This volume is a synthesis of interviews conducted with 48 teachers who are infusing their large classes (over 100 students) with small-group activities or are working explicitly to create student communities within large classes. The chapters are: chapter 1, "The Argument for Making Large Classes Seem Small" (James L. Cooper and Pamela…

The feature story in this issue, "Managing the Collaborative Learning Environment," focuses on the growing emphasis on teamwork in the workplace. It discusses how the concept of empowering employees in the workplace is evolving and the benefits--faster decision making, lower costs and absenteeism, higher productivity and quality, and…

Issues in making small-group instruction effective are addressed in this theme issue, which focuses on an approach called Complex Instruction (CI). Developed by Elizabeth Cohen at Stanford University (California), the approach is designed for middle school students in heterogeneous classes. The program is based on four goals to help teachers…

This report offers a synthesis of a Special Issues Analysis Center report based on a focus group that studied active learning and its implications for limited English proficient (LEP) students. Active learning is defined as the level of engagement by the student in the instructional process; it implies the development of a community of learners…

Four issues of the quarterly publication of the Association of New York State Educators of the Emotionally Disturbed are brought together in this document. Each issue includes an editorial, articles, ideas from classroom teachers, letters to the editor, and abstracts of recent literature. Titles and authors of major articles include: "Providing…

Part of the Australian "Reading Around Series," this document offers a set of guidelines for fostering cooperative learning in a language arts classroom. The problems with competitive and/or individual learning, and the reasoning behind cooperative learning, are presented in the first section of the document. The second section outlines…

This document is a "theme" issue of a quarterly serial publication. It focuses on identifying and serving gifted children from diverse populations. The first article, "Eliminating Four Barriers to the Identification of Gifted Minority Students" by Mary Frasier, notes that: (1) not every impoverished home is illiterate; (2) limited opportunities…

Designed to promote discourse on teaching, learning, and professional development, this spring 1992 issue of Massachusetts Bay Community College's (MBCC's) "Educational Forum" documents modes of inquiry and faculty development activities that MBCC has found promising. The following articles are contained in the issue: (1) "Education Through…

This first serial issue addresses topics and issues impacting educational services for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners. The issue contains three research-into-practice articles, an interview section called "In the Oral Tradition," and three teacher-generated articles which delineate learner-enhancing practices for…

When the Winnetka public school system reexamined its philosophy, questions were raised about the alignment between theory and practice. This sourcebook represents the thinking of teachers about how the validity of their philosophy of education rests on their ability to analyze what they are, discover how they came to be what they are, and imagine…

This annual serial volume offers readers glimpses into learning communities, demonstrating how students are brought together for the common purpose of learning. It gives a view of the teacher as learning guide and facilitator of group discussions and activities. The articles are a primer on how to build one's own learning community. The overriding…

The report discusses and defines consumer education for high school students, describes various consumer education school programs, annotates available sources and resources, and notes several issues needing attention. Consumer education is defined as an effort to prepare students for participation in the marketplace by imparting the…

This document contains three articles on teaching the growing population of nontraditional students. "The Changing Demographics of the Classroom" defines "nontraditional students"; reviews the characteristics, risk factors, and special needs of nontraditional students; and identifies the following services as particularly important to…

Cooperative learning is a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject. Typical cooperative learning strategies used in grades 2 through 12 involve student teams in which students: (1) work on group projects that emphasize…

The twenty-four articles in this collection focus on the problems presented by the increasing numbers of exceptional students with whom the English classroom teacher must deal: physically, emotionally, and mentally handicapped; nonnative speakers of English; nontraditional students; speakers of nonstandard dialects; the gifted and talented; and…