An educational consultant with experience in teaching graduate courses for teacher certification in gifted education implemented a practicum designed to develop selected thinking skills in approximately 40 nursery school 3-year-olds. The practicum was also intended to inform parents of practical techniques for fostering important thinking skills…

A teacher of gifted children implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to improve regular classroom teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and skills concerning the education of gifted elementary school students. The intervention was designed to enable participants to identify characteristics and needs of gifted children, develop positive…

This practicum was designed to incorporate critical thinking skills instruction and practice into a fourth-grade curriculum to increase fourth-grade students' ability to recognize and apply critical thinking strategies to appropriate situations. This program concentrated on the increasing of six critical thinking skills: classification, sequence…

This practicum implemented a 13-week multisensory-based unit of study designed to assist the 25 first grade students in the target population in developing good citizenship. Opportunity for the students to glean an understand that sharing and caring, and interdependence, the major components of good citizenship, are universal necessities was…

This paper describes a strategy that was developed to help elementary school students to become more interested, involved, and accepted in school. The strategy involved a pen pal project in which students wrote to other students at an elementary school who were in other classes and at different grade levels. The idea was presented as a fun…

An excessive number of non-fiction books were shelved incorrectly in an elementary school media center where, due to budget cuts, the media specialist depended on fifth grade student volunteers for book shelving assistance. A 12-week training program was developed for the fifth grade media volunteers, who met once a week for 40 minutes. The…

This practicum report describes the implementation of a pilot program that used packets of learning materials to incorporate individualized instruction into a traditional curriculum in a kindergarten classroom. Objectives of the program were that 80 percent of students would demonstrate improvement in basic readiness skills, and that 90 percent of…

This practicum was designed to increase student achievement and to motivate 11th grade U.S. history students to consistently complete homework assignments, to actively participate in classroom discussions, and to perform with a passing grade of "C" or above on all examinations. This paper describes the development of a multicultural…

A course of study was researched, designed, and implemented to improve the writing of fifth-grade students. Objectives of the program were to develop more positive feelings about writing while increasing the quantity, quality, and variety of writing. Cooperative learning and process writing was discussed with the participants, their parents, and…

A primary grades specialist implemented a 10-week practicum intervention designed to increase third graders' social skills by training their teachers in cooperative learning techniques and providing cooperatively structured lessons. Eight skills were addressed; these included the skills of accepting peers' ideas for group activities, completing…

This practicum was designed to improve third grade students' problem-solving abilities through the use of problem-solving strategies. The project was implemented in a suburban elementary school that has a high percentage of students with limited or no English language skills. Activities were designed to increase the students' interest in solving…

This practicum was an 8-month project designed to improve the motivational level and academic success of African American middle school boys through high-interest and activity-based Africentric lessons. The goal was to motivate black middle school males to strive for academic excellence. This goal was necessary in order to eliminate the problem of…

A course of study was researched, designed, and implemented by the writer to learn mathematics apprehensions of fifth grade students. The primary goal was to reduce mathematics apprehension through positive mathematics experiences at home as well as in school. The objectives of the program were to develop a more positive feeling about mathematics…

One of the problems that teachers face in a knowledge-based social studies curriculum is the diversity of academic levels in a given class. The low level learner gets lost in the rush to cover the material and keep the interest of the other students. This project implemented a computer drill and practice program for those students who consistently…

The purpose of this practicum was to increase motivation and self-confidence of grade four students in mathematics achievement. Measured were the increase in the number of students displaying mastery of the times-tables, increase in the number of students making a gain on a math post-test, and increase in the number of students liking mathematics.…