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Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Education

Squeezed, Stretched, And Stuck: Teachers Defending Play-Based Learning In No-Nonsense Times, Karen Wohlwend Mar 2009

Squeezed, Stretched, And Stuck: Teachers Defending Play-Based Learning In No-Nonsense Times, Karen Wohlwend

Occasional Paper Series

Describes how playful and inquiry-based engagements in kindergarten and first grade classrooms eventually gave way to the demands of district-mandated teacher evaluation plans that called for targeted reading strategies, seatwork, and instruction using basal reading materials. Wohlend describes the resulting impingement on children's emotional lives and the professional authority of teachers in these midwestern classrooms.


In Defense Of Playfulness, Peter J. Nelsen Mar 2009

In Defense Of Playfulness, Peter J. Nelsen

Occasional Paper Series

Nelsen argues that the loss of play has unwittingly provoked a loss of critical thinking and civic engagement.


Introduction: Classroom Life In The Age Of Accountability, Gail M. Boldt, Paula M. Salvio, Peter Taubman Mar 2009

Introduction: Classroom Life In The Age Of Accountability, Gail M. Boldt, Paula M. Salvio, Peter Taubman

Occasional Paper Series

"For this Occasional Paper, we invited teachers to respond to the ways in which proliferation of standards and testing combined with their own loss of professional control is altering the landscape of American education....Our goal is to raise questions about whether and how educators are balancing the demands of high stakes testing, scripted curricula, and a focus on performance outcomes with the emotional complexity of classroom life."--The editors


Confounded And Compounded By Language: English Language Learners And High Stakes Testing, Elizabeth Park Mar 2009

Confounded And Compounded By Language: English Language Learners And High Stakes Testing, Elizabeth Park

Occasional Paper Series

As her students prepare to take their tests to exhibit English proficiency, the atmosphere, writes Park, "becomes military at best, prison-like at worst. Regulations are distributed. Teachers are warned that state examiners may appear unannounced to look for infractions of the myriad rules..." Scare tactics are used to try to assure that the testing activity remains uncontaminated by human desire, fear, or simple boredom.