. This research…