Describes an undergraduate course entitled "Nontraditional Families and Individual Development" that focuses on nontraditional families and their implications for life-span development while familiarizing students with psychological research, theories, and applied issues. Explains that this course was created as a response to the changing state of…

The literature suggests that teachers may rely more often on intuition when making course planning decisions than on informed assessment of learners' needs (Barkhuizen 1998; Spratt 1999). This article proposes a more principled alternative to the intuitive approach, based on the use of teacher-designed class-specific questionnaires intended to…

Prepared to help faculty implement service learning at Minnesota's Century Community and Technical College, this manual reviews service learning and provides strategies for developing components. The first part defines service learning, providing text from the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993. Next, sample service learning projects…

A national survey was conducted which examined the scope of freshman seminar programming, the characteristics of these seminars, and the variance between different types of freshman seminars with respect to their goals, topics addressed, and other characteristics. The study surveyed 2,460 regionally-accredited colleges and universities of whom…

This discussion describes standards developed by Villa Julie College (Maryland) to avoid arbitrarily designating courses as "upper-level." Initially the school established a double concept of quality: either the absolute or "floor" sense (taken from minimum standards of accreditation) or the relative or "ceiling"…

A description is provided of "Standard First Aid and Personal Safety," a required general studies course for first- or second-year health education students. The first sections present descriptive information on curricular placement of the course, time assignments, and targeted student populations; a glossary of terms; an overview of course…

The Somerset CSE Mode III integrated European Studies syllabus, which contains a French language course, is aimed at the lower and below CSE candidate. The second language element of the course is described and reasons for constructing such a course for less able students are discussed. (RM)

Problems of development of a defined syllabus for modern language courses are discussed, as well as the relationship of the syllabus to testing and public examinations in particular. (RM)

An experiential course in administrative practice was designed at the University of Maine to address public and professional demands for competency-centered preparation courses. The course employs a predesigned case study replicating a school setting to move students beyond theory and into the interpersonal relationships and personal dimensions of…

A diversity of practices exists with regard to the actual content taught in graduate-level courses in introduction to educational research. In a recent Delphi study, a national panel of 21 experts in educational research generated a list of 114 skills and knowledge areas they considered worthy objectives in an introductory course. What remained…

At Massachusetts Bay Community College a course was designed to create a transition from the process-based basic writing course to the traditional required freshman English course. WTG 100 was designed as an inquiry into academic writing, where students would learn about the various discourse conventions and expectations they would encounter as…

A self-instructional package for a unit in ritual behavior and belief systems for a community college cultural anthropology course is presented along with a discussion of its development. The first sections of the paper describe the objectives, procedures, and implications of the packet's development, indicating that conceptual references…

Ethical bases of the informed consent doctrine are explored relative to how much information students need before they take a course. Such information includes content, grading policies, assignments, course goals, teaching philosophy, and techniques. The major justification of informed consent is autonomy; individuals need adequate information to…

A communication and aging course could potentially enhance both gerontological care providers' understanding of older persons' communication needs, and the older students' communication proficiency. Regardless of the theory of social adaption to aging that the course embraces--disengagement, activity-personality, social exchange, or fundamental…

This document is a decision-making tool on the instructional process in Mississippi. It attempts to standardize curriculum content by identifying core skills that must be included in subject areas in kindergarten through grade 12. Subjects covered are reading, English/language arts, mathematics, art, computer education, foreign languages, health…