Interviews with teachers of 17 small first-grade classes at 10 Edmonton (Alberta) schools found that teachers drew on the contextual benefits of small classes to support students' skill development in a creative and integrated curriculum. Teachers used individualization; active learning; integration of reading, writing, and speaking; and a variety…

Interviews with seven recent-immigrant Chinese families in Canada examined parental expectations of their children's school performance. Parents' expectations motivated their children to pursue goals with hard work, which enhanced self-efficacy and nurtured good study habits. However, high parental expectations and unwillingness to accommodate…

A 3-year study will examine conflict in professional field education. Stage 1 will collect narratives about critical incidents from student-field instructor-faculty member triads in the fields of education, medicine, nursing, and social work. Stage 2 will focus on analysis of narratives. Stage 3 will include multidisciplinary conversations among…

Considers the role and aim of education in the thinking of J. Rousseau. To Rousseau, education serves as a medium between nature and society, with the task of education being that of turning man into a social being. Discusses Rousseau's philosophy in light of his novel "Emile." (SLD)

Using two-level structural equation modeling, examined the dimensionality of socioeconomic status (SES) and its relationship with mathematics and science performance at student and school levels. Data from 13-year-olds from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study show that SES dimensions have different effects on mathematics and…

Studied parent's choice of preschool facility in a Swedish city to illustrate social and cultural changes in Swedish society. Findings from a survey completed by 1,584 mothers show that parents' use of the right to choose a preschool facility is economically, socially, and culturally segregated, although patterns of choice are not a simple effect…

Examined the validity of teacher ratings of adolescents' social skills in a followup of a cohort sample of 395 students from seventh to ninth grades. Findings show multi-informant consistency in ratings; teacher ratings consistently covaried with teacher ratings of problem behavior and academic competence, nominations by peer students, and grade…

Investigated whether the "ontological reversal" described by E. Husserl, the tendency to view abstract mathematical models of phenomena as more real than the phenomena themselves, is present in the reasoning of pre-service science teachers. Findings for 23 pre-service teachers indicate the presence of the ontological reversal as a figure of…

Studied how doctoral students experienced their working conditions as they worked toward PhDs in Sweden. Survey responses of 278 doctoral students and interviews with 6 female students show their attitudes about their PhD work and describe the advantages and limitations of research freedom and demands on their time. (SLD)

Recently, universities and other research institutions have increased the number of regulations concerning research "ethics." Driven by fears of litigation or political unpopularity and acting in an authoritarian manner, many institutional ethics boards are exceeding their purpose and are threatening both the validity of their faculty's research…

Analyzed expressions of cognitive "acquisition" and social "participation" metaphors for learning in the practice of support people in an information and communication technology company department of 100 employees. Findings show the support people's practice is characterized by interplay between these two metaphors. (SLD)

Studied aspects of listening comprehension skills in 107 second, fourth, and sixth graders in Finland using the Sentence Verification technique. Findings, comparable with previous research, show age-related improvement in listening comprehension for narrative, but not expository, passages. Cluster analysis produced four comprehension strategies.…

Discusses "new" phenomenography and its links with research tradition, which are not immediately obvious. Makes the case that an interest in variation is the thread that runs through the phenomenographic movement as it explores the different ways in which people experience the same henomena. (SLD)

Identified the learning practices created by 12 vocational teachers in Sweden from 5 programs in the tasks they gave students. The different learning practices represented by the tasks can be seen as bridging the social practice of the school to the practice of the vocation. (SLD)

Examined how student teachers constructed their teacher identities by using autobiographical stories. Analysis of 35 student teacher essays shows that autobiographical studies are a powerful tool in making the moral dimensions of teachers' identities visible. (SLD)