Results of a survey of social studies methods professors regarding educational practices are presented. Questions were asked regarding class size, program interrelationships (position of the course in relation to the sequence in education offerings), course content, teaching methods, instructional materials, and how the methods instructors viewed…

This study attempts to determine the relative power of six factors that might influence teacher decisions about the content of fourth-grade mathematics: district test, mandated textbooks, district instructional objectives, other teachers' opinions, the principal's opinions, and parents' opinions. (Author/GK)

Using data from the National Assessment of Economic Education Survey, investigates how goal agreement between student and teacher influenced students' attitudes and desire to study more economics. Likens students to consumers and suggests course content should reflect student preference. Method for statistical model is appended. (CH)

A study of the role of subject matter in shaping high school teachers' beliefs, curricular concerns, and instructional practices complements studies of the disciplines in higher education. Factors discussed include the "hard/soft" distinction between disciplines, curriculum sequencing, range of classroom techniques, breadth of course content, and…

A teacher describes her initiation into secondary school English literature instruction, adoption of the whole-language approach before it had a name, and development of a curriculum with limited resources and minimal guidance. The author finds many classrooms still struggling with conventional instruction, and argues that the whole-language…

Discusses results of a survey of LIS (library and information science) educators who specialized in reference services or online retrieval to understand how teachers have prepared students to deal with online and CD-ROM resources. Results are compared to those from earlier studies, and a copy of the survey is appended. (Author/LRW)

The revision of the University of Maryland Special Education Department 5-year undergraduate teacher preparation program is described. A recent program graduate's reflections on her first year of teaching illuminate key issues addressed in revising the program to focus on multicategorical special education teacher preparation across a more refined…

A study of 304 social work faculty examined faculty sensitivity and responses to critical classroom incidents related to race. African Americans, women, assistant professors, and faculty experienced in teaching diversity courses showed more sensitivity to racism than other ethnic groups, men, full professors, and faculty who had never taught…

The washback effect of tests on teaching has attracted considerable attention over recent years, but the critical question of how this translates into washback on learning remains under-explored. To address this issue, questionnaires relating to academic writing instruction were distributed to 108 learners from mainland China preparing for…

A two-part questionnaire was mailed early in 1990 to all graduate schools of library and information science accredited by the American Library Association to solicit their views on the impact of the changing information environment on the content of introductory courses in the field. The first part focused on the administrative aspects of the…

This study examined W. Doyle's notion of academic task as content representation in the college setting, examining the products students were asked to produce, the operations they were required to use in order to produce those products, the cognitive operations required and resources available, and the accountability system involved. Interviews…

Nine years after the 1973 oil embargo and the outpouring of educational materials and strategies developed in response to the energy crisis, the extent and content of energy education in the classroom were assessed. Seven thousand randomly selected teachers and principals were surveyed at the end of the 1981-82 school year (1000 each of elementary…

A full-scale case study of a college freshman writing course was conducted that made inferences about the course, its direction, and design and described its apparent influence on the students. The study, which is described in this report, addressed: (1) instructional influences, (2) student performances, (3) instructors' and students' perceptions…

Attacks on academic freedom are very prevelant on college campuses nationwide. Attacks are directed at academic freedom generally but the most specific and virulent is reserved for those educators--both Jewish and non-Jewish--in area studies, and notably, Middle Eastern studies whose ideas are considered anti-Israel, anti-Semitic or anti-American.…

There is a need for reading instruction at the college level because (1) no matter how much reading instruction a student has had, he or she can benefit from more; (2) it is not until college that some students realize how important reading is; and (3) many students make it to college who are still poor readers. A successful developmental reading…