Showing papers on "Primary education published in 1988"

Rousing Minds to Life: Teaching, Learning, and Schooling in Social Context

Abstract: Acknowledgments Introduction Part I. Teaching, Schooling, and Literacy: A Unified Theory of Education: 1. The redefinition of teaching and schooling 2. A theory of teaching as assisted performance 3. The means of assisting performance 4. The social organization of assisted performance 5. Language, literacy, and thought Part II. Practice: 6. A school organized for teaching: the Kamehameha Elementary Education Program 7. The activity setting of the instructional conversation: developing word and discourse meaning 8. The orchestration of activity settings: learning and social interaction in the whole group and independent centers 9. The interpsychological plane of teacher training 10. Assisting teacher performance through the ZPD: a case study 11. The intrapsychological plane of teacher training: the internalization of higher-order teaching skills 12. The schools in mind and society References Author index Subject index.

Lasting effects of elementary school.

Abstract: The causes of long-term continuity in the level of children's school performance are not completely understood. Some of the continuity undoubtedly stems from the persistence of cognitive status. But this article, which reports on a follow-up study of schoolchildren in Baltimore, shows that it can also be related to the child's early social environment. That is, the influences of parents and teachers on children in Grades 1-3 were linked to the children's reading and mathematics performance four to nine years later. The reasons for this persistence are explored, including the maintenance of higher achievement levels originally fostered by teachers and parents, the continuance of a pattern of social dependence, and the reliance of parents and teachers on the child's cumulative record.

Barriers to Environmental Education

Abstract: Personal interviews with elementary teachers were conducted to identify and determine the relative importance of barriers to environmental education (EE) in Palouse-region public schools. Results indicated that lack of time (both in the school day and for preparation) was the most important barrier. Other important logistical barriers were lack of instructional materials and lack of funding. Conceptual barriers included a nearly exclusive focus on science and an emphasis on the cognitive aspects of EE. Another barrier stemmed from teachers' misgivings about their own competence to teach EE. Although teachers generally had positive attitudes toward EE, most lacked the commitment to actually teach EE. Recommendations for reducing these barriers are presented, as are specific recommendations for future research.

Ed School: A Brief for Professional Education

Abstract: Although schools of law, medicine, and business are now highly respected, schools of education and the professionals they produce continue to be held in low regard. In "Ed School," Geraldine Joncich Clifford and James W. Guthrie attribute this phenomenon to issues of academic politics and gender bias as they trace the origins and development of the school of education in the United States. Drawing on case studies of leading schools of education, the authors offer a bold, controversial agenda for reform: ed schools must reorient themselves toward teachers and away from the quest for prestige in academe; they must also adhere to national professional standards, abandon the undergraduate education major, and reject the Ph.D. in education in favor of the Ed.D."

The effectiveness of special education a time series analysis of reading performance in regular and special education settings

Abstract: Much of the current research on special education effectiveness challenges the notion that delivery of these services to handicapped children significantly improves their academic performance in schools. It is argued here that such conclusions are premature since many of these studies are based upon tests with poor technical adequacy or flawed experimental designs. It is reasoned that a more efficacious approach to investigating issues of special education effectiveness might rely on time series analysis where researchers examine the response of handicapped children to varying educational interventions. This study presents such an approach where the impact of regular and special education on 11 mildly handicapped children is studied by analyzing their slope of improvement on weekly curriculum-based measures (CBM) reading scores. The data for these pupils suggest that special education is in fact a significant educational intervention, and that time series analysis of CBM data is a useful evaluation tool. ...

Enhancing Children’s Prosocial Behavior in the Classroom

Abstract: A program designed to enhance children’s prosocial development was conducted in three suburban elementary schools for 5 consecutive years, focusing primarily on a single cohort of children as it moved from kindergarten through fourth grade. Repeated observations were conducted each year to assess program implementation and student interpersonal behavior in classrooms in the three “program” schools and in three “comparison” schools. Analyses of these observational data revealed significantly higher scores in the program than the comparison classrooms on each of five indices of program-relevant activities and practices: Cooperative Activities, Developmental Discipline, Activities Promoting Social Understanding, Highlighting Prosocial Values, and Helping Activities. Further analyses indicated that students in program classrooms scored significantly higher on two indices of interpersonal behavior: Supportive and Friendly Behavior and Spontaneous Prosocial Behavior. Corroborative data from a second, 2-year coh...

Classroom Composition and the Design of Instruction.

Abstract: Studies of structural effects in education have usually attributed normative or comparative reference-group meaning to school composition. The results of such studies show that variation among students in schools accounts for only modest amounts of aspiration and achievement. This study of elementary school classrooms and instructional groups departs from the familiar formulations and shows how school systems successively transform the composition of schools, grades, and classes as part of a process of allocating and using resources. It shows how the difficulty of classes, an indication of composition, constrains the composition of instructional groups, the instruction applied to them, and the learning of individuals.

Nationally Normed Elementary Achievement Testing in America's Public Schools: How All 50 States Are Above the National Average

Abstract: Dr. Cannell asks how all 50 states can report being above average on nationally normed tests. Me reports that increased achievement is by no means the whole explanation for this finding. Whatever the full explanation of the phenomenon to which Dr. Cannell has brought widespread attention, he clearly presents a challenge to specialists in educational measurement both to better account for the phenomenon and to find better ways of explaining test results to the public.

Teachers, schools, and society

Abstract: Part 1 Teachers: becoming a teacher effective teaching a question and answer guide to the teaching profession student diversity. Part 2 Schools: what are schools for? life in schools what students are taught in schools controversy over who controls the curriculum. Part 3 Foundations: the history of American education school governance school law financing America's schools philosophy of education. Part 4 Issues and trends: the struggle for equal educational opportunity contemporary social problems and children at risk tomorrow's schools. Appendices: observing in schools and classrooms the praxis series of tests state certification offices a summary of selceted reports on educational reform.

Teaching Thinking Skills.

Abstract: Reasoning; *Cognitive Development; *Cognitive Processes; *Critical Thinking; Elementary Education; Heuristics; Instructional Innovation; *Learning Strategies; *Logical Thinking; Mathematics Instruction; Writing Instruction Mid Continent Regional Educational Laboratory CO

Mathematics learning in Japanese, Chinese, and American classrooms.

Abstract: It might at first glance seem misguided to study cultural differences in learning by focusing on schools. Indeed, the surface features of school mathematics are more similar than different when compared across cultures, and even classrooms in different cultures appear to resemble one another in many respects. Yet schooling is a cultural institution, and more detailed analysis reveals the subtle and pervasive effects of culture as it impinges on children's learning of school mathematics – in the curriculum, in the organization and functioning of the classroom, and in the beliefs and attitudes about learning mathematics that prevail among parents and teachers. In this chapter, we will present some of what we have learned about the classrooms in which children learn mathematics in Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. The decision to compare mathematics learning in Asian and American classrooms is, of course, not arbitrary. We have known for some time now that American secondary school students compare poorly on tests of mathematics achievement with students from many other countries, but especially with students from Japan (Husen, 1967; McKnight and others, 1987; Travers and others, 1985). More recently, Asian-American differences in achievement have been found to exist as early as kindergarten and to be dramatic by the time children reach fifth grade. Stevenson, Lee, and Stigler (1986), for example, studied children from representative samples of fifth-grade classrooms in Sendai, Japan; Taipei, Taiwan; and Minneapolis, USA.

Primary Understanding: Education in Early Childhood

Abstract: Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1 Some Educational Implications of Children's Fantasy. 2 The Domestication of the sauvage mind 3 The Story Form and the Organization of Meaning. 4 Some Further Characteristics of Mythic Understanding. 5 Cultural Recapitulation: Some Comments on Theory 6 A Curriculum for Primary Education 7 A Framework for Primary Teaching. Conclusion. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

The Effect of Music Contest Format on Self-Concept, Motivation, Achievement, and Attitude of Elementary Band Students

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of two music contest formats on the music achievement, self-concept, achievement motivation, performance achievement, and attitude of elementary ...

Forms of Writing and Rereading from Writing: A Preliminary Report. Technical Report No. 437.

Abstract: In order to describe the developmental patterns of writing and rereading from writing of kindergarten children across group and individual contexts, a study asked 123 kindergarten children in Palatine, Illinois, to write and reread stories of their own composition over a school year. Children were asked to write in group classroom conditions at monthly intervals and to write in individual interviews once in the fall, winter, and spring. In the first session, five common forms of writing (scribble, drawing, non-phonetic letterstrings, phonetic or invented spelling, and conventional orthography) were elicited and modelled. In this session and all subsequent sessions, children were encouraged to "write your own way." Sessions were audiotaped; notes about the order of composition and non-verbal behaviors were recorded by the examiner; and writing samples were collected. Scoring was done both on the spot and also rechecked at leisure by two researchers. Primary forms of writing in the fall were scribble, drawing, and letter strings. The primary form of rereading was the "written monologue," in which both wording and intonation are like written language. Two surprising results were explored: the endurance of scribble as a form of writing, particularly with advanced forms of composition and rereading behavior; and the late and tentative appearance of invented spelling. Findings suggest that children were building a repertoire of linguistic tools, all of which would be useful in a mature model of conventional literacy. (One table of data and six figures of childrens' writing are included; an appendix contains an example list IC forms of writing and rereading.) (SR) CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF READING A READING RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTER REPORT Technical Report No. 437 FORMS OF WRITING AND REREADING FROM WRITING: A PRELIMINARY REPORT "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY t. TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Elizabeth Sulzby The University of Michigan June Barnhart Northern Illinois University Joyce Hieshima Northwestern University September 1988 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 51 Gerty Drive Champaign, Illinois 61820 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educattonal Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES S C) INFORMATION CENTEERI This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it o Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or opinions stated in INS dOCu ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy Portions of this paper were presented at the Conference on Reading and Writing Connections sponsored by the Center for the Study of Writing at Berkeley and the Center for the Study of Reading at the University of Illinois held in UrbanaChampaign, October 19-21, 1986. Data analysis was partially supported by the Center for Research in Learning and Schooling (CRLS) and the program in Curriculum, Teaching, and Psychological Studies of the University of Michigan. The Conference was funded by the United States Department of Education throe gh Grant No. OERI-G-86-0004 awarded to the University of California. This paper will also appear in slightly revised form in J. Mason (Ed.), Reading and writing connections. Newton, MA: Allyn & Bacon.