Instructional strategies make a difference in whether students are engaged in learning and are profiting from their time in class. High schools, technology centers and middle grades schools are encouraging teachers to adopt new teaching techniques and are providing opportunities for teachers to work together to improve their instructional skills…

This practitioner issue brief outlines successful strategies and recommendations for state-level policymakers, administrators, schools, and districts that are based on a 5-year evaluation study on the learning environment for ELLs in the state of California. This brief offers four critical building blocks that should be in place to effectively…

A four year panel study at an ethnically diverse commuter university examines the relationships among assessments of professor performance, GPA, academic program satisfaction, and perceptions of equal treatment of students of varying ethno-racial origins. Repeated analyses of variance indicate that although the first three of these variables do…

One-hundred-and-twenty secondary science teachers responded to a survey entitled "Teaching Science to Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings" to assess their knowledge and preparation in working with students with special needs in the science classroom. The authors focused on the following questions (1) How can a secondary science…

The continuing trend toward increasing diversity of curriculum offered within secondary agricultural education programs is driving a change in pre-service and in-service technical training for agriculture teachers. This study looks at agriculture teachers' perceived importance of, and competence in, traditional technical competencies such as…

This issue of the Center's "Systems Newsletter" will be the last one published under the aegis of Dr. JoyceVanTassel-Baska, the Center's founder and current Executive Director. As of this August Dr. VanTassel-Baska will officially retire from the College of William and Mary and the Center. She will still be an integral part of the Center…

Scholars of decades past, current researchers, and various reform documents all deal, directly or indirectly, with the question of what constitutes good mathematics teaching. Often good teaching is situated in the context of broader educational goals, such as preparing literate citizenry. Researchers generally define good teaching implicitly with…

A mixed methodology approach was used to address the question: what are skills, knowledge and dispositions that co-teachers need to balance the seemingly competing mandates of NCLB and IDEIA in order to prepare teachers for the classrooms of today and tomorrow? Based on the results of two recent studies that focused on secondary co-teacher teams…

Hypothetical vignettes were used to examine the effects of teacher pedagogical skill (good vs. poor), interpersonal caring (caring vs. not), and classroom goal structure (performance vs. mastery) on high school students' judgments about the target of blame for cheating (teacher vs. student), the acceptability of cheating, and the likelihood of…

In this investigation I focused on a process of activities of a particular group of teachers and learners. Basic skills in mastering mathematical concepts were addressed. The focus was on concept formation in the geometry classroom. The methodology involved an educational case study as a form of inquiry to investigate spatial sense. Evidence was…

This paper discusses the findings of an evaluative and interpretive study into the potential of in-service education to improve science education in Swaziland. Short-term and long-term effects of an in-service intervention are evaluated in terms of changes in classroom processes. The teaching approach of participating teachers has been monitored…

This study examined the impact on high school students who taught elementary students MADD's Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM), an alcohol use prevention and vehicle safety program. High school students (N = 188) enrolled in a peer helping course completed surveys before and after teaching PY/PM, and a comparison group of peer helper students…

This article describes how Cheryl Lemon, a biology teacher at Gateway Regional High School, integrated technology into appropriate curricular contexts during her field experiences as a preservice teacher. She used Web-based simulations, a projection screen, an interactive white board, and Flash-based interactivity in conjunction with direct…

Teachers make the greatest impact on students--what they learn, how they learn it, and what they do with it. Decades of research clearly demonstrate that a quality teacher, more than any other factor, enables students to overcome obstacles to learning like poverty and can even erase the achievement gap. The problem is that many teachers lack the…

This case study explored the effectiveness of telementoring as a vehicle for preservice teachers to hone skills in the teaching of writing, to establish a mentoring relationship with urban high school students, and to help struggling writers improve writing skills necessary for student achievement. Inherent in this research was the goal to develop…