In a study of questioning formats, children and adults answered spelling questions in an open-ended condition or one of two close-ended conditions where options were likely or unlikely. Participants presented with unlikely-response options generated their own responses more often than participants presented with likely-response options. Children…

Describes research in progress that examines the personal and professional experiences of faculty from colleges and universities in North America and abroad after they engage in academic visits and exchanges at other higher-learning institutions. The research goal is to improve the quality of faculty visits and exchanges. (CDS)

Explores how teachers at the Creative Arts Centre in Calgary (Alberta) create, maintain, and nurture aesthetic learning in their classrooms. The Centre, opened in 1997, has chosen to value the creating process, primary to the arts, in the school curriculum as a whole. During 1997 to 1998, 55 volunteers (primarily students and parents) explored…

Advocates a reconceptualization of Canadian teacher preparation that will involve partnerships in and outside the university. Shows how a reconceptualized concurrent preparation program would bring together discipline-based and practical knowledge, engaging preservice teachers in action research into the dilemmas of teaching, and integrating…

Argues that Canadian schools of education must address social justice issues of ethnicity, culture, and racism; model equitable practices in teacher education programs; and promote equity for all students in public schools. Reviews current debate on multicultural and antiracist education, challenges in pursuing equity in education, and promising…

A study of 25 staff members, 40 students, and parents of 6 students at a Canadian suburban secondary school examined how prevailing stereotypical discourses were reflected in the ways people talked about and acted toward minority groups. Strategies for creating opportunities for alternative discourses to be heard are discussed. Contains 44…

Describes differences between systems-rationalist and subjectivist-interpretivist inquiry. Maintains that much of the enormous potential of subjectivist-interpretivist research could be lost due to the consequences of choices and compromises that researchers make in conceptualizing, proposing, and conducting subjectivist inquiry in the…

A survey of 963 undergraduates and 27 faculty members in the University of Alberta (Canada) teacher education program found that computers were most often used as a personal productivity tool and not integrated into the curriculum. Deterrents to use of instructional technology by university staff were lack of funding, lack of time to learn new…

A study in a grade 6-7 Canadian elementary class identified three "spaces of inquiry" that encourage student participation in school science: generative spaces for brainstorming and collaboration; rehearsal spaces for presentation of ideas to the class for refinement; and performative spaces for presentation of finished creations to, and…

A study involving eight female Canadian elementary teachers and counselors used metaphors to help teachers reflect on their experiences of student anger. This strategy enabled emotional detachment from students' anger, was more accessible than other strategies at highly emotional times, had moderating effects on inappropriate student behavior, and…

In Winnepeg (Canada), a survey of 319 urban high school students, 51% of whom had received peer mediation training in junior high school, found no significant differences between the two groups in their attitudes and beliefs about conflict resolution or in their satisfaction with their abilities to resolve conflicts. Possible explanations relate…

A study of 300 children in kindergarten, grade 2, and grade 6 found that background music improved visual discrimination task performance at the youngest and middle ages and had no effect on the oldest participants. On a square identification task, background music had no influence on easy and difficult tasks but lowered performance on…

The personal development of the Danish minister, poet, and social historian N. F. S. Grundtvig is explored in the contexts of the Danish "folkeliege" social movements, which included the folk high school and free-school movements and an anthropological theory of social movements based on the "revitalization movement" work of A. Wallace. (SLD)

Teachers' emphases on six general educational goals were studied in samples of 144 and 157 Norwegian teachers over two years. Results suggest that teachers' goal emphases are, to a considerable degree, the result of professional socialization, and that several classroom characteristics are basically unrelated to individual differences in teachers'…

Current research on students' experiences in encounters with their classmates in school is explored by using the narrative of a 25-year-old nursery school teacher in Sweden about her own experiences as a quiet and well-behaved student. Her story illustrates some of the built-in conflicts of the comprehensive school. (SLD)