Frequency and quality of cooperative learning activities in fourth through sixth grade were correlated with measures of students' attitudes toward school, perceptions of classroom climate, intrinsic motivation, and performance on a reading comprehension and standardized achievement test. Found that effects of cooperative learning depended on the…

Collectivism, stressing family members' interdependence, is common to Latino cultures. In contrast, schools foster independence and individual achievement. To help teachers understand assumptions underlying these different values, the authors developed the "Bridging Cultures Project" as a research-based professional-development program.…

In-depth interviews with 10 working-class lesbians, aged 16-22, examined how they envisioned their lives, their experiences related to sexual orientation growing up and in school, meanings and consequences of being poor and working class, and additional difficulties for minority-group lesbians. Most interviewees had goals of partaking in the…

Describes the Museum Research Apprenticeship Program (MRAP) for high school students at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Participating students learn scientific research methods and have a unique opportunity to work with scientists in the museum and in the field. Offers tips to teachers for designing apprenticeship programs locally with…

This study examined the effect of period of work placement on students' perceptions of their own attitudes toward learning. An edited Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIS) produced data consistent with findings reported by other researchers. Work experience did not affect students' perceptions of their approaches to learning.…

Graduate education is preparation for research, scholarship, jobs and careers (faculty, industrial, other forms of work), and for life, and change is occurring in all these areas. Several qualitatively different approaches are being suggested to improve graduate students' education while adapting to change; all take time and increase the workload…

Examines educational experiences of a student teacher who joined a study of how preservice teachers with little classroom experience make sense out of university coursework. The paper presents the student's personal history, her conclusions about what constitutes good teaching prior to enrolling, and resulting conflicts between research-based and…

Reports on the service learning program developed by Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) and The Peabody School in Virginia to expose children to philosophy. Linked by service learning, students from PVCC and Peabody gather for discussions about democracy, compassion, and responsibility and participate in community service activities with…

Implementing best practices like cooperative learning, using concrete manipulatives, problem solving, technology, active learning, multi-age grouping, and team teaching have shown benefits for students when learning mathematics concepts within the curriculum (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 1998; NCTM, 2000). What started as a professional development…

Research into the uses of digital literacy in the classroom is still in its infancy. Despite the proliferation of theoretical literature on "new literacies", "multiliteracies", and "technoliteracies" and their impact on education there are fewer studies based on a systematic analysis of the new literacy practices that…

The field trialling of inventory scales reflecting variation in students' mathematics study and learning processes is described. These scales predict learning outcomes (final marks), but with differentiated patterns of relationship to those outcomes. In combination, the scales also detect cohorts of students at risk of study failure. The work…

This paper reports the redevelopment and subsequent evaluation of a unit in dialectology within a foreign language curriculum (German). In doing so it is a case study which serves to offer insight into the student experience of studying linguistics within a foreign language curriculum, the potential of online/electronic pedagogies for the teaching…

Traditionally, students with disabilities have been denied a voice in where or how they should receive their education. Much of the literature about education for adolescents focused on both non-disabled students' and teachers' perceptions of working with students with disabilities. Although there is limited research that examines the perceptions…

This article presents a study that examined the life experiences of ten disabled students enrolled in secondary school in a rural context in South Africa. The methodology used to understand their life experiences of schooling is the narrative. The student's authentic personal stories were used to explore their experiences. Through stories of the…

Since 1995, the author has been the university music educator responsible to a professional development partnership. Over an 8-year span, she has collected narratives of experience from approximately 100 pre-service music teachers, following, to some extent, the research model of Connelly and Clandinin. In developing their notion of "personal…