This case study involved a deep reading intervention, creating a way to bridge theories of contemplative practice and mindfulness into classroom practice. Participants were graduate students enrolled in Reading Literacy and Content Methods, a capstone course for teacher licensure before their practicums. The students were led through a deep…

The Xreading website provides students with access to an extensive virtual library of graded readers. Teachers can then use it to keep track of which titles the students access, the total number of words they read, their reading speed, and also whether they have completed post-reading quizzes. However, an overreliance on monitoring student…

Assessing Opportunities to Learn (OTL) implies the measurement of different aspects of the curricular implementation in the classrooms, such as the contents that the teacher selects for the course and the time of exposure and the frequency of the tasks proposed. Based on recent studies that demonstrate the influence of this curricular dimension on…

This paper explores the potential for book-gifting programs to initiate cooperative learning between a dynamic whole group composed of children, parents and teachers. It uses the results from a series of book-gifting program evaluations (three Randomized Controlled Trials with N=1694 participants in total) and investigates whether the pattern of…

This qualitative and descriptive study examines the evolution of secondary preservice teachers' views on teaching and learning mathematics and science in historical and cultural contexts. Data were collected throughout participants' enrollment in a semester-long course entitled, Perspectives on Science and Mathematics, which is taken in…

Although we now have a growing number of general suggestions for improving instruction in principal preparation programs as well as studies on particular instructional models, there is a dearth of studies that compare the broad range of traditional and innovative instructional strategies available to professors of educational leadership. Moreover,…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between student beliefs regarding instructor-imposed activities to encourage student use of course textbooks and Life Orientation (i.e., dispositional optimism or pessimism). A convenience cluster sample (n = 105) was obtained from students taking summer classes at a regional state…

The first reading assignment one educator gives his first-year composition students helps answer their questions about what college work will be like. For this reason, he gives them Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" to read, a book which shows that the late 20th century is undergoing a vast epistemological shift, moving from…

In a freshman English class that aims at improving the students' general writing ability, reading activities and materials should be used only to the extent that they directly contribute to writing development. The following criteria can be used to select and evaluate reading materials for a writing class: (1) stimulating quality; (2) relevance;…

To help improve students' ability to interpret and write about literature, teachers should get rid of old habits. The old habits include giving quizzes to make sure students read assignments, and assigning readings just because particular works are part the literary canon. Once a teacher assigns a novel and gives a quiz, everything the teacher and…

Reading can and should be a more widely used foreign language skill, and visual literacy in a foreign language goes beyond comprehension of basal reading materials. Authentic, real-life reading need not wait for foreign language mastery, but can begin at an early level if materials geared to the students' prior knowledge and interest are chosen.…

To help achieve success, students must construct purposes for reading so that they can gain the appropriate kind of information while reading. After a student has set a purpose for reading, she/he may preview the material to be read. The next step is to read the material at an appropriate speed considering the purpose for reading and the nature of…

Young children learn many important things about language from the television and radio ads they encounter that can help them learn to read and write. They learn that print carries messages that are personally important to them, that whatever can be said can also be written, what some forms of written language look like, and that language use can…

This paper describes the composition of one particular kind of study guide called a pattern guide that can be used by content area teachers to aid their students in reading and understanding their textbooks. The purpose of the guide is stated as highlighting the reading and thinking skills to be used as well as the most important concepts to be…

It is generally assumed that students possess the ability to apply abstract reasoning to content material in a variety of disciplines when they enter college. Yet many college students have not reached the level of formal operations defined by Jean Piaget; thus they experience difficulty in coping with their work. A solution to this dilemma can be…