A survey assessed the accomplishments of the first required freshman interdisciplinary studies course at a small, private liberal arts college. In the fall of 1988, 12 instructors from 7 disciplines began teaching the course which included the teaching and application of reading, writing, and study skills. At the end of the 1988-89 academic year,…

A study investigated the attitudes of secondary school content area teachers toward (1) reading disabled students, (2) teaching reading in the content areas, and (3) attending inservice workshops relating to the topic. Forty-five teachers completed a 62-item questionnaire. The results showed that approximately 50% of the teachers had acquired some…

This study investigated the influence of content area responsibility, amount of teaching experience, instructional level, and training in the teaching of reading on teachers' attitudes and perceptions of competency in content area reading instruction, and attempted to determine whether a relationship existed between these attitudes and perceptions…

Suggests that the most feasible way of achieving rapport between secondary school content area teachers and reading specialists is through in-service programs that utilize total school in-service, departmental in-service, individual in-service, total school and departmental in-service, or a combination of these approaches. (FL)

Reports on a study of the attitudes of 50 middle and high school content area teachers with respect to evaluation and to teaching strategies and reading skills in the areas of decoding, comprehension, reference and study skills, and vocabulary. (TJ)

Confronts the issue of K-12 public school teachers' existing knowledge of, use of, and desire to learn content-reading strategies. Finds that fewer than one-half of the teachers surveyed were familiar with popularly identified strategies, and many who were familiar with these strategies did not use them. (SC)

In this personal essay, the author describes her development as a teacher over a quarter of a century. Specifically, she discusses how, from her originally negative attitude toward content reading strategies, she grew to embrace the concept in her science classes. Drawing on her experiences, she provides examples of how her teaching has changed…

Noting that many preservice teachers enter required courses believing that the course is something to endure or overcome for certification, a study examined whether a reading methods course would convince students to view teaching the reading process as a vital and necessary function of content area teachers. Six classes of students (three…

A study examined the factors that seemed to affect the way teachers adapted the critical components of content area reading innovations that were presented to them in a 3-year staff development project. In the first year of the project, 23 high school content area teachers were interviewed concerning their use, in content area reading instruction,…

Research has shown that secondary school teachers are generally unable to rank text passages accurately according to their reading difficulty. To determine if this was true of elementary and middle school personnel, 177 teachers, administrators, and supervisors attending a summer reading workshop were asked to rank order each of five 100-word…

Junior high school teachers (at three Pennsylvania schools--urban, suburban, and rural) who were voluntarily involved in a year-long inservice education program on content area reading instruction during 1976-77 were tested one year later after no intervention to see if significant gains made during the workshop year were retained. Posttest scores…

Provides results of a survey of how 90 elementary and secondary teachers used their content area and English textbooks. Reports that both elementary and secondary teachers use textbooks primarily to supplement instruction, but that secondary content area teachers could benefit from inservice education to assist in flexible use of textbooks. (SKC)

Argues that instructional decisions may be affected by the conflict produced when teachers' curricular perceptions do not match those that underlie a recommended teaching strategy and presents an ideological framework for comparing secondary reading goals and their related curricula. (FL)

Using evidence drawn from classroom observations of grades eight and 11, the article addresses the question: If content area teachers are not implementing the methods that reading educators suggest, what are the characteristics of existing instruction? (HOD)