Sound Learning is a partnership among the Georgia State University (GSU) School of Music's Center for Educational Partnerships in Music (CEPM), the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, professional musicians in the Atlanta area, and schools in metropolitan Atlanta. It is a curriculum-based music education partnership designed to enrich children's music…

This paper presents an empirical study of how Second Life (SL) was utilized for a highly successful project-based graduate interdisciplinary communication course. Researchers found that an integrated threefold approach emphasizing project-based pedagogy, technical training and support, and assessment/research was effective in cultivating and…

Outdoor-based experiential training (OBET) programs are being used increasingly by U.S. business firms, but intense controversy surrounds their use and there is little empirical evidence concerning their validity. Changes in team building (group) and individual behaviors were assessed among 43 OBET participants who were managers or professional…

Research shows that hands-on science education is more effective than a textbook and lecture approach. This suggests that the "new curriculum" introduced in science classes in the seventies was more effective than was thought. (JM)

Identifies nine categories of essential elements found in three successful experiential education programs. Categories of program elements are: purposes; setting; characteristics of participants; learning strategies; student roles; instructor roles; product of learning activities; management and support; and program outcomes. (JD)

Addresses the coherence of the principles of action learning, the consequences of employing certain variants in school management courses, the implications for action learning of research into effective training, and the need for thorough evaluation. (Author)

The article offers a commencement-based (as opposed to a credential-based) model of secondary education for individuals with mild mental retardation. Five model components stress process, personal experience, adult community success, circular individualized education plans, and time as the validator of program effectiveness. (Author/DB)

Includes "Outdoor Training: Revolution or Fad?" (Wagner, Baldwin, Roland); "Getting the Most out of Outdoor Training" (Buller, Cragun, McEvoy); and "Outdoor Training Companies" (a directory of more than 100 firms). (JOW)

Twelve classes of students in grades 4 through 6 studied beaver ecology, either at an outdoor-education center near Toronto or in the classroom. Results indicate that outdoor education was more effective in promoting students' cognitive achievement than classroom study, but did not confirm the popular belief that outdoor programs influence…

Effective adventure programming is explained in terms of the "significant learning" experience, involving periods of tension, questioning, and transfer during personal and social learning. Adventure programming that is supportive, adaptive, and properly sequenced maximizes the potential of significant learning. Trust- and…

Describes the stages of the transtheoretical model of change, in which the locus of control is with the changer. Compares this to the action model of change widely used in experiential education, and draws upon experiences in adventure therapy to show how using the transtheoretical model in debriefing can make experiential learning more effective.…

Learning communities (LC) seek to strengthen and enrich students' connections to each other, their teachers, and the subject matter they are studying. Their success depends on the nature of the learning community program, the learning styles of the students who participate and the reasons why students entered the program. This study uses a…

Reviews a series of service-learning programs implemented over a four-year period by special education teachers enrolled at California Lutheran University's preservice graduate program. Finds that an increasing number of these programs involved students with special needs in the service learning projects. These "reciprocal empowerment"…

An evaluation was conducted of the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) program at the end of its second year of implementation. Evaluation data were collected in the following ways: regular meetings with project staff; on-site observations of program activities; results from pre and posttesting students; inspection…

A study was done to see if a teacher-guided, sequentially-arranged program of instruction for kindergarten children used in addition to a regular classroom program is more effective in producing general intellectual gains and specified behavioral characteristics than two instructional alternatives. These alternatives were (1) participation in a…