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Public schools are replete with children and adolescents like Billy, Reid, and Rowdy whom teachers describe as rude, disruptive, and obnoxious, and not all of them are in special education. Asher (1990) estimated that 10% of school-age children have social skills deficits severe enough to be rejected by their peers and up to 75% of children with disabilities in early childhood programs need remediation in social skills (Odom, McConnell, & McEvoy, 1992). Professional educators generally agree that public education has a responsibility to help all learners attain a minimal level of social, as well as academic, competence. Surveys of teachers indicate that the majority of general and special educators think that social skills training should be part of the curriculum (Bain & Farris, 1991), and 94% of special education teachers believe that social skills training is an important component in the education of students with emotional and behavior disorders (EBD; Battalio & Stephens, 2005).

This study explores teachers' beliefs about pedagogical issues as well as related educational and professional issues. Six hundred K-12 teachers in three Midwestern states received surveys and 60% returned them. Results of the survey indicated that teachers were relatively unified in their beliefs, and few differences emerged around demographic variables. More teachers believed in teaching practices consistent with constructivism than believed in explicit instruction; however the majority of teachers were mixed, undecided, or balanced about pedagogy. Teachers reserved their strongest beliefs for the importance of learning style, eclectic instruction, and small class size in the primary grades. Few teachers believed that a great teacher is characterized by high student achievement outcomes, and over half believed that factors such as home environment or dyslexia prevent children from learning basic skills despite the school's best efforts. Teachers valued experience over education and training for professional development and viewed teaching as more of an art than a science. Results are discussed in relationship to current challenges in education. (Contains 2 tables.) [This project was supported by the Office of University Research Faculty-Student Research Collaboration grant program at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.]

The purpose of this study was to compare the beliefs and attitudes of teachers in conventional schools versus teachers in schools with implementations of Direct Instruction (DI). Teachers were asked to take sides on statements about classroom practices as well as related educational and professional issues. The results revealed statistically significant differences between groups on all items. The majority of DI teachers agreed with statements that supported explicit teaching practices, whereas the majority of conventional teachers were undecided or balanced on most items. Conventional teachers reserved their strongest support for the relevance of learning style, use of eclectic instruction, and the importance of small class size for academic achievement. Results also revealed important differences between DI and conventional teachers in their attitudes about professional issues. (Contains 4 tables.)

National and international assessments indicate that U.S. students lose ground in mathematics as they progress into middle and high school. It is suggested that the organization of traditional mathematics textbooks, which form the backbone of mathematics instruction, hinders acquisition of the foundational skills necessary for success in higher mathematics, thereby leading to low math performance. Traditional mathematics textbooks are organized into a spiral design where many topics are covered, but none are covered in depth. An alternative to the spiral organization, which is unique to Direct Instruction programs, is the strand design. Textbooks organized around a strand design focus on a relatively small number of topics over a long period of time. As topics are mastered, they are integrated into new strands that represent increasingly complex mathematical concepts. This article examines the disadvantages of the spiral design and shows how organizing textbooks into strands can increase the effectiveness of mathematics curricula. (Contains 2 figures.)

A survey of 59 general educators and 86 special educators in Wisconsin found teachers had limited knowledge about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the use of psychostimulant medication. Teachers, especially special educators, had positive attitudes toward such medication. Also, teachers were the school personnel who most often recommended an assessment for ADHD. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

A two-year study conducted in two fourth grade classrooms investigated the effectiveness of two mathematics curricula. Results found that a direct instruction program, "Connecting Math Concepts," resulted in significantly higher student scores on mathematics tests than the use of a traditional math basal textbook. (Contains references.) (CR)

Two longitudinal studies examined the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading achievement in primary grades. Results found a significant correlation between kindergarten performance on phonemic awareness tasks and second-grade reading achievement. A three-year followup of low-scorers indicated that most of those students (who were a heterogeneous group) could not read fluently. Includes "Test of Phonemic Awareness." (SM)

This study evaluated the transfer of decoding skills from a code-emphasis program that used a controlled text to a literature-based basal reading series consistent with the whole language approach. Participants were 11 elementary students with learning disabilities who received reading instruction in a resource program. Results found students generalized decoding skills from the controlled vocabulary to other texts. (Author/CR)

The Learning Enhancement and Progression (LEAP) clinic is an eight-week summer extension to the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire) teacher education program. The LEAP clinic has provided remedial instruction to more than 600 school-age children over the last 15 years. Five components involved are advanced preparation; teacher training; pretesting; instruction, collaboration, and evaluation; and posttesting and reporting. (DB)

This rejoinder to Carbo (EC 602 673) reiterates the author's premise in EC 602 672 that the learning style approach to teaching reading is similar to discredited process approaches. Carbo's documentation is criticized as being unscientific because of being based on testimonials, opinion, unpublished research, and unproven cause and effect. Differences in philosophy are also noted. (DB)

The application of learning styles to the teaching of reading to students with reading disabilities is critiqued in light of four factors: (1) inability to adequately assess learning styles; (2) failure to acknowledge the necessity of phonics instruction for beginning readers; (3) failure to consider the nature of reading disabilities; and (4) lack of convincing research. (Author/DB)

Studies the effects of reading instruction using D. Carnine and J. Silbert's "Direct Instruction Reading." Finds that direct instruction in phonics is more successful than basals at teaching the essential skills that provide the foundation for future success in reading. Dispels the myth that explicit phonics instruction interferes with reading comprehension. (MG)

The literature on the use of self-monitoring of attention with learning disabled (LD) students is reviewed in terms of models of cognitive behavior modification, methodological concerns limiting the interpretability of self-monitoring research, problems LD students have in selecting what to pay attention to, and implications for instructional design. (Author/DB)

This article considers the ramifications of early reading failure within the context of J. Chall's five-stage model of reading development: (1) initial decoding, (2) fluency, (3) reading for meaning, (4) relationships and viewpoints, and (5) synthesis. Instructional implications include learning disabled students' special need for good instruction in stage 3. (DB)

The study found that instructing 13 learning-disabled junior high students in the necessary prior knowledge (information and vocabulary concepts) led to superior reading comprehension performance. Textually explicit text structure also improved reading comprehension. (DB)

To investigate the relationship between achievement and intelligence quotient (IQ) in the learning-disabled (LD) population, changes in IQ scores of 49 LD students from early elementary grades to high school grades were correlated with variety of achievement scores. Results suggest that underachievement of LD students plays a predominant causal role in the achievement-IQ relationship. (Author/TE)

In response to a previous critique of her paper on self-monitoring of attention with learning disabled students, the author stresses the importance of effective curricula as a prerequisite to instruction in metacognitive strategies so that students know what to pay attention to. (Author/DB)

Learning styles represent a type of aptitude-treatment interaction suggesting that a person's distinctive characteristics (aptitudes) can be matched to a specific treatment (instructional method) yielding a more effective outcome than could otherwise have been achieved. Special education research does not support categorizing youngsters or using holistic methods with slow readers. Includes 18 references. (MLH)