The literary works surveyed here were written by authors who, as children, witnessed apartheid, holocaust, imprisonment, escape, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and other horrors that marked their lives. In each case, the selected texts are rendered as diaries or as first-person narratives describing disturbing situations which are resolved either…

An American Jewish woman learning Japanese in Japan examines the relationship between language, language learning, and personal identity. Autobiographical reflections are combined with entries from a diary and scholarly observations about the interrelationship of gender, race, culture, social class, historical experiences, and language learning.…

Elementary school instructional media centers (IMC's) were studied to determine the presence or absence of six conditions identified as promoting positive self-concept: cooperation, independence, success, positive atmosphere, challenge, and a feeling of value or acceptance. Following a review by a panel of experts of a preliminary observation…

Volume 1 of the dialogue journal newsletter contains contributions from the editors and teachers concerning the use of dialogue journals as a means of sustained written interaction between students and teachers at all educational levels and in second language and other types of instruction. The information presented includes techniques, ideas,…

Research indicates that writing can be an important vehicle for integrating all the learning that occurs in a foreign language. However, a number of factors have conspired to displace foreign language writing as a critical skill: the push for oral proficiency, departmental fragmentation, larger class sizes, and heavier faculty loads. Second…

Based on the diary of Mary Moody Emerson (1771-1863), which was discovered in the Houghton Library at Harvard University among the Emerson family papers, as well as on hundreds of her letters and other records, the lives of five generations of women within the Emerson ministerial dynasty are recovered, and their religious and family experiences…

Students in the two-year English education program at Trenton State College are asked to develop sourcebooks that contain their original writings, as well as "found" pieces about teaching and learning. The sourcebooks encourage students' on-going exploration of their past school experiences, the reasons for their decision to become…

This article describes the use of a Group Log to evaluate the personal growth experienced and group skills learned in group counseling in which the counselor-in-training writes a Group Log for each group experience. The evaluation criteria of the log are presented in terms of therapeutic forces and group dynamics observed, self-awareness…

The role and status of adjunct professors are examined by exploring advantages and disadvantages of part-time teaching. The urban university, the inner city college student, attrition, and large-scale team leadership development in the university are discussed. The diaries of an inner city career-oriented students are presented. A feature dialogue…

Notes from the diary of a private, church-related college's new president reveal some of the responsibilities, variety of roles, frustrations, and triumphs of the first year on the job. Among the issues are financial problems and fund-raising, faculty concerns, planning, public and intra-institutional relations, alumni concerns, and rumors. (MSE)

Reports the results of a case study of three elementary school library media centers (LMCs) that investigated the degree to which LMCs contribute to students' development of positive self-concepts. The relationship between self-concept and academic achievement is discussed, and research methodologies including interviews, observations, and written…

Describes how keeping a journal can help counselors analyze their professional development as they move from training to practice. The three-step process entails keeping an unstructured journal, writing a retrospective summary of the journal, and carefully analyzing this summary. Such reflection offers a framework for examining one's…

Five special education student teachers and their cooperating teachers maintained weekly journals reflecting upon successive, prescribed themes. The journal entries of both students and teachers confirmed that a practicum situation provides an opportunity for critical reflection, enhancing the student teaching experience as a shared occasion for…

Discusses the availability and utility of the various types of documentation that historians and students can use to research the German government's systematic extermination of the Jews, the Gypsies, and the handicapped during the 1930s and 1940s. Available documents include government records, private agency records, trial records, and…

Profiles a series of teaching activities that uses reproductions of entries from President Harry Truman's diary. The activities include content analysis and related research projects. Includes several reproductions of entries describing Truman's frustration with Congress, and his loneliness as his wife and daughter fulfilled other commitments.…