In cooperative learning, students work together in small groups on tasks that require cooperation and interdependence among all individuals in each group. This digest looks at how cooperative learning can be used as an effective method for working with students from diverse language backgrounds. Focus is specifically on the structural approach to…

The field of educational technology was built on the positivist, modernist search for a best medium towards universal communication and the teaching of predetermined behavior and thinking patterns. Once, this medium was thought to be motion pictures, then television, then programmed instruction, and today it is hoped that it will be instructional…

Learning to read and write effectively is a challenging task for many adults, particularly for those who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. In spite of concerted efforts by educators to facilitate the development of literacy skills in deaf individuals, most deaf high school graduates read English at roughly a third or fourth grade level as determined by…

The idea for this monograph came from discussions among graduate faculty about how to deal with the issues of race, ethnicity, and other controversial issues in the classroom and around campus. The number of racially and ethnically diverse students on U.S. college campuses has increased dramatically, and the most significant aspect is the…

This brief paper offers an overview of strategies, with practical examples, to infuse multicultural content into the curriculum for gifted students. It proposes a framework for multicultural gifted education based on the four levels or approaches of J. Banks and C. Banks and within each approach, the six levels of B. Bloom's taxonomy. The four…

The reading scores of urban disadvantaged students have risen over the past 15 years, which may be attributable to special programs which have focused on strengthening the rudimentary skills. Whether reading achievement is dependent on students' mastery of standard English is an unresolved issue, but a number of instructional methods have been…

Presents ERIC Digest No. 43 which examines the meaning of the term "Pacific Rim," reasons for emphasizing the Pacific Rim in the social studies curriculum, and useful strategies for teaching about that part of the world. Lists references, including ERIC resources, used in the digest's preparation. (GEA)

This digest provides basic information on phonological awareness in the process of learning to read for students with learning disabilities. It considers how phonological awareness fits into this process and the special problems experienced by children with learning disabilities or from culturally diverse backgrounds. Suggestions for teaching…

Research indicates that the instructional conversation (IC), a dialogue between teacher and learner in which prior knowledge and experiences are woven together with new material to build higher understanding, can be an effective method for raising the low academic achievement levels of various groups of Native American students. The IC contrasts…

One way to approach the question of whether teaching adults is different is by examining the types of learning in which adults engage. Adult learning has been classified as subject oriented, consumer oriented, and emancipatory. Only emancipatory education has been described as unique to adulthood, but even that claim has been challenged. As a…

The teaching of writing to students who speak nonstandard English can be difficult because students' linguistic differences rarely indicate true incompetence, and students' writing problems may result from conflicts between the cultures and language uses at home and school. Factors found to encourage writing improvement are the following: (1)…

Malcolm Knowles is attributed with developing the most cogent model underlying the assumption that teaching adults should differ from teaching children and adolescents. His andragogical model is based on the premise that adult learning differs from preadult learning. Two studies have examined whether teachers do actually use a different style when…

This annotated bibliography contains 28 references to articles in the ERIC database about interpersonal communication. It contains citations from the period between 1987 and 1989 and is divided into three sections. The first section presents several citations for instructional strategies in the area of interpersonal communications. The second…

Research on adult learning shows that there is no decline in ability to learn as people get older, that except for minor considerations such as hearing and vision loss, the age of the adult learner is not a major factor in language acquisition, and that the context in which adults learn is the major influence on their ability to acquire a new…

Cultural differences, including the personal cultures of learners and educators and the culture of the larger social-political environment, are relevant to adult learning. Culture includes those values, beliefs, and practices shared by a group of people. Cultures tend to vary along a number of dimensions, and the following dimensions are among…