This article details how an action research/reflective practitioner approach added value to the efforts of participants who were engaged in developing their practice and working together within a New Labour area-based policy initiative. The process of reflecting and learning together in the project supported practitioners in thinking, learning…

This article reports upon a 3-year action research programme intended to provide trainee teachers with peer support in planning and carrying out class teaching. It was hoped that this would provide an additional encouragement for trainee-teachers to broaden their teaching repertoire, together with better opportunities to reflect on and evaluate…

Examined the effectiveness of 6th and 7th graders' cooperative learning groups, recording student work sessions and conducting student interviews and self-evaluations. When working cooperatively, students required some unstructured time to organize themselves and learn to work together toward a mutual goal. Students liked this type of learning…

Examined peer group structures in low- and regular-track high school algebra classrooms, studying clique group affiliations defined by students and their teachers regarding academic achievement. Clique group affiliation was a potential predictor of academic achievement in both types of classes. Successful achievement appeared to be a factor that…

Shows, through a Monte Carlo experiment, that statistical significance testing and effect size are related and complementary but do not substitute for each other, noting that good research requires consideration of both. Results of the experiment indicate that there is considerable variability in the sample effect size measure, and the extent of…

Investigated the interactive effects of students' levels of test anxiety and teachers' evaluation practices (evaluative threat) on the achievement and motivation of graduate students randomly assigned to high or low evaluative threat conditions. All students, but particularly test-anxious students, performed poorly and were less motivated when…

Investigated the effects, on 7th graders' mathematical reasoning, of: cooperative learning embedded within multilevel metacognitive training (MMT), cooperative learning embedded within unilevel metacognitive training (UMT), and whole-class learning with no metacognitive training. Students exposed to MMT significantly outperformed students exposed…

Investigated whether situated instruction would produce more usable, transferable knowledge than instruction abstracted from the context of its use. Seventh graders were instructed on causality under one of the two conditions. Teaching for transfer was also investigated. Situated learning increased immediate learning effects, but there were no…

Examined relationships among factors influencing secondary school student's career aspirations, using data from the National Science Foundation's Longitudinal Study of American Youth, which tested and surveyed students in 10th grade. Positive links were found between student career aspirations and such aspects of science education as educational…

Used the 1996 National Survey of Teacher Education Program Graduates to evaluate the baccalaureate and Master's of education teacher education programs at one research university. Four measures were compared with norms from programs nationwide. Overall, graduates were very positive about their programs and careers, with both groups' responses more…

Compared hypermedia and traditional instruction in their contribution to declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge and retention using a pretest-posttest design. Data from ninth-grade biology students showed no significant difference between the groups in acquisition of declarative, conditional, and procedural knowledge. However, the…

Investigated Israeli teachers' attitudes and perceptions regarding their students' gender roles. Surveys of 221 elementary and secondary teachers indicated no extreme egalitarian or chauvinistic responses. Elementary and female teachers tended to give more gender egalitarian responses. Only 15 percent of respondents had attended courses on gender…

Investigated how various classroom practices ameliorated or undermined one high school students' efforts to gain assistance for his academic difficulties. Data from school documentation, evaluation reports, study materials, and interviews with key persons indicated that none of his psychoeducational evaluations considered the quality of classroom…

Used data from Tennessee's Project STAR, a longitudinal class size experiment, to study the cumulative effects of reduced class size in the early grades on academic achievement. Results indicated that controlling for achievement in the previous year, small classes in grades 1-3 yielded statistically significant additional positive effects on…

Evaluates a state-funded, collaborative, educational renewal effort between a university and a local school district, illuminating dilemmas, paradoxes, and solutions inherent in reforming American education and revealing complexities inherent in the desire for college-school collaboration. Educators interested in reform must encourage border…