Studied change in the customer service department of a utility company and an inner-city low-income school. Findings show that the traditional contradiction between socially progressive education and preparation for work is, at least, in some areas, waning, as workers begin to do more of the whole job and act "less like a robot." (SLD)

Used data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to study tracking as curricular differentiation and student placement in elementary and secondary school in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Findings show clear national differences and conflicts based on dominant cultural beliefs. (SLD)

Studied a U.S. middle school with about 240 English-as-a-Second-Language students and documented how Mexicans, Bosnians, and other immigrants were caught in institutional practices that both welcomed and did not welcome them. Findings show motivational patterns of the local community and the immigrants themselves. (SLD)

Used ethnographic data to study the Teenage Parents Program as a feminist "counterpublic" (discursive community of subordinated social group members) within a Canadian public high school. Findings for the 31 program participants show the importance of the program for development as adult citizens and self-esteem. (SLD)

Examined one school district's efforts to develop and implement a standards-based curriculum using rational and institutional perspectives. Findings show that the district took an expressly rationalistic approach in using standards, but lacking a clear instructional philosophy, the district also took an institutional approach. (SLD)

Identifies problems with the portrayals by R. Prawat of the reform effort in post-Revolutionary Russia, the career of Lev Vygotsky, the hypothesized exchange of ideas between Vygotsky and John Dewey, and the theoretical views of Vygotsky. (SLD)

Criticizes the evidence used by M. Gredler and C. Shields in their critique of Prawat's article about John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky and their educational philosophies. Notes specific problems with citations and interpretations. (SLD)

Examined actions of the teacher of summer course for middle school graduates managing the development of the concept of area in a task comparing triangles. Observation suggests that the teacher sometimes shaped the mathematics at play in ways that seemed to contradict the goals of the task. Discusses why this may have occurred. (SLD)

Discusses Hugh Mehan's "Learning Lessons" in the development of the naturalistic study of classroom discourse studies and considers the emergence of an alternative program for classroom discourse studies in critical discourse analysis. Critiques some studies of classroom discourse and analyzes a fourth-grade lesson on fractions to show how the…

Uses data from a longitudinal study exploring experiences of elementary teachers as they learned and taught science in the transition from preservice to inservice status. Uses information based on one participant to examine a narrative device, restorying, exploring its usefulness as a way of enhancing legitimation in narrative inquiry. (BT)

Investigates existence or otherwise of group level effects on progress in reading. Combines administrative data to give two primary age cohorts, each of the order of 2500 pupils, in one Local Education Authority (LEA) in southeast England. Finds mean score and pupil turnover were the most important aggregated group level effects. (BT)

States that examination results for 3000+ Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspected secondary schools, offering General Certificate of Secondary Education student examinations during the 1992 1997 inspection cycle, were modeled statistically. Finds that schools currently with higher or lower achievement averages saw slight improvement.…

Argues that although John Gray, Harvey Goldstein, and Sally Thomas treat the notion of trend in an unproblematic manner, as deterministic time trends, movements in data identified by Gray as school improvement trends may not be generated by the deterministic processes they assume. Opines these upward and downward movements may reflect a purely…

Builds on earlier research suggesting it is fairly difficult to extrapolate current trends in school performance into the future. Explores two areas of research on school improvement which have, to date, received little attention: (1) trends in performance over time and (2) the incidence of time lagged phenomena. (BT)

Focuses on the surprising lack of critique in the pedagogical literatures of higher education in relation to the use of ideas surrounding deep and surface approaches to learning. Explores problems with the assumed relationships among conceptions of learning, perceptions of the learning environment, approaches to learning, and learning outcomes.…