The most common problem and characteristic associated with secondary education in the small and rural communities is its limitations--low financial resources, inadequate plant and equipment, small enrollments, restricted curriculum offerings, and small and overworked staffs. The purpose of this report is to show that these limitations need not…

Describes a graduate preservice education course on diversity that used online e-mail discussions to facilitate learning. The activity successfully involved all students in the online discussions, so less-verbal students were able to voice their opinions. It cut tensions when discussing controversial issues and changed student/teacher roles. (SM)

Overcoming obstacles to teacher research about their own educational practices requires the formation of intellectual communities of teacher-researchers or networks of teachers. An analytic framework is presented for interpreting and evaluating the work of such groups according to how they use time, talk, construct texts, and interpret teaching…

Compares two groups of high school social studies teachers to determine how their attitudes and beliefs about instruction inform their practice in promoting higher order thinking among students. Measures teacher performance across 10 dimensions of classroom thoughtfulness based on Fred Newmann's work. Finds an important link between teachers'…

Over 100 interviews with teachers and administrators provide the base for this analysis of teacher empowerment in several highly decentralized school districts. Examined are (1) how teachers respond to opportunities for influence; (2) how such opportunities affect teaching; and (3) how opportunities affect teachers' work lives and sense of…

How one sample of teachers who were uncommonly successful with at-risk students achieved their results was studied. Six minority (African American and Asian American) and six nonminority successful teachers in a large urban school district were interviewed about their practices. Implications of the variety of strategies used are discussed. (SLD)

This study examines the difficulties biology teachers face when teaching cell division in the secondary schools of the central part of the Erzurum province in Turkey. During this research, a questionnaire was distributed to a total of 36 secondary school biology teachers. Findings of the study indicate biology teachers perceive cell division as…

This qualitative study explores the techniques, materials and processes of a Black teacher and a White teacher who introduced issues of race and racism in their team-taught high school class. The teachers explicitly put the issues of race and racism on the table, asked questions that challenged students to think about the topics, and used…

In this theoretical dissertation my aim is to research the academic literature in the field of second language acquisition (SLA), compare it to the life experiences of past and/or present students, colleagues, children and myself to reflect and summarize my learning in the form of a conceptual framework that I have named, "Framework for…

This paper describes a 2-year investigation of pre-service teachers in mathematics. Of particular interest is the degree to which the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) "Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" (1988), the NCTM "Professional Standards for Teaching Mathematics" (1991), and…

An action research project underway at Marist Sisters' College (a secondary school) in Woolwich (New South Wales, Australia) is the first phase in the evolution of an across-the-school commitment to Cooperative Program Planning and Teaching (CPPT). Project goals include establishing an infrastructure to develop a dynamic methodology for CPPT in…

The guide, translated from Bulgarian, is designed for foreign language teachers using the suggestopedic method to teach adults or children. The text is divided into two parts. The first discusses suggestopedic language courses for adults, beginning with application and enrollment and including testing, instructions to the student, detailed…

How best to introduce computer mediated communication (CMC) technology to kindergarten through grade 12 educators was studied in Maine. Faculty from the University of Southern Maine (Portland) offered a 1-week institute in global computing as part of a 3-credit graduate education course. Participants had the entire semester to develop and…

This paper describes and evaluates a 2-year collaborative project between two rural high schools and a teacher education college in Montana. An introduction covers rural teaching issues, rural school advantages and disadvantages, the demographics of the participating schools, rural collaborative efforts, and the microteaching experience. High…

This paper presents the findings of a literature review undertaken to identify behaviors and practices demonstrated by successful urban teachers in their preparation for teaching and interacting with students. The literature search focused on competencies for urban teaching and on urban education. The search yielded two broad areas of competence:…