The collaborative five-phase process of an action research team's two-year project in a New Hampshire junior high school is described. This qualitative study sheds light on team experiences, developmental phases, interpersonal tasks/issues, group processes, outcomes, and staff-development experiences. Team meetings/projects create an outlet for…

Reports a study that investigated how the school climate and the psychological state of individual teachers affect the way they accept and implement innovative ideas. States that teachers operating in more democratic school settings, and at higher psychological levels, utilize the greatest number of innovative educational ideas. (GEA)

Examines the impact that public examinations of students has upon teaching. The four-year study raises questions about the current assumption that public examinations cause fact-transmission teaching. Uses timings of teacher and pupil talk to examine teaching on a range of different types of courses. (GEA)

Explores three explanations for the lack of a relationship between oral language development and reading ability. Presents data which provides evidence for each of the following sources of explanation: (1) inappropriateness of measures used in previous studies, (2) differences between written and spoken languages, and (3) the distinction between…

Investigates the consistency of the standards applied by graders on the General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations in the United Kingdom and the application of these standards to define comparable levels of achievement in differentiated examinations. Suggests that the need for comparability based on the candidates' responses be taken…

Investigates teacher competency and expertise in five primary schools in northeast England. Identifying music and science as areas of serious concern, states that it is desirable to use specialists to cover gaps in the classroom teacher's knowledge, skills, and interests. (GEA)

Reports a survey of British secondary school teachers to determine the types and frequency of troublesome classroom behaviors. Finding that "talking out of turn" and "hindering other children" were the most problematic behaviors, the authors examined variables such as the sex of the teacher, age group taught, and subject taught. (GEA)

Describes an integration project initiated in an Israeli elementary school during 1984-85 and its effect on student academic achievement. Reports that lower level students placed in the integrated school achieved significantly higher scores on a reading comprehension test than did the control group. Higher level students remained superior despite…

Examines the effect of perspective and color on the ability of 192 secondary school children in England to observe danger points in a typical kitchen scene. Reports that more able children perform significantly better than their peers, and that the type of color employed contributes significantly to the scores but gender does not. (GEA)

This article describes findings from an analysis of principal leadership behavior and activities in 32 urban high schools. The study examined the extent of leadership, the areas in which principals provide leadership, as well as school and district conditions that may be related to the leadership role of principals. (Author/MT)

The relationship between word frequency and reading vocabulary was investigated, with particular attention to the lognormal model of word frequency distribution and the concept of family frequency. Subjects were 576 elementary and secondary school students. The effects of grade, ability, and gender were also investigated. Results are discussed.…

Some issues in the debate between qualitative and quantitative researchers are examined. It is argued that "local theories" that apply in particular contexts can allow quantitative researchers to abandon the search for universal theories. Parallels are drawn between local theories in the quantitative tradition and case studies in the qualitative…

John Saxon's incremental development model has been proclaimed as a superior teaching strategy for mathematics. This study evaluated the Saxon approach and textbook using 276 Algebra I students in experimental and control groups. The groups were compared in cognitive and affective areas. Results are presented. (Author/MT)

This study was conducted to evaluate prospective teachers of English as a Foreign Language in their command of suprasegmental features of the American English sound system. Also investigated were gender differences of teacher candidates at two Egyptian universities in performance on two linguistic measures. Results are discussed. (Author/MT)

This study investigated changes in students' anxiety, attitude, concerns, and confidence about becoming a teacher during preservice teacher education and looked at whether these changes were related to selected student characteristics. Subjects were three groups of 581 students at three stages of teacher preparation. Findings are discussed.…