This article presents the results of an action research study whose purpose was to apply alternatives for the development of grammatical competence in a group of third semester students of a Morphosyntax I course in an English language teaching undergraduate program at a Colombian public university. Given the fact that the teaching of grammar has…

The objective of this study was to develop an online report writing activity that was a constructive and cooperative learning process for a course on traditional general physics experiments. Wiki, a CMC authoring tool, was used to construct the writing platform. Fifty-eight undergraduate students (33 men and 25 women), working in randomly assigned…

Transforming Writing was a two-year action research project, sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which developed a model for the teaching and learning of writing that embedded formative assessment. This report evaluates to what extent the model of writing developed by the teachers during the research period impacted on children's writing…

Associations among children's writing and alphabetic skills were examined in a sample of 502 prekindergarten children who were at risk of academic failure because they came from poor families, spoke a language other than English at home, or had an identified disability. In this sample of children at risk of school failure, 16% had an identified…

The purpose of the study is to explore the Malaysian rural learners' self-efficacy in writing after assistance given by a teacher. The social cognitive theory and socio-cultural theory are used as the theoretical framework to pursue the discussion on the effects of teacher's assistance on learners' writing self-efficacy. A case study approach is…

This study of 32 public secondary school English teachers in the state of Alabama and of 477 students in these teachers' participating classes, employed teacher and student surveys and early- and late-in-course samples of timed narrative and persuasive writing. As predicted, NWP teachers wrote more extensively than comparison teachers, and the…

This article describes a model of literacy development as reflected in students' spelling. The model, based on research that identified five stages of word knowledge, explains the development of this knowledge in readers and writers, and provides a framework for elementary-grade instruction that is intended to: (1) address grade-level expectations…

This study investigated effects of background music on writing performance of nine 6th grade students with learning disabilities at one suburban public elementary school in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. A single-subject A-B-A design was utilized, and results from graded writing prompts with and without background music over 21…

A teacher's belief in what he or she can do is often a predictor for how well students may do in their classroom. Working together in a collaborative setting while looking at student work, determining next steps, and setting goals for student achievement can provide the impetus for teachers to change practices, implement different strategies and…

There were 18,141 young people aged eight to 17 who participated in this online survey in November and December 2010. While the survey focuses on young people's attitudes towards reading, writing and communication skills as well as technology use, this report centers exclusively on the writing aspect of the survey. More specifically, it explores…

This dissertation consists of three chapters that examine the effects of school and students improvement interventions. The first chapter investigates whether, for whom, and under which conditions high school mathematics and science course graduation requirements (CGRs) affect student achievement and educational attainment. Drawing on data from…

The purpose of this technical assistance paper is to provide a description of the procedures used to determine school grades for the 2014 school year. Florida's current school accountability system originated with state legislation passed in 1999 (the "A+ Plan") and has been revised periodically to reflect increased standards and…

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program was developed to increase the number of secondary students who participate in rigorous academic courses, to accelerate student learning, and to improve student performance. The AVID program in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) targets students who (1) are in the academic…

Carried out during a semester-long EFL (English as a foreign language) drama class, this research aimed to scrutinize the effects of digital concept mapping via LMS on English majors' (N = 38) PowerPoint (PPT) slide writing skills in Taiwan. Students were instructed to follow the concept mapping agenda via university learning management system…

This study examined the relationship between the percentage of highly qualified teachers and standardized measures of student proficiency in the core academic subjects of mathematics, reading, science, social studies, and writing. Signed into law in January of 2002 by President George W. Bush, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act requires teachers…