Investigates the Praxis II, the standardized teacher examination required for teacher certification in Georgia. Considers why African American teacher candidates were less successful than their white colleagues in passing this exit exam for teacher licensure. Concludes that assessment must account for the cultural realities that teacher candidates…

Latent growth models estimated developmental trajectories for adolescents' math and English self-perceptions (perceived talent, success expectancies), values (intrinsic, utility) and task perceptions (task difficulty, effort required). A longitudinal cohort-sequential study included 1,323 participants spanning Grades 7 to 11, with Occasion 1 mean…

The number of educational research studies involving pupils is increasing. Most studies are with pupils in a specific age group or concentrate on certain categories, such as special needs or the gifted and talented. However there have been few studies that involve pupils in the middle ability range of Key Stage 3. A research study into target…

The development of both reflective critical practice and innovative or creative approaches in English teaching have been key elements of the PGCE English training courses which have evolved over the last fifty years. However the deluge of documentation and initiatives continually pouring out from government agencies means that the professional…

The author reads five volumes of "College English" with attention to the extent to which authors account for issues of systemic difference in their writing--both in their representations of themselves as authors and in their representations of others--as one means to explore how (indeed whether) we have begun to transcend normativity in our…

The 5-14 Development Programme was a major reform encompassing the whole of the curriculum, assessment, national testing and reporting for students aged 5 to 14 years in Scotland. Between 1989 and 1993 national guidelines were developed for five curricular areas--English language, mathematics, environmental studies, expressive arts, and…

A series of studies conducted over an 8-year period by the National Research Center on Literature Teaching and Learning examined the ways people think when they read literature and the ways in which instruction could support those kinds of thinking. The research studies were based on both a constructivist and social/communicative tradition. Some…

As part of the school reform legislation of 1985, the Illinois State Board of Education established State Goals for Learning in six fundamental learning areas: language arts, mathematics, science, social science, fine arts, and physical development and health. The next step is to develop standards that will more clearly define the knowledge and…

A study developed criteria for judging state standards for the English language arts and reading and analyzed the 28 current standards documents. The criteria used for judging the standards relate to the purpose, audience, expectations, and assumptions of the standards documents; the organization of the standards; disciplinary coverage of the…

An evaluation of the fourth year of funding of the Career Awareness Program (Project CAP) by Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is presented. Project CAP provided instruction and support services to Chinese-speaking students (n=285), grades 5 through 9, at 2 intermediate schools in New York City, I.S. 73 in Queens and I.S. 131…

Creative writers have moved into the mainstream of English departments without understanding or reviewing their own history, and without reconceptualizing graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs. Such a history can be constructed from sources in three areas: institutional history, creative writing history, and rhetorical history. An…

A computer-based method of communicating syntactic knowledge to deaf students was designed, building on the visual orientation of deaf students and employing such American Sign Language techniques as visualization and directionality. The computer-based instructional treatments were presented as an educational game called the "Yes-No Game," with…

The theory and research resulting from the Writing Research Unit of the Schools Council Project in England has received widespread attention. In response to that attention, and with the opinion that the ideas "Writing across the Curriculum" and "Language across the Curriculum" developed in the Project are fuzzy slogans not…

This paper outlines five methods of research on sex bias in the classroom: one-time survey, one class/one treatment, two class/two treatment, one class/random assignment to treatment, and analysis of differentiated effect. It shows how each method could be used in attempting to measure the effect of a unit on Norma Klein's "Mom, the Wolfman and…

Examines the roots of the modern language arts curriculum in Canada. Claims it is based on nineteenth-century interdependence of studies in rhetoric, history of the English language, and literature. And asserts that this curriculum was designed to develop rhetorical and critical sophistication. (JK)