Education Commons^™

The Good Language Class: Teacher Perceptions, Rosemary Senior

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is a qualitative, descriptive study of group processes in classes of adult language learners, viewed from the perspective of practising teachers. The study has an internal narrative which takes the reader through the process of the research, from the initial question raised by a casual classroom conversation to the discussion chapter which questions a number of assumptions underlying current English language teaching practices within western educational contexts. The study falls into two distinct phases. The first phase uses the constant comparative method of data collection and analysis to integrate the perceptions of 28 experienced language teachers into the following …

Learner Centeredness As A Predictor Of Teachers' Role Stress And Career Commitment, Kathryn Marie Krudwig

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Questions explored in this study were: (a) Is learner centeredness related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; (b) If so, can learner centeredness explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment; (c) Is the discrepancy between teacher and student perceptions of teacher practices related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; and (d) if so, can this discrepancy explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment? The current need to provide every child with qualified and committed teachers in the face of a growing, national teacher shortage supported the significance of the research. The study was based …

Learning Outside The Box: Making Connections Between Co-Curricular Activities And The Curriculum, Myra S. Wilhite, Elizabeth A. Banset

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Students have much to gain from the integration of co-curricular activities into the curriculum. In out-of-class experiences, students tend to take greater responsibility for their own learning; they learn from one another as well as their instructors. In addition, cocurricular activities promote personal growth, physical and mental health, academic achievement, social and cultural awareness, and help students formulate short- and long-range goals.

Successful co-curricular programs encourage the development of friendships, a sense of belonging, enhanced intellectual awareness, improved academic performance, an appreciation of different perspectives, and close interaction with faculty and staff members who really care about students.

Critical Thinking Requires Critical Questioning, Karen J. Thoms

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Just what is a critical thinker? According to Richard Paul (1990), a critical thinker is someone who is able to think well and fair mindedly about his or her own beliefs and viewpoints as well as those which are diametrically opposed. The critical thinker does not just think about these beliefs and viewpoints, but explores and appreciates their adequacy, cohesion, and reasonableness. Attitudes and passions are included. To become a critical thinker is not to be the same person you are now, but only with better abilities; it is to become a different person (page iii).

Critical thinking is expected …

Are We Going To Cyberspace, Or Is This Just Another Trip To Abilene?, William K. Jackson

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

The costs of technology are high, and the options for its use are varied. In order to avoid arriving at a technological Abilene, we must continually ask and answer the question "what ought we do with technology?" and not "what can we do with technology?" Purpose must lead deployment. Otherwise, we risk expending great efforts and scarce resources to produce the educational equivalent of "Thank you for calling, press 1 if you. . ."

After The Rain, Genan Anderson

Genan Anderson

Descriptive examples of building preschool curriculum on the children's environment by exploring children's questions and guiding their discovery of ways to find answers to them.

Digital Professional Portfolios For Change, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, M Morriss

Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young

Whether you are an administrator or a teacher, this book provides you with the conceptual framework and tools needed to effectively utilise the potential of digital portfolios. As CD-ROM and internet technology become more accessible, teachers are in a unique position to use multimedia to describe their experiences and reflect on their growth and professional development. This book shows how to construct a portfolio in the traditional sense and demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of digital interactivity

By Whom And How Is Service-Learning Implemented In Middle-Level Schools Involved In Documenting School Improvement: A Quantitative Study Of Opportunity-To-Learn Conditions And Practices, Anne Seitsinger

Anne M. Seitsinger

National educational standards call for an increased focus on meaningful teaching and learning that is developmentally appropriate and helps all students reach levels of proficiency not only in basic skills but in higher order thinking skills and real-world application of skills. Among the recommendations for including real-world experiences in the community into students' education is service-learning. Service-learning uses community service experiences as an integral element of the teaching and learning process. The paucity of research and mixed findings on academic outcomes from K-12 service-learning led to an examination of the opportunity-to-learn conditions and practices in 271 middle-level schools in 16 …

The Essential Career Guide To Becoming A Middle And High School Teacher, Robert Maloy, Irving Seidman

Robert W. Maloy

The Essential Career Guide to Becoming a Middle and High School Teacher offers a step-by-step guide to preparation, certification, and employment as a teacher. It provides guidance about issues and choices facing prospective educators, including making the decision to teach, assessing the differences between middle schools and high schools, identifying an excellent teacher education program, understanding alternative pathways to certification, taking state-mandated teacher tests, succeeding as a student teacher, and finding a first job in the profession.

Beginning Teacher Standards: Impact On Second-Language Learners And Implications For Teacher Preparation, Ronald Solórzano, Daniel Solórzano

Ronald Solórzano

Discusses preservice and inservice beginning-teacher preparation, identifying areas of teaching that challenge the cultural deficit model by examining the role of teaching standards in addressing second-language learners' needs. Describes demographic changes within the classroom; reviews literature on effective teaching practices; and identifies a teaching-standards framework that could benefit beginning teachers of second-language learners.

Textual Realisations, Judith (Judie) Cross

Judith (Judie) L Cross

The images in children's texts are vessels in which meaning is codified. Images are codified by their creator and decoded by the reader/viewer. This coding varies depending on the format of the text, the audience and the relationship between text and its context. Video versions of children's stories, may initially appear similar to their printed counterparts, but their meanings are usually significantly different. The reading/ viewing experience of various realisations is, in fact, essentially different although this may not be immediately apparent to the child reader / viewer. -- The profiles of ten children's stories are described in order to …

The Teaching Fellows Program: Transformations In Identity, Pedagogy, And Academe, Richard H. Beyler, Monica Halka, Yves P. Labissiere, Lisbeth Lipari, Shawn C. Smallman, Julie M. Smith

Yves Labissiere

Institutional Context And The Development Of Critical Thinking: A Research Note, Linda Serra Hagedorn, Ernest T. Pascarella, Marcia Edison, John Braxton, Amaury Nora, Patrick T. Terenzini

Linda Serra Hagedorn

It has long been a central aim of American postsecondary education to foster students' critical thinking skills. There are various definitions of critical thinking, but there seems to be a consensus that a constituent set of cognitive skills involves some or all of the following: making correct inferences from data, identifying central issues or assumptions in an argument, deducing conclusions from information or data provided, interpreting whether [End Page 265] conclusions are warranted on the basis of data given, and evaluating the validity of an argument (Brabeck & Wood, 1990; Furedy & Furedy, 1985; McMillan, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). …