A study examining the relationship between classroom environment and academic self-efficacy surveyed 951 mathematics students in grades 8 and 10 in 4 Canadian high schools. Improved levels of involvement, investigation, and task orientation were associated with higher levels of academic efficacy. Conventional classrooms may foster academic…

A study examined whether factors that differentiate science and nonscience majors translate into meaningful predictors of majoring in science. Questionnaires were administered to 121 science majors and 160 social science majors at a Canadian university. Only 7 of the 12 factors that differentiated science and social science majors were important…

Universities arose because a supportive and protective environment conducive to face-to-face learning, scholarship, and debate was needed. Predictions that various technologies, including television, teaching machines, and Internet-based instruction and distance learning, would replace universities have not been realized. For 800 years, nothing…

A professional development experience introduced 102 traditional teachers from rural Michigan to constructivist pedagogy over a 3-year period. Participant comments reveal three themes: frustration with the uncertainties of changing mindsets and incorporating constructivism into practice; the usefulness of representing thoughts about constructivism…

Interviews and focus groups with five 9- and 10-year-old girls from rural Nova Scotia (Canada) clearly revealed the power and influence of the media in manipulating young girls' perceptions of themselves and others. Goffman's interactionist perspective of the "theatrical performance" provided a framework for the study. (Contains 47 references.)…

A 4-year study of 9 Ontario secondary schools examined their capacity for change. Change capacity consisted of liberation from structures that inhibit innovation, honoring cognitive dissonance, and forging new relationships. Imposing new organizational structures was less likely to perpetuate change capacity than was a commitment improvement…

Graduate student persistence is related to previous educational experiences of the student, faculty, and departmental support staff and resulting interpersonal dynamics between these three parts of the "academic triad." Any graduate student can be rendered academically incompetent by lack of necessary mentoring support. Graduate student…

About one quarter of first-semester students enrolled in engineering technology programs at a Newfoundland (Canada) college dropped out. Student interviews and surveys indicate that academic difficulty was the most significant factor. Part-time attendance, uncertainty about future employment opportunities, work, and time elapsed since high school…

Surveys of 510 Chinese-Canadian adolescents attending 3 Chinese language schools in Calgary (Alberta) found that older immigrant children maintained or developed the native language better than younger ones, and limited teaching hours and insufficient reinforcement for using Chinese outside school hindered development of literacy in Chinese.…

Focuses on the problem of predicting college success given traditional cognitive measures. The first four chapters describe a study conducted in the United States and Estonia to determine variables associated with college success. The next four chapters contain commentary and critiques of the study, with reaction in the final chapter by the study…

Focuses on "teacher professionalism" as the knowledge and skills of the professionals. Chapters of this special collection address issues pertaining to the importance of school culture on teacher professionalism, the role of on-line professional development, the professional knowledge base for teaching, and the development and use of teacher…

Examined what children learned spontaneously from each other in everyday activities within the preschool culture. Findings from two preschool classes of 14 children aged 1 to 3 years and 18 children aged 3 to 6 years show the knowledge and skills, often tacit, that children learn from each other through social practices. (SLD)

Discusses the relevance of philosophy to education, conceptualizing this relationship in terms of a foundational view of the relationship conceiving of education as resting on a foundation of philosophy and a nonfoundational view that there is a mutual dependence of the two disciplines. (SLD)

Studied teacher-student verbal interactions and questioning and students' curriculum-related performance for bilingual students in Norway in small and large mainstream civics classes. Findings for 77 fourth graders show that bilingual minority students in general, and bilingual minority girls in particular, benefit from civics lessons in small…

Revises the concept of "literary competence" based on the texts produced by two Russian high school students. Shows that literacy competence cannot be reduced to internalized literary conventions, although these are a fundamental component of literary competence, and proposes a model of literary competence. Also explores merits and weaknesses of…