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Investments in early childhood programs are widely viewed as a promising strategy to improve the future educational achievement of disadvantaged young children. However, it can be difficult for teachers to maintain program quality if children in the classroom display challenging behaviors. For example, when some children act out aggressively or become sad and withdrawn, teachers may be diverted from instructional time to manage these behaviors. Not surprisingly, these diversions have a ripple effect on the entire classroom of children. This report presents the final implementation, impact, and cost findings from the Foundations of Learning (FOL) demonstration. The FOL demonstration was designed to increase productive classroom time by using intensive professional development, including in-classroom consultation with trained practitioners, to improve teachers' classroom management skills and the social and emotional competence of children who exhibit challenging behavior. The demonstration was conducted in two cities--Newark, New Jersey, and Chicago, Illinois--with very different preschool systems. The Newark preschool system was particularly well resourced, while the level of resources in the Chicago preschool system was much lower and more typical of urban districts around the country. The report concludes that the FOL intervention was delivered with relatively high levels of dosage (amount of services) and quality (as rated by teachers) in both cities, with some differences in the focus of in-classroom consultation between Newark and Chicago. The program had a positive impact on teachers' classroom management, increased instructional time, and improved children's social and emotional competence during the year of the intervention's implementation. However, there was no clear evidence of improvements in children's short-term academic achievement, despite the expectation that the benefits to the classrooms and to children's social and emotional outcomes would translate into better academic skills. Moreover, the limited data that were collected showed no evidence of sustained benefits when the children made the transition to kindergarten and first grade. Appended are: (1) Baseline Characteristics of Students; (2) Supplemental Material for Chapters 2 and 3; (3) Supplemental Material for Chapter 4; and (4) Supplemental Table for Cost Analysis. Individual chapters contain footnotes. (Contains 30 tables, 10 figures and 8 boxes.) [This report was written with Lynn Karoly.]

The paper's primary focus revolves around the pivotal role of effective classroom management in creating an optimal learning environment for students within the English department of an education faculty. Employing field research and a questionnaire, the researchers sought to gauge the significance of classroom management, drawing insights from the experiences and background knowledge of 105 students in their third and fourth years. The study identified key components for successful classroom management, encompassing curriculum and instructional aspects, teacher behavior, and the integration of management technology. The findings underscore the students' recognition of the critical importance of managing the classroom to ensure the smooth execution of learning activities and foster positive learning outcomes. The research advocates for teachers to prioritize various elements such as rule enforcement, strategic lesson planning, and active involvement in assessment processes. The paper concludes by asserting that language teachers must be attentive to the nuances of effective classroom management in their teaching practices, with the hope that the research's outcomes will serve as a valuable resource for language educators seeking to enhance their teaching methodologies.

A study determined if an individual's approach to conflict management could be altered by completing a college conflict resolution class. Subjects enrolled in a 3-hour, 16-week college conflict resolution course at a medium-sized, midwestern university. The pretest condition consisted of 15 females and 13 males, of whom 10 were undergraduate and 18 were graduate students. The posttest condition consisted of 14 females and 11 males, of whom 10 were undergraduate and 15 were graduate students. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Assessment form was used as pre- and post-test measure of subjects' perceived response to conflict situations. Results indicated that: (1) subjects shifted toward a preference in using a collaborative management style but still continued to use competing and compromising management styles; (2) an overall gender effect existed in the shift of perceived management style; and (3) more educated group placed less reliance on avoidance than the less educated group. (Contains nine references and four tables of data.) (Author/RS)

The main purpose of this article is to introduce a critical curriculum design approach for bringing curriculum change for Blended Learning in higher education. Furthermore, the strategies, principles and challenges of this approach are also presented. This paper provides a perspective on such serious concerns as whether curriculum change should start with professors, administrators, learners, education communities and/or professional reformers at local, state and national levels. Also, this paper includes treatment of the Radical Constructivists' view of blended learning with merging Media Richness Theory. The author hopes that it emphasizes the importance of considering a wide range of situations in implementing curriculum change, of matching innovation with the realities of the interactive classroom management in higher education. Besides, the authors' intention in this paper is to discuss the rights of learners and professors by fostering the courtesy, confidentially and human dignity of critical curriculum design for blended learning. (Contains 1 table.)

The main purpose of this article is to introduce a critical curriculum design approach for bringing curriculum change for Blended Learning in higher education. Furthermore, the strategies, principles and challenges of this approach are also presented. This paper provides a perspective on such serious concerns as whether curriculum change should start with professors, administrators, learners, education communities and/or professional reformers at local, state and national levels. Also, this paper includes treatment of the Radical Constructivists' view of blended learning with merging Media Richness Theory. The author hopes that it emphasizes the importance of considering a wide range of situations in implementing curriculum change, of matching innovation with the realities of the interactive classroom management in higher education. Besides, the authors' intention in this paper is to discuss the rights of learners and professors by fostering the courtesy, confidentially and human dignity of critical curriculum design for blended learning. (Contains 1 table.)

Project Based Learning (PBL) is a pedagogical approach that seeks to provide Year 7 pupils with independent and group learning skills to meet both the needs of the Year 7 curriculum as well as support their learning in future stages of their education. It particularly aims to improve their engagement in learning as well as practical literacy skills. This trial evaluates a specific type of PBL known as "Learning through REAL Projects", developed by the Innovation Unit--an independent social enterprise that aims to improve public sector services. A year long pilot project in 2013/2014 with eight schools (763 pupils) established the feasibility of a main trial. It provided the opportunity to develop the intervention and test the research procedures. The results contained in this report relate to a randomised controlled trial that took place between September 2014 and April 2016. Twelve intervention schools (2,101 pupils) and 12 control schools (1,973 pupils) were involved in the trial. REAL projects was delivered by teachers, supported in many instances by teaching assistants (TAs), with further support from senior leadership colleagues. It was delivered for a year in the intervention schools with a relatively large proportion of timetabled teaching (varying between 20% and 50%). In almost all cases it was delivered to mixed-ability Year 7 classes. The intervention used structured cross-subject "REAL Projects" planned by the delivery teachers who were supported by Classroom Coaches from the Innovation Unit. Schools were also supported by Leadership Coaches. REAL Projects are driven by an "essential question" which has significant educational content. The projects encouraged pupils to create an "excellent" product through drafting and redrafting and then to exhibit their work to an "authentic" audience. Visits were made to intervention schools at two time points and consisted of lesson observations, interviews, and focus groups with school leadership, project leads, class teachers, and pupils. Two case studies were also conducted in schools that it was agreed delivered the intervention well. Key conclusions are as follows: (1) Adopting PBL had no clear impact on either literacy (as measured by the Progress in English assessment) or student engagement with school and learning; (2) The impact evaluation indicated that PBL may have had a negative impact on the literacy attainment of pupils entitled to free school meals. However, as no negative impact was found for low-attaining pupils, considerable caution should be applied to this finding; (3) The amount of data lost from the project (schools dropping out and lost to follow-up) particularly from the intervention schools, as well as the adoption of PBL or similar approaches by a number of control group schools, further limits the strength of any impact finding; (4) From our observations and feedback from schools, we found that PBL was considered to be worthwhile and may enhance pupils' skills including oracy, communication, teamwork, and self-directed study skills; and (5) PBL was generally delivered with fidelity but requires substantial management support and organisational change. The Innovation Unit training and support programme for teachers and school leadership was found to be effective in supporting this intervention. Overall, the findings have low security. The trial was designed as a two-armed randomised controlled trial with schools being allocated to intervention or control groups. It was set up as an efficacy trial which aimed to test if the intervention can succeed under ideal conditions. However, 47% of the pupils in the intervention and 16% in the control group were not included in the final analysis. Therefore there were some potentially important differences in characteristics between the intervention and control groups. This undermines the security of the result. The trial results did not find that the PBL programme had an impact either on the pupils' literacy performance (as measured by Progress in English 12 tests), engagement, or attendance. The analysis did find a statistically significant negative impact on students eligible for free school meals (FSM), however no negative impact was found for lower-attaining pupils more generally, which makes it difficult to hypothesise why PBL might negatively impact FSM pupils specifically. This adds to the uncertainty of the finding.

The main purpose of this article is to introduce a critical curriculum design approach for bringing curriculum change for Blended Learning in higher education. Furthermore, the strategies, principles and challenges of this approach are also presented. This paper provides a perspective on such serious concerns as whether curriculum change should start with professors, administrators, learners, education communities and/or professional reformers at local, state and national levels. Also, this paper includes treatment of the Radical Constructivists' view of blended learning with merging Media Richness Theory. The author hopes that it emphasizes the importance of considering a wide range of situations in implementing curriculum change, of matching innovation with the realities of the interactive classroom management in higher education. Besides, the author's intention in this paper is to discuss the rights of learners and professors by fostering courtesy, confidentially and human dignity of critical curriculum design for blended learning.