A licensed counselor working in a privately owned mental health facility implemented a practicum study designed to improve the parenting skills and quality of family communication in families with children between 3 and 14 years of age. Practicum goals were to: (1) give parents information that would improve their parenting skills; and (2)…

Media specialists concerned about students' academic achievement can work with teachers to extend the scope of classroom activities through instructional development, and institute professional improvement programs when training and knowledge are lacking. Studies show significant gains in achievement test scores are attributable to presence and…

This report reviews the background of the Instructional Systems Design (ISD) model (used to develop training for Naval personnel), identifies problems in the ISD process and in its management and implementation, and recommends methods of ISD improvement. The ISD model is described as a process originally developed to remind instructional…

This notebook is designed to help educators who are currently learning to design and present inservice programs, educators who are already inservice providers but who might benefit from an overview of inservice theory, and educators who are hiring, supervising, or evaluating inservice providers. It is divided into three parts: (1) Introduction and…

Highlights the differences between American and Australian undergraduate economics instruction and indicates those aspects of the American teaching model likely to be adapted. Specifically, Australian teachers favored deemphasizing the traditional lecture/tutorial model in favor of a more student-oriented approach. (MJP)

This paper presents ideas relating to curriculum organization from the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development publication, "Excellence in Our Schools: Making It Happen," which attempted to synthesize nine reports written in response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education report, "A Nation at…

The inclusion of multicultural education in the curriculum of child care centers is becoming a necessity, particularly in homogeneous communities, as the ethnic make-up of society continues to change. This practicum project implemented and evaluated a strategy intended to increase the use of multicultural education in a middle-to-upper-class…

The instructional management system of Glendale (Arizona) Union High School District is described. Efforts in this area are coordinated through six interrelated components: (1) a well-defined curriculum, with extensive review and community survey of learner priorities; (2) program improvement plans based on the Theory Z concept, in which the…

Bilingual immersion programs combine second language immersion for language majority children and bilingual education for language minority children. The programs are based on the underlying assumption of the immersion model: that a second language is best learned as a medium of instruction, not as the object of instruction. However, they are not…

The El Paso Independent School District, in an effort to reduce the dropout rate and promote academic success among Hispanics, developed a high-intensity language training (HILT) curriculum in English as a second language (ESL) for limited-English-speaking students, to prepare them for full participation in regular subject-area courses. The…

A project was undertaken to develop an inservice staff development program for vocational teachers working with disadvantaged students in local school districts in Pennsylvania. The focus of the inservice activity was on the improvement of instructional approaches such as individualized instruction, teaching and reteaching, small group…

This booklet, the first in a series of four volumes on the Designing a Curriculum (Dacum) process, is intended to explain to Dacum workshop participants exactly what Dacum is and why it was created. The first section of the guide traces the development of Dacum as a program planning model that was established in the late 1960s in response to the…

This collection of 38 articles, reprinted from "Emergency Librarian," addresses critical elements of school library media program development and implementation, organized by seven areas: foundations; the school context; role clarification; information literacy; collaborative program planning and teaching; program development; and…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…