Recent reviews of the literature on distance learning have reached two general conclusions. First, students are about as satisfied with the quality of their education in distance-learning (DL) classes as they are in traditional or face-to-face (FTF) classes. Second, students perform about as well in DL classes as they do in FTF classes. We examine…

Teachers have been under pressure in the United Kingdom to devise pedagogic strategies to raise boys' achievement. This article reviews the emergence of the concept of a "setting" from within the sociocultural literature as the basis for considering the interaction between gender and learning. The second section reports findings from an…

Educational literature is overflowing with testimonials, data, and research confirming that collaborative group work, at its best, produces better results (Baer 2003; Johnson and Johnson 1994; McKeachie 2002). Many claim that students enjoy group work and that it leads to both increased learning and enhanced social skills. If this is commonly…

The author had been teaching English at Pierce Community College in Tacoma, Washington, since 1973 when, in the early 1980s, their department was told that current laws demanded their hiring an American Indian to fill a full-time position that had opened. The search committee, she felt, made an excellent decision when they selected Dr. James…

A modified multiple baseline across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effects of an interdependent group contingency program with randomly selected contingency components on the academic performance of an intact middle-school class serving five male students with serious emotional disturbance (SED). During the initial intervention phase,…

As words fly onto the computer screen, revolve, and dissolve, image, sound, and movement enter school classrooms in "new" and significant ways, ways that reconfigure the relationship of image and word. In this paper I discuss these "new" modal configurations and explore how they impact on students' text production and reading…

The tendency to generalize from specific experiences leading to new, more abstract concepts is a natural aspect of human thought. Generalizations are the end result of an inductive process that begins with the identification of similarities in seemingly disparate situations. It is the existence of such generalizations that makes it possible for us…

In the past, autobiographical writing was often used in teacher education courses simply as a way to identify the concerns of pre-service teachers, to bring those concerns forward so that they might better be addressed. Increasingly, teacher educators have recognized the importance of the individual's lived experience as relevant to the…

Teachers often view research as complex efforts that involve large data sets, controlled variables, and sophisticated analytic methods well beyond the understanding of those not trained in these methods. This view of research precludes teachers from considering themselves researchers. As numerous theorists have pointed out, while it appears…

Parents must be the first teachers and the best English teachers for children in their whole life. Now in Korea, some brave and challenging mothers are innovating new English approaches in their homes with their young kids. They have goals that their children come to possess the ability to use the English language as a vehicle to think and solve…

This paper considers some of the benefits of reading and writing e-literature, including its influences on prints texts, challenges to the imagination, and attention to metafictive devices and processes. The less cohesive, more fragmented quality of e-literature creates a subjunctive space for creation where writers can consider interesting…

Despite good intentions and extensive planning by teacher education and/or induction programs, novice teachers frequently cite the first years as unsupported and lonely. Feelings of isolation and being overwhelmed help contribute to the large numbers of teachers leaving the profession. In fact, nearly 50 percent of all teachers will quit within…

As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. Licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience. This course, Education 590 Culminating…

This study investigated home school graduates' potential for success in college by comparing their performance with that of students who had graduated from conventional public and private schools. The basis for comparison was student aptitude for college English as measured by the American College Testing (ACT) English sub-score and the ACT…

This magazine contains literary pieces/writings by 31 new writers in the southeastern United States. The works span a broad range of topics: remembering times past, reflections on special people, social concerns, family life, and work. Authors' comments or autobiographical notes and photographs accompany the pieces. Titles include the following:…