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University students in Macao are required to attend computer literacy courses to raise their basic skills levels and knowledge as part of their literacy foundation. Still, teachers frequently complain about the weak IT skills of many students, suggesting that most of them may not be benefiting sufficiently from their computer literacy courses. This research proposes an enhanced framework based on constructivist principles by using peer-tutoring to increase cost effectiveness and to improve student outcomes. Essential to this proposed model is the training of former course graduates as peer-instructors to achieve high quality learning results. At Instituto de Formação Turistica (IFT), a case study was used to evaluate its effectiveness using a qualitative analysis. In Macao, most students have a Confucian Heritage Cultural (CHC) background and the current findings demonstrate that students share more easily their learning difficulties within their group as their interpersonal relationships improve. It is suggested that since CHC cooperative learning is primarily based on bonds, students involved in this "relationship-first, learning-second" type shared a larger amount of knowledge and social skills, a dual positive outcome. Moreover, English language is a major barrier for the understanding of the teacher's message to Chinese students. Meanwhile, the negative Western concept of plagiarism is replaced, under the CHC, as the "face giving" and it is directly based on the relationship intensity to "help friends". At last, peer-tutors play a key role in the student increase internal motivation regarding the joy of the learning process. [For the complete proceedings, see ED579282.]

The purpose of this study was to observe and implement strategies and adaptations in an arts program for adults with atypical communication due to developmental and intellectual disabilities. This study was conducted in the field using an action research approach with triangulated methods of data collection including semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and artwork analysis. While research was conducted in two different art programs with similar populations, the main site of study was at SpArc Service's Cultural Arts Center located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The secondary site was at Center for Creative Works located in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. The data collected between these sites produced common trends in strategies and adaptations that are used in the art room. Individual case studies conducted at SpArc Services allowed strategies to be implemented and documented in the art room. When implementing these findings, I saw how these strategies supported the participant's goals as outlined in their Individual Outcome Summary. While working with the individual participants, areas of art making included textiles, mixed-media materials, and pop culture references. The following are appended: (1) Recruitment Letter; (2) Consent Form; (3) Assent Form; (4) Participant Bill of Rights; (5) Observation Form; (6) Semi-Structured Interview Form; and (7) Staff Questionnaire.

This chapter explains part of a broader study. To be specific, it is based on the research the author has been conducting in the city of Barcelona from 2005 through to the present day on what it means to "be Latino" in a youth- and school-based context. The work was essentially inspired by the ethnography of communication and the techniques inherent in it, such as participant observation and gathering different qualitative data.The main objective of this research was to produce a thick description of the role of languages, of linguistic repertoires, in building the social identities of a particular group of young people in Barcelona. The author focused on a group of Latin American youths who had already dropped out of school or were in the process of doing so. Suggestions for recommended reading are provided. [A Spanish version of this chapter is also included in the book. For the complete volume, "Qualitative Approaches to Research on Plurilingual Education," see ED573580.]

The third in a series of reports evaluating a multi-year Wallace initiative documents ways in which six districts are working to improve school leadership districtwide. It describes several new measures districts are implementing, including systematic support for assistant principals; the use of performance standards to hire and evaluate principals, as well as to inform training and support for them; and the establishment of data systems to promote more effective hiring, identify principals in need of support and provide feedback to the programs that trained them. This report is not the last word on the Principal Pipeline Initiative. Future reports on implementation and on effects will assess the actions taken by districts and their partner institutions in this initiative. A special-focus implementation report in 2015 will analyze principal evaluation systems. A 2016 report will assess implementation of the initiative overall, identifying the structures and policies put in place, the results observed, and factors that have supported or impeded the sites' progress in carrying out their plans. The reports also contains the following appendices (1): Survey Weighting and Analyses; and (2): An Exploratory Comparative Analysis. [For Volume 1 in this series, see ED555867; for Volume 2, see ED555868.]

This report documents the results of an evaluation of the Future Foundations Society CIC (Future Foundations) academic summer school which took place in August 2013. The Future Foundations summer school programme is a literacy and numeracy catch-up intervention which provided extra schooling in the summer holidays. Pupils attending the four-week programme followed a specially designed curriculum involving regular literacy and numeracy lessons taught by trained primary and secondary school teachers. The programme took place in the summer of 2013 across three sites in London and the South East: Brighton, Enfield, and Islington. It was targeted at pupils in Years 5 and 6 who were eligible for free school meals (FSM) and at pupils who had not achieved Level 4 in English or maths at the end of Key Stage (KS) 2. The evaluation was set up as a small-scale efficacy trial to test the impact of the summer school. The findings are based on a randomised controlled trial, with individual random allocation to groups to the summer school or a control group who did not receive the intervention. Key conclusions include: (1) Attracting pupils to the summer school, and maintaining high attendance throughout the programme, was challenging; (2) As a result of the trial's eventual size and the level of pupil dropout, the overall findings of the programme on English or maths are not definitive; (3) However, there is evidence of promise for English, particularly for FSM-eligible and Year 5 pupils, which may warrant further study; (4) The programme was relatively expensive. As a way of improving academic outcomes, alternative approaches delivered during the school year may provide similar benefits for a lower cost; and (5) Future evaluations could explore whether apparent gains for progress in English continue into the secondary phase.

The Nebraska Early Childhood Coach (ECC) training was a 3 day (8 hours) professional development event sponsored by the Nebraska Department of Education, Office of Child Development in 2009-2010. Sixty-five early childhood teachers and related service providers participated for the purpose of learning the basic principles and behaviors associated with current or proposed job responsibilities as a "coach" to parents, care providers or preschool teachers. The purpose of this training was to advance/enhance the early childhood professionals' ability to support individuals they may be coaching, mentoring, and/or supervising. Held in Omaha, Nebraska in the eastern part of the state, the ECC training participants included practitioners from across the state representing both rural and urban communities. Participants represented different agencies serving young children under age 5 and their families. An independent evaluation of the ECC training outcomes was completed and a final report addressing the major evaluation questions was submitted to Nebraska Department of Education in October 2011. The Early Childhood Coach training evaluation focused on the fidelity with which coach participants implemented the coaching model on which they received training and evaluated the coach training efforts. Furthermore, the evaluation included information on the current state of coaching in Nebraska, as described by subsets of coach participants who attended the ECC coach training. This Technical Report provides a more detailed description of those findings and summarizes additional analyses of data collected from survey, interview and direct observations of participants. The Technical Report is divided into two parts. Volume 1 summarizes the findings related to survey data from 35 participants. Volume 2 summarizes the data from videotaped observations of 21 coaches' interactions with coachees on the job. [For Volume 1, see ED565478.]

This research report notes that despite the focus on girls' education in the Millennium Development Goals, there remains a huge number of girls out of education, a situation which, although improving, is still a significant concern in Tanzania, Africa. Women and girls in pastoral communities are subject to a particularly challenging situation: marginalised not only on account of their gender, but also as pastoralists. This research sought to explore the issues facing girls within one specific community, and focused on three main areas: (1) community members' attitudes to girls' participation in formal education; (2) the aspirations that parents and girls themselves hold for participation in formal education; and (3) perceived impediments to girls' participation in education. An ethnographic approach was adopted which involved the research team spending a period of time in the field, living with members of the Maasai community in rural Monduli, Tanzania. Research was obtained by observations and interviews undertaken with a range of community members. The research concludes with a number of key recommendations.

In this article, the author utilizes critical and sociocultural approaches to race, language and culture to examine the intersectional experiences of a multiethnic and "mixed race" cohort of students in an inner-city, working-class neighborhood between their elementary and high school years. This article examines the students' experiences in a nine-year educational process focused on critical pedagogy, sociocultural learning, and community engagement in and out of classrooms. More specifically, the article looks at interview, participant observation, and narrative data with a Latina/o and Asian American male student, and an Asian American female student, and how they made sense of.

A professional development experience for science and mathematics teachers that included coaches was provided for ten science and math teachers. This professional development experience had the teachers develop a lesson that utilized the engineering context to teach a science or mathematics concept through guided inquiry as an instructional methodology. Developing a guided inquiry lesson can be a difficult task for teachers. Science teachers have inquiry standards that they must meet and research indicates that teaching through guided inquiry is an effective method of teaching science content. Mathematics teachers are being asked to incorporate more active and cooperative instructional experiences in in their classrooms. Results of the professional development experience indicate that all but one of the teachers were successful in developing and implementing guided inquiry lessons within their classrooms. Matching coach and teacher by content area was found to be important. Coaches provided help to the teachers in developing their lessons by providing a sounding board for teacher ideas, offering suggestions for the lessons, observing and providing feedback, and helping the teachers understand guided inquiry. Scoring Rubric for Lesson Plans is appended. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

In this article, the "researcher" narrates the issues faced by novice researchers in choosing the correct lenses to conduct research when searching for the truth via the use of qualitative methodology. It is argued that choosing an appropriate research approach and methodology can be described as an "arduous" journey. For the inexperienced traveller [researcher], the journey may not run a straight course from beginning to end but the quest for new knowledge overcomes obstacles faced thereby enabling the traveller to transcend the actual. The ethnographic journey narrated here, describing the struggle to embrace qualitative research, the use of metaphors, using appropriate theory, choosing the correct lens, research as critical praxis, the characteristics of qualitative research, the emancipatory paradigm, appropriating critical theory, ethnography, "partial ethnography", "policy ethnography", "critical policy ethnography", entering the field, managing reciprocal relationships, "purposeful conversations", interviewer skills, ethical issues, ascertaining the truth and reflexivity, serves as a useful "road map" for other novice researchers wanting to embrace ethnographic research.

This study examines a group of approximately 1,100 English as a foreign language students who attended a tutoring program dedicated to training learners in study skills and language learning strategies. The study covers a five-year period of time during which the tutoring program remained consistent in its focus and organization. Students identified by teachers as struggling learners were assigned between one and five hours a week of tutoring sessions in addition to regular English classes of ten hours a week. The tutoring program focused on language learning strategies and study skills as a long-term solution to persistent difficulties learning English. The data illustrate general tendencies in the kinds of difficulties students exhibited, the content of tutoring sessions, the amount of time spent in tutoring and the results of this process. Clear patterns emerge in these areas and suggest common traits and treatment of learners. In terms of actual success of the tutoring program, the study demonstrates that the vast majority of tutees dropped out of the English program before completing all 18 levels. Nevertheless, the percentage of desertion from the program for tutees is virtually identical to that of the general population, i.e. students who did not attend tutoring. More importantly, the rate of desertion for the general population is much sharper than that of tutees. Students who attended tutoring dropped out at a much slower rate than other students, indicating that the tutoring system may have aided these struggling students in terms of their willingness to continue with their learning process. Appended are: (1) Tutoring Information for Teachers; (2) Teachers' Diagnoses and Requests for Tutoring; (3) Formats for Tutoring Sessions; (4) Coding Guidelines; (5) Coding Sheet; and (6) Category Descriptions. (Contains 2 tables.)

How might students engage mindful learning? How might the professor engage mindful teaching? Both questions derived from fieldnotes a participant observer had created for the Future of Learning 2010 Summer Institute (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and the Tests and Measurements course, fall 2010 at Edward Waters College (EWC). Additionally, with an eye on the inquiry set, a participant observer designed a new Theories of Learning course--one that embodied research based practice. The new EWC course used Jerry Fluellen's power teaching prototype for the design, delivery and assessment of instruction. Students encountered daily writing to learn activities and thinking routines. They examined disciplinary ideas including Ellen Langer's landmark mindfulness theory applied to learning and mind brain education as a new direction in theories of learning. In the final project, they became young scholars presenting power point slide shows about the Barack and Michelle Obama Charter School of Tomorrow. They completed a GRE-like final examination of writing and thinking. Evidence of mindful learning and teaching emerged. (Includes a bibliography.)

The South African Department of Education is working with multiple non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to transform schools into "caring schools" that emphasise: health promotion, safety, care for orphans and vulnerable children, quality education, community engagement and respect for rights and equality. Using a qualitative case study of a primary school and a secondary school in a Johannesburg township, as well as a review of caring school models currently operating in South Africa, this research explores the degree to which the caring school philosophy can be translated into practice. Findings suggest that educators accept the caring schools theory; however, most doubted that their schools could serve such a function at present. Educators named entrenched obstacles such as teacher burden, over-sized classes, inefficient governing bodies and support teams, and inadequate training and funding to deal with learners' psychosocial issues as the main shortcomings in their schools. This research illuminates the realities of transforming schools into sites for children's services, while contributing to the debate about the function of schools in social development programming. (Contains 1 figure and 6 footnotes.)

The authors conducted an ethnography of a university queer cultural center's role on campus and in the surrounding community. The dataset included participant observation, in-depth interviews, and artifacts. The authors present a review of LGBTQA [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, ally, and questioning] issues in higher education, heterosexual attitudes, transgender, ethics, and queer theory literature. The findings of roles/barriers to the Center's mission plus the devastating murder of a woman who was transgender and suicide of a Center student prompted the authors to use research poetry as a means to express the inexpressible. Furthermore, they illustrate tensions between contemporary queer and traditional gay theories through the telling of a "straight tale" (traditional report) and a "gay tale" (experiential report), interrupted with "queer tales" (poetic interludes) and "queer asides." At the heart of the tale is the transformation of a gay man to a researcher and scholar of gay issues. This tale is therefore at all times queer, gay, and straight. (Contains 11 footnotes.)

This paper reports on the process of a participant observation. Its focus is its process, not on what was observed. This report provides the following: (1) an overview of this observation, (2) the purpose of this observation, (3) the site and situation of this observation, (4) two samples of reflective field notes from this observation, and (5) an evaluation of this (observation) experience. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

This article used data from an ethnographic study to address the unique challenges facing novice teachers in their practice teaching in a cross-cultural context. Participants in the study were 15 student teachers in a U.S. study abroad program in South America. Student teachers' views were sought through a recursive process of review of students' documents, and participant observation of classroom teaching. The data revealed that efficacy as a cultural learner positively interacted with teacher efficacy. Student behavior and classroom management were a concern, but much misbehavior and problems with delivery of instruction were attributed to different cultural values held by the host culture than the home culture. The data also showed that while participants reflected typical trends in study abroad participation, their career paths were significantly different than what might be expected. Few participants pursued international careers, and none immediately began teaching after graduation. Nevertheless, participants highly valued the study abroad experience in general, and in particular, found that student teaching in an international setting increased their efficacy as teachers.

In 12 audio taped sessions, three kindergarten children engaged algebra in a teaching for understanding, thematic project. Toni, Asa, and Cornel had one-on-one lessons dealing with simple natural numbers, patterns, and relationships. Along the way, each child studied one of Toni Morrison's Who's got game books to explore repetition patterns in well written literature. Then, each child "algebrafied" a Liberian folktalk and a Chinese folktale to explore number, pattern, and relationship in simple arrays. Finally, they engaged square natural numbers one to four. On the practitioner research side of the project, the inquiry was this: What happens when kids explore natural numbers in simple arrays? This descriptive inquiry used an ethnographic-like, participant observer model to collect data systematically (3 lessons per session times 12 sessions or 36 lessons in all). In brief, the study found that three kindergarten children made generalizations, added to a web of knowledge, used mathematical memory, and displayed flawed reasoning as a springboard for new mathematical knowledge--what Susan Jo Russell called "mathematical reasoning." The paper captured what counted for learning and what counted for research. These were two themes of the 29th Ethnography and Education Research Forum at the University of Pennsylvania, 1 March 2008. (Contains an annotated bibliography.)

More than ever before, educational institutions are called upon to prepare young children for the demands of an increasingly globalised world and the challenges of preserving our biosphere upon which all human life depends. In order to provide them with the personal and professional foundations they need to participate in a multilingual and multicultural society, education systems increasingly aim at imparting sound knowledge of foreign languages, intercultural skills, and individual as well as collective environmental awareness, at the earliest stage possible, i.e. ideally at the start of a lifelong learning process. The EU-funded multilateral Comenius Project ELIAS (Early Language and Intercultural Acquisitions Studies) investigated ten bilingual preschools across Europe over a period of two years. Ethnographic participant observation of preschool activities, as well as a number of standardised and non-standardised tests for language development revealed that: (1) At preschool level, children already learn and successfully apply different strategies of intercultural competence; (2) The children attain a high level of competence in the foreign language (English), whereby language comprehension is in advance of language production. The level of language competence depends on the amount of contact with the language, as well as the language specific teaching methodological principles of the preschool teachers, that is, the way language is used when interacting with the children. Children with migration background learn the language faster than children with a monolingual German background; (3) The native language is not affected by the intensive input in the foreign language; on the contrary, the children's level of German increases developmentally according to their age. Children with migration background are not as disadvantaged as was initially feared: in line with other studies, it was shown that both languages of the children benefit from an increased language awareness; and (4) The children in a bilingual zoo preschool following an "green immersion" program show significant progress in terms of bilingual environmental competence. This development was found to depend on the age of the child as well as other individual factors. [Contributors include: Suzanne Akerman, Petra Burmeister, Aafke Buyl, Maria Büllesfeld, Jutta Daszenies, Martina Drewing, Michael Ewig, Anna Flyman Mattsson, Eva Frey, Lydia Gerlich, Lena Gotthardt, Jessica Granados, Alexandra Hähnert, Gisela Håkansson, Alex Housen, Jaklin Isensee, Sonja Janssens, Elke Kalbe, Holger Kersten, Kristin Kersten, Julia Kögler, Barbara Leloux, Annette Lommel, Sylvia Luft, Ute Massler, Katharina Neils, Svenja Pahl, Kai Perret, Thorsten Piske, Andreas Rohde, Marion Salentin, Christina Schelletter, Anke Schneider, Annelie Schober, Anja Steinlen, Sarah Taylor, Ramona Thierer, Shannon Thomas, Inge Strunz, Christine Tiefenthal, Christian Trumpp, Martina Weitz, Insa Wippermann, and Henning Wode.]

This study focuses on the perspectives of pre-service teachers exposed to cases in an educational psychology course. It considers how students view cases and how their thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes regarding case-based activities change throughout the semester. Both qualitative and quantitative data (participating observations, interviews, surveys, California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory) are presented regarding students' perspectives, as well as interview data on the perspectives of several EPY instructors who teach with cases. Students' perspectives are compared with the theoretical intent of cases and the expected learning outcome of teachers using cases to show correlating or opposing views. The following are appended: (1) Course Schedule; (2) Case Study Analysis Guidelines; (3) Interview Questions for Students; and (4) Interview Questions for Teachers. (Contains 4 figures.)