Learning outside the classroom is an objective in primary education in the UK and an ideal way to introduce science. School grounds, allotments, community farms and sports areas, parks, nature reserves and community woodlands can be accessed in both urban and rural areas. These provide accessible spaces that can be used inexpensively throughout…

The purpose of this paper is to describe how a series of one-shot or single class library instruction webinars were created for on-campus and distance education students at Virginia Tech, a land grant institution in rural southwestern Virginia. Virginia Tech's distance learning department on campus trained in Centra 7.6 software and the lead…

Educational achievement in rural America is one of the country's great overlooked challenges. Rural students achieve below the U.S. average on national tests, and high school dropout rates are higher and college attendance lower than they are in cities and suburbs. When the U.S. Department of Education asks low-achieving schools to be turned…

Service learning, practiced effectively in Sharon (Massachusetts) Public Schools, should connect with learning topics that are already part of the curriculum, perform an ongoing service meeting a recognized community need, involve indepth learning, balance service with learning, and involve collaboration with community organizations. (Contains 14…

The authors present an overview of strategic planning, examine its history and mystique, and conclude that planning, if properly implemented, can have a powerful impact on advancing and transforming colleges and universities. (Contains 1 note.)

Thematic teacher education programs rest on the assumption that learning to teach requires building well-organized schemata that direct teacher action. The relationship of a theme to program characteristics that are critical to the development of this professional knowledge schemata is discussed. (Author/MT)

Considers the characteristics and benefits of learning communities/clusters/coordinated-studies programs, contrasting the unique features of the programs at LaGuardia Community College, Seattle Central Community College, and Daytona Beach Community College. Learning community characteristics involve 25 to 100 students working with three or four…

Discusses a theme-based project (third in a four-part series from the California Academy of Mathematics and Science) provoking critical thinking concerning meeting human needs through technology. Notes that students were "transported" back into the Middle Ages and had to raise money for their travel back to the future using science, mathematics,…

This paper reports program changes in the junior year internship that were made to bring practice closer to the theoretical goals of the Catholic University of America's teacher education program in Washington, D.C. The changes had the goal of increasing the quality and scope of education students' thinking about education, and they involved…

Describes the investigation of the effects of a four-step model program used with third through fifth grade students to implement Gardener's concepts of seven human intelligences--linguistic, logical/mathematical, visual/spatial, musical, kinesthetic, intrapersonal, and interpersonal intelligence--into daily learning. (BB)

While most of the dialogue in education today is about accountability, standardized testing, and adequate yearly progress, the truth is that student success is deeply connected to the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs that they have at different ages. The best schools already know this and follow practices that are academically engaging and…