This article explores the development of utilizing music as a Personal Practical Theory (PPT) in the teaching of English and history. Specifically, the authors explore the nature of PPT's, the benefits of utilizing music, and the process through which teachers begin using a new approach in their pedagogy. Unique contributions are the application…

The Teacher Effectiveness Enhancement Programme (TEEP) is a CPD programme that aims to improve teachers' classroom practice. TEEP training is offered as a whole-school approach by the Schools, Students and Teachers Network (SSAT). All staff in a school received three days of training over a period of two terms. A smaller cohort of teachers, chosen…

A study was conducted to determine the extent to which high school and college/university Advanced Placement English Language and Composition readers value and implement the curricular requirements of Advanced Placement English Language and Composition. The participants were 158 readers of the 2010 Advanced Placement English Language and…

The 19 individuals who gathered at Elmhurst College in the summer of 2009 to work on moving social justice theory into policy in English education had a singular goal--to codify a working framework for social justice in English education that could disrupt inequitable educational practices and empower all students to reach their potential…

Having previously been employed to investigate science and English classrooms and listening in the music classroom, theories of multimodality would appear to have much to contribute to an examination of group composing using Information and Communications Technology (ICT), owing to the multimodal nature of music software and group discourse. This…

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which the mission of preparing teachers to teach for social justice is operationalized within the methods courses in teacher preparation programs that assert a social justice mission. A qualitative content analysis was conducted of course syllabi for English/Language Arts courses, using a…

This article reports on an ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council) doctoral study which investigated how teachers consulted pupils about teaching and learning in classrooms. Interest in consulting pupils has increased over the last decade; existing research suggests pupils have valuable perspectives on teaching and learning which teachers can…

In October 2010 Perry Beeches school, an 11-16 Local Authority controlled community comprehensive in Birmingham, was widely featured in the national media as the "most improved school in the UK"--Ever. Some of the ways in which this was achieved are explored. Whether the changes undergone by this school reflect a pattern that has become…

Multimodal texts involve the presence, absence, and co-occurrence of alphabetic text with visual, audio, tactile, gestural, and spatial representations. This article explores how teachers' evaluation of students' multimodal work can be understood in terms of cognition and culture. When teachers apply a paradigm of assessment rooted in print-based…

This article argues that theoretical understandings of multimodality have enormous potential for assessment purposes in secondary school contexts. Informed by the work of three researchers in three North American high schools, the article offers vignettes of the effective assessment of communicative competence in English classrooms that draws on…

This study identified historical continuities and discontinuities across a century of secondary research published in "English Journal" (1912-1966) and "Research in the Teaching of English" (1967-2011). It highlights considerable methodological continuity across six decades of "English Journal" and some shifts in research emphases that tended to…

This study investigated the impact of an Internet based program designed to improve basic writing skills on grammar and punctuation scores on an English Competency Test. Three groups in a small Midwestern university's freshmen composition class were tested: a control group (Test Group 1), which did not use the program; and two treatment groups:…

Prosody refers to features of speech such as intonation, volume and pace. In this paper, we examine teacher-student dialogue in an English lesson at a secondary school in England, using Conversation Analysis notation to mark features of prosody. We also make connections with Goffman's theoretical concept of footing. We show that, within an episode…

Recent policy developments in England have, to some extent, relaxed the hold of external, high-stakes assessment on teachers of students in the early years of secondary education. In such a context, there is the opportunity for teachers to reassert the importance of teacher assessment as the most reliable means of judging a student's abilities. A…

The "Condition of College & Career Readiness 2015" is the ACT annual report on the progress of US high school graduates relative to college readiness. This report provides a national snapshot of academic performance among African American students in the 2015 high school graduating class who took the ACT® test and addresses questions…