Describes the "workability" of a K/1--kindergarten/first grade--multi-age classroom. (BB)

The QUILT (Questioning and Understanding to Improve Learning and Thinking) program tested the hypothesis that well-designed staff development would positively affect teachers and students. QUILT increased and sustained teacher use of classroom questioning techniques to produce higher levels of student learning and thinking. QUILT participants…

Examines some of the basic issues involved in creating a warm and safe day-care environment for infants and toddlers, one that supports and promotes development and learning. Describing policies that were generated from everyday classroom experience, discusses the issues of security and trust, separation anxiety, group size, exploration and…

Effective school principles can help provide successful programs for American Indians. Principles include a clear school mission, assessment of comprehensive needs and monitoring of student progress, appropriate curriculum and instruction, opportunity to learn, time spent on task, high expectations, safe and supportive school environment, good…

Important features of practicums for teachers of elementary school language immersion programs include: mentoring and peer coaching; guidance in self-analysis, observation, and reflection on teaching practices; and experience with realities of immersion. A period of induction beyond the practicum is also recommended. (19 references) (MSE)

Assesses the range of variation among the predominant types of professional development programs for principals in the 1980s. Highlights divergent trends in organizational processes and program content that characterize these programs, and identifies their varying potential for reaching competing policy goals. (JB)

Discusses the success of the partnership between the Cone Elementary School and the Verner Springs Head Start Center in Greenville, South Carolina. The collaboration provides a full-day program for four-year-old children which addresses curriculum and assessment, enrollment, transportation, health services, nutrition, and the concerns of special…

Discusses what has been learned about building school/community partnerships through the "Health Professions Schools in Service to the Nation Program," a national demonstration program of service-learning in health-professions education. Issues include: the challenge of distinguishing service learning from clinical experience; community attitudes…

Practicum experiences and feelings of preparedness to teach were compared for 88 Ontario student teachers in either the fourth year of a "concurrent" undergraduate preservice program or a 1-year "consecutive" graduate preservice program. The two groups did not differ in teaching self-efficacy or the number of classroom…

A study investigated the use of dialog journals as a tool for promoting the learning of 13 prospective teaches in a multicultural teacher education course. How the dialog journals promoted reflection among the prospective teachers and helped the instructor adapt instruction to better meet students' needs is explained. (Author/CR)

Reports on the design and formative evaluation of interactive multimedia instruction to develop reflective thinking in preservice student teachers at the University of Ottawa (Canada). Highlights include ease of use, including navigation; instructional design; program effectiveness; and suggestions for further research, including the application…

Responds to a critique of "The Small ICF/MR Program: Dimensions of Quality and Cost" (Conroy), that questioned the research design of the study. It emphasizes the significantly higher quality of life ratings for community living arrangements in opportunities for choice-making, integration, individualization, and other measures. (CR)

Details the work of Claudia Vangstad who expanded the range of the MRI approach to transform a school culture. Vangstad significantly increased her effectiveness not by limiting applications of the MRI problem-solving approach to individuals, but rather by expanding the range of approach to include larger units: psychoeducational groups,…

This paper uses data from the 1996 and 2001 panels of the Survey of Income and Program Participation to assess the impact of recent policy initiatives intended to increase access to Food Stamps. It finds that reductions in state certification requirements increased Food Stamp participation rates of income-eligible families with children by one to…

Designing a curriculum is much more than a technical process. Indeed, it could be called a political activity because stakeholders usually attribute different values to, and hold different expectations from, a new curriculum. As early as 1949, Tyler had raised this issue in his classic "Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction."…