The Nga Manu Speech Contest has grown to be one of the biggest and most positive events for New Zealand secondary school students where competitors articulate their thoughts and aspirations in both Maori and English. The contest is acknowledged as an avenue that enhances language and cultural development amongst Maori youth, yet no formal…

With the advent of communicative language teaching in East Asia, the idea of learner autonomy has become a topic of discussion and a goal among language teachers. The idea of autonomy raises important questions that need to be further explored, particularly in terms of students taking responsibility for learning. While examining the English…

In October 2007, three education bills, including the Revised Teacher's License Law were approved by the Central Education Council in February and submitted to the Diet. The purpose of the Revised Teacher's License Law was "to ensure teachers systematically acquire up-to-date knowledge and skills to maintain the professional competencies necessary…

Data from the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction show that Asians are the largest non-European teachers group teaching in Washington (2004). One thousand, three hundred, and thirty-three, full-time classroom teachers identify themselves as Asian. In Washington classrooms, there are more Asian teachers than Black…

In 2000, state agencies and foundations in Hawai'i were poised to support readiness efforts to improve educational outcomes for children. There was, however, a lack of shared understanding of the construct of readiness to guide these efforts. Parents, teachers, and school administrators all play a critical role in the education of young children.…

In this article, the authors describe a study of a web-based, teambuilding instructional module that included activities designed to improve collaboration skills among team members conducting online projects. This module was formatively evaluated using 24 graduate students who were enrolled in an online course that assigned two online team…

As a statistical model for evaluating research results from intact groups such as classrooms, analysis of covariance has serious limitations in its most commonly-touted form. But it does have potential for investigating phenomena which can, when understood, provide more prescriptive formulations for interventions in the learning process.…

Investigated the effect of specific clayforming activities on the figural and verbal creativity of first-grade children (N=26) drawn mainly from disadvantaged, minority group backgrounds. The supposition that instruction in clayforming promotes creativity was supported. Imagery is discussed as a possible vehicle for mediating the observed change.…

A study was conducted to compare faculty perceptions of how their institutions were functioning. Institutions were similar with respect to support systems and missions and other organizational and student characteristics. Findings related to the University of Hawaii's portion of the study are reported and discussed. (BC)

Describes field experience, integrative, collaborative, systems approach, and institute bilingual teacher training models. Also provides a description and evaluation of a teacher training model at Wayne State University. The study shows that "facility stretching" will strengthen teacher training programs and train teachers who have a greater…

This material discusses which variables seem to have little effect on the learning outcomes of students. Level of spending per pupil, quality of buildings, average school or class size, and organizational structure were not noted to have a significant impact. (MP)

This study investigated the relationship between the achievement of tenth graders on the Hawaii State Test of Essential Competencies (HSTEC) and such variables as student socioeconomic status, family structure, ethnicity, previous educational experiences, types of schools attended, elementary grades, achievement test scores, and rate of…

The University of Hawaii and the State Department of Education have already identified a service delivery model, called Ho'okoho, to meet the personnel training requirement of PL 94-142. This article reports results of the programs' first survey to assess inservice training priorities of both regular and special educators. (Author/SJL)