This paper addresses the importance of preparing prospective teachers for their responsibilities as future civic educators. Specifically, the authors explore children's construction of civic knowledge, identify a civics pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), outline four guiding principles that contribute to the development of civics PCK within a…

This article reports on a review of research into students' reasoning about social change and causes they attribute to selected historical events. In this review, I distinguish studies into social change and causality as two methodological approaches to historical understanding before relating findings into the ways that students reason about…

A "Motivation" eliciting the "Aim" of each lesson initiates each lesson in the orthodox "developmental lesson-plan" that has dominated classroom instruction in NYC public schools for at least the past half-century. An action-research study of 38 lesson-plans (over 5 each from 5 teachers) drawn from student-teaching courses at the author's…

This article examines the educational ideas of Fred Morrow Fling (1860-1934). A practitioner of "scientific history," Fling believed that the principal goal of history education was to teach the historical method through the analysis of primary sources. Unlike his contemporaries, who saw sources as useful for adding interest to lessons, Fling…

The Internet has been touted as a useful resource for social studies teachers. This study used content analysis methods to examine trends in sessions focused on the use of the Internet presented at the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) annual meeting (1995-2002). Session abstracts were analyzed for: type of Internet sessions…

Compares the mathematics achievement of 8th graders in Missouri adopting standards-based middle grades mathematics curriculum materials (MATH Thematics or Connected Mathematics Project). Uses the mathematics portion of the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) to measure achievement. Discusses differences in achievement between students using…

Used data from groups of 376 and 273 algebra teachers to study the reliability of the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (G. Hall and S. Loucks, 1978) and explore changing it to a five-stage questionnaire rather than the seven current stages. Results confirm a lack of reliability but do not support a change to five stages. (SLD)

Studied the concerns of 13 student teachers during a period of school placement for teaching practice. Identified nine main areas of concern, headed by not being regarded as a real teacher and dealing with disruptive behavior, and three main categories of accomplishments. (SLD)

Drawing on prior research, focuses on the intervention approaches primary and secondary schools take as they formulate and apply improvement efforts. Describes conceptualization, intervention impact, redefinition of the problem, and impact evaluation as stages of improvement and identifies essential conditions that indicate a school staff that…

Studied eight teachers struggling to implement an innovation in teaching English writing in the Hong Kong schools and developed a model for the Innovation-Decision process based on that of E. Rogers (1995). Findings provide a theoretical framework and principles for designing in-service programs for teachers adjusting to educational change. (SLD)

Describes the "Israel Experience," a short-term informal educational program that brings Jewish youth from other countries, almost all of whom already have some connection to a Jewish community, to Israel. The program reinforces and strengthens positive attitudes toward Israel and Judaism. (SLD)

Makes a case that the architects of national testing posited a measuring scale in which consecutive levels were separated by 2 years of learning under the influence of the "thought disorder" described by J. Michell, who claimed that psychological measurement may be little more than numerical coding. (SLD)

Studied the use of prior knowledge state assessment for enhancing learning through a series of experiments involving college students (n=112, n=1,159, n=1,081). Results show that beginning students are especially willing to use prior knowledge state assessment and appear to benefit more from its use. (SLD)

Uses responses from a large-scale survey of school choice in South Wales to predict the type of school that respondents will choose based on their personal characteristics and the choice criteria they report using. The developed models, based on responses from 1 parent and a child when possible from 794 families, are about 90% successful in…

Describes a research method used in a British project studying the professional culture of teachers, that of "dialogic interviews." The focus was on cultural constructs teachers used spontaneously, and the interviews were formed around elements of concept, discourse, general accounts of teaching, and site-specific accounts of teaching. (SLD)