Rural graduate students in early intervention used case-study and ethnographic methods to record family-focused field experiences, thereby developing an understanding of family perspectives and personal theories about early intervention in rural settings. These personnel preparation processes help students engage in a lifelong process of…

Interviews with 39 rural North Carolina students with, or at risk for, behavioral disorders found that they responded to social isolation by creating their own school subculture that reinforced their marginalization and negatively affected academic competence. Educators must consider the relationship between social interaction and learning.…

A culturally appropriate program with a functional approach was developed to train related services assistants (RSAs) in U.S. Pacific jurisdictions. RSAs support students with severe disabilities to achieve individualized-education-program objectives. Evaluation revealed positive impacts for disabled students served by 19 trainees, but newly…

A rural Maine school system interviewed 10 administrators and 26 special-education teachers, technicians, and related service personnel as part of an analysis of its special-education services. Findings indicated a lack of a clear mission, limited administrative supervision, inconsistent prereferral procedures, increasing numbers of…

Introduces this theme issue on middle childhood and early adolescence. Notes the importance of the 9- to 14-year-old developmental period and the need for research into these years. Suggests several research areas that need to be explored. (LPP)

Discusses the efficacy of a Writers' Workshop (WW) approach for promoting writing skills and writing self-efficacy in fourth- and fifth-grade learning-disabled students who had significant writing deficits. Compares various outcomes from WW students with outcomes of students with significant writing deficits who were exposed to a "writing across…

Observed four fifth-graders who collaboratively solved problems integrating concepts related to fractions and area. Compared features of learning through peer collaboration with teacher-directed learning, including whole solution versus component parts, appropriation versus scaffolding, analysis versus synthesis, conflict versus errorless…

Chronicles events in a class experimenting with a theme-study approach, examining teachers' and students' conceptions of knowledge. Examines changing relationships to knowledge; defines three approaches to knowledge students could take within classrooms. Explores possible underlying causes for changes in students' approaches to knowledge.…

Describes an action research project that explored whether internally negotiated group control was possible among preadolescents in school settings. Presents John Dewey's thoughts on social control. Discusses study of students' perspectives and actions concerning authority issues and social control. Describes a social studies curriculum used to…

Describes an ethnographic study that traced the narrative thinking strategies successfully used by adolescents in two self-contained special education classrooms as they made sense of their textbooks and composed original stories based on subject matter studied. Notes role-playing and composing original texts inspired by structured play also…

Compared learning-style preferences of intellectually gifted, average-ability, and special-needs students on the Learning Style Inventory. Also examined the general differences among ability level and gender. Analyses indicated that gifted students preferred learning alone, being self-motivated, and using tactile learning approaches, and that…

Notes that magnet schools are part of reform desegregation efforts in many school districts. Describes a study that explored perceptions of isolation among parents of students from different races in upper elementary and middle school magnet programs. Characterized the sensitivity of teachers to isolation in their schools. (Author/LPP)

Surveyed elementary school teachers and parents from two cultural groups--Middle Eastern and White Other--regarding their views on standardized testing. Parents supported use of tests to compare teachers, schools, districts, and administrators, while teachers opposed such uses and reported considerable personal stress and some child stress due to…

Identifies specific functions that reading, in combination with writing and talking, can serve in mathematical inquiries and contribute to a better understanding of how inquiry experiences can be planned and supported in secondary mathematics classrooms. Analysis of data led to identification of 30 functions of reading that are specific to…

Examines the value of concept maps as instruments for assessment of conceptual understanding, using the maps to compare the knowledge of function that experts and two groups of students (N=28)--traditional and nontraditional--enrolled in university calculus classes hold. Discusses the differences between the student and expert groups as well as…