Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate child impacts following implementation of a comprehensive language curriculum, the Language-Focused Curriculum (LFC; Bunce, 1995), within their preschool classrooms. As part of this larger purpose, this study identified child-level predictors of expressive language outcomes for children…

As U.K. school exam results continue to rise, perennial accusations appear in the media of the "dumbing down" of the curriculum and of employers' complaints about school leavers' lack of basic literacy skills. In this context, Andrew Motion, the poet laureate, has raised questions about how to provide an inspiring English curriculum, the…

Sybil Wilson is a composite representation of an English teacher that typifies much of what most preservice English teachers have seen and experienced in U.S. classrooms. The authors' aim is to articulate textual frameworks often competing and unnamed in English curriculum (and evident in Sybil's classroom) and to argue for a particular reframing…

It has been argued that schools are trapped in a print-based past, while their students inhabit a nonprint-based age, and that this has accompanied a shift from traditional mass media to media driven by computer technology. This article draws on the work of Stuart Allan to examine some of the history of this shift in term of news and asks what…

The authors draw on some powerful practitioner research they have been associated with recently to envision ways in which a national curriculum might redress the inequities experienced by Australia's most disadvantaged young people.

Opinion surrounding Western Australia's provision of compulsory education via an outcomes-based education (OBE) paradigm is severely divided. At the centre of debate is an attempt by authorities to extend OBE into the final years of secondary schooling, Years 11 and 12. In this paper an examination is made of OBE as a curriculum paradigm.…

Different theories try to explain why some students are more successful than the others. Phenomenologists (Mc Combs, 1989) study self concepts of the students and find such students prone to achieve more. Attributional Theorists (Dweck, 1986; Weiner, 2005) focus on personal outcome such as effort or ability. Metacognitive theorists (Pressley,…

This dissertation is a study of factors that contribute to dropout from distance learning classes in the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS). It is divided into five chapters. Chapter One gives a history of distance learning through in KCTCS. It includes the background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the…

There has been growing enthusiasm for English learning in China in recent years. This development, along with the introduction of a new English curriculum in 2001, has brought a breakthrough in English language teaching (ELT) in China. In the new curriculum, the traditional emphasis on grammar and vocabulary is replaced by a focus on the…

When the author read the Australian Association for the Teaching of English (AATE) "Statements of Belief", he was surprised to see that heading the list was "We respect the enduring values and traditions of Australia's cultural heritage." It struck him as odd, that here was a statement very much of these Kemp/Nelson/Bishop…

Creativity is seen as important to society by the current Prime Minister and the Department for Education and Skills and is present in curriculum documents applying from birth to 16 years old but with various shades of meaning. Unfortunately, the term creativity is used in English education and the larger society without a clear definition. The…

Studies on the effect of cooperative learning have demonstrated its efficacy in improving the cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes of schooling. However, it remains unclear what forms of cooperation are especially effective in multilingual contexts. This research examines the connection between positive goal interdependence and positive resource…

The author describes a few strategies in teaching more than one grammatical system in secondary schools. (MR)

The California State University (CSU) requires entering freshmen to be proficient in English reading and writing, as demonstrated on proficiency measures. Currently, approximately 46 percent of incoming college freshmen need remediation in English reading and writing. To assist these students, CSU instituted an Early Assessment Program (EAP),…