Value-added (VA) measures are currently the predominant approach used to compare the effectiveness of schools. Recent educational effectiveness research, however, has developed alternative approaches including the regression discontinuity (RD) design, which also allows estimation of absolute school effects. Initial research suggests RD is a viable…

Factors leading to successful professional learning communities (PLCs) have been widely discussed in the West, but little is known about how/whether teachers' beliefs contribute to PLCs in the Chinese context. This qualitative case study aimed to investigate teachers' beliefs about teacher learning in PLCs and their influence on collegial learning…

This study investigated the effect of Blackboard-based instruction on pre-service teachers' achievement in the teaching methods course at The Faculty of Education for Girls, in Bisha, KSA. Forty seventh-level English Department students were randomly assigned into either the experimental group (N = 20) or the control group (N = 20). While studying…

This ethnographic study of two classrooms examines to what extent, if at all, the introduction of multimodal and Digital Video composing as a literacy tool early in two teachers' careers had a transformative effect on their teaching and their students' learning. During long term participant observation in the classes of two English…

Heuristics are deeply-held, tacit knowledge structures connected to our feelings. A heuristic study explores a phenomenon crucial to the researcher's self-discovery (Moustakas, 1990). Like me, many undergraduate composition instructors feel both fear and hope at the crossroads of composition and technology. Technology and composition shape one…

Despite many ELT experts' opinions that while teaching a foreign language one should not use the mother tongue in the classroom, new researches show that sparing use of the mother tongue can be effective for the L2 learners. It is true that the 6- year compulsory English education of the school graduates of Saudi Arabia is not quite up to the…

Contrasts scholarship in technical communication with that in literary studies. (HOD)

Perceived influences of biology and English department heads were investigated using a discriminant analysis test of Biglan's model. Attention was directed to the influence of discipline versus the structural variables of department size, type of institution, and highest degree awarded. Questionnaires completed by 586 heads of biology and English…

Discriminant functional analysis was used to compare structural variables of department size, institution type, and highest degree awarded with academic discipline to determine which accounts for more variance in biology and English department chairpersons' responses to questions concerning their influence. Generally, structural variables…

Compares the structure of the headship of an English department with that of a chair, and then discusses the implementation of a chair.

Compares British and American higher educational systems and describes the benefits of a foreign exchange professorship program. (AEA)

Explores contextual differences between writing courses in two-year colleges and courses in four-year colleges and universities. Attempts to promote understanding of two-year college contexts in order to foster improved dialogue among teachers at all types of institutions. (MS)

Summarizes findings for English studies from the latest MLA survey of jobs held by recent graduates of modern language doctoral programs. Compares findings with results of earlier surveys. Notes that the percentage of new doctorate recipients obtaining tenure-track positions in 1993-94 is lower than it was in the 1991-92 and 1986-87 surveys. (RS)

Understanding the absence of composition in western Canada is predicated upon understanding the presence of composition in the United States, the only country in the world with a highly visible tradition of composition. This absence in western Canada, between 1900 and 1950, is largely a matter of appearance--composition in both countries was an…

To determine the adequacy of undergraduate teacher preparation in composition, questionnaires were distributed to a representative sample of Florida's English teachers, and a survey was made of the major teacher-training universities in Florida. Teachers were asked to indicate courses in language and composition that were included in their…