A 2-year study examined 3 children's learning experiences during the transition from kindergarten to first grade. Narrative accounts offer each child's perspective of life in each grade. Factors making the transition period easier included: visiting the first grade classroom, developing friendships, and family support. Negative factors included:…

This study aimed to investigate the experiences of mothers participating in MOCEP in Istanbul, through a qualitative research methodology. Overall effectiveness of the programme, its implementation and how the mothers benefited were the main concerns. The study was carried out with 20 mothers. Individual and focus interviews, participant…

A study examined how one sixth-grade teacher's theoretical beliefs about literacy and biliteracy were reflected in her instructional practices. The subject taught in an English-Spanish bilingual classroom in a public school located in a neighborhood of low- to middle-class families in a large, southwestern city. Data included field notes…

This second of three volumes of the 1992 Australian Council for Adult Literacy (ACAL) Conference Papers includes 12 papers from workshops, with a national focus. The "Welcome Speech" (Marie Perrson) is followed by "Literacy: An Ecological View" (David Sless) that shares a view of literacy as an interdependent component in a much larger…

This document illustrates holistic methods of evaluation, using an example of a new arts assessment mechanism developed by researchers involved in a five-year, large-scale assessment project called ARTS PROPEL. It is noted that these methods can be applied in many other content areas. ARTS PROPEL's philosophy and ministry guidelines are outlined…

Black underrepresentation in college enrollment and degree attainment can be seen as symptomatic of broad societal structures that have perpetuated inequality of socioeconomic and educational opportunity. This study examines a low-income black neighborhood to discover the extent to which blacks think of themselves as members of a subordinate caste…

An evaluation of a summer geography institute focusing on the use of thematic maps as tools for teaching across the curriculum was conducted during 1988. The annual institute is sponsored by the Tennessee Geographic Alliance in conjunction with the National Geographic Society. Thematic map making involves portrayal of visible patterns of…

This paper reports a six month intervention program in two ninth grade science classes and one eleventh grade human biology class. One teacher, one researcher, and 64 students participated in this action research to improve student learning and attitude through training in metacognition. The researcher was a participant observer, who introduced…

Researchers developed an instrument based on definitions of the variables of self-esteem, self-awareness, self-assertion, and acceptance of others to be used as outcome criteria to define and measure the outcomes of the Colorado Outward Bound School experience and to determine if the outcomes were caused by the program. The Outward Bound course…

In the past decade over 30,000 young college graduates from overseas have been employed in Japan by the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET). The stated goals of the program are to enhance foreign language education, to internationalize the country's viewpoint, and to promote mutual understanding between Japan and other countries. This study…

This book describes a new approach to teaching and learning cultural studies. Borrowing the idea of ethnography from anthropologists, it argues that language students can be taught methods for investigating the cultural and social patterns of interaction and the values and beliefs that account for them. Doing an ethnographic study while living…

This paper describes a project in which teacher education students were paired with practicing teachers for a semester-long e-mail conversation about classroom accommodations for students with learning disabilities (LD). The objective of the project was to enable undergraduate teacher education students planning to teach students with learning…

Describes Mozambican factory workers' acquisition, experience, and use of literacy during socialist construction. Links classroom expectations with sociopolitical relationships, ideological practice, and persistent definitions of class, race, and gender. Describes literacy education as shaped by tension between competing educational approaches…

Identifies problems that undergraduate searchers encountered in a search of the ERIC database on CD-ROM. Results of participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews are reported; a taxonomy of user problems is proposed that includes syntactic errors and semantic errors; and recommendations for menu selection systems, online help, and…

Asserts that the traditional methods of assessment often fail to address the wide range of group and individual skills and processes of listening, performing, and creating that are involved in learning music. Identifies the various ways that videotaping can augment traditional performance assessment. Includes a checklist of things to do before you…