To create an atmosphere that encourages student involvement and develops lifelong learners, educators are finding that differentiated instruction provides a viable framework. Typically, students who populate modern classrooms have diverse interests, varied cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and an assortment of literacy skill levels. Many are…

Despite recognition of the importance of a developmentally appropriate approach to sexuality education, there is little direct guidance on how to do this. This study employed in-depth interviews with experienced sexuality educators and developers of sexuality education materials to identify how this concept is understood and applied in the field.…

Laurie Ewert-Krocker emphasizes the teacher's role in nature's prepared environment. Without directing or controlling the child's work, learning spaces can be maximized for concentration by connecting the adolescent's intrinsic learning to the beauty and order of the natural world. The most artful balance is the global understanding of the…

This author acknowledges that teachers agree that "adolescents aren't always interested in the topics adults consider important for them to learn." It is easy for adults who have forgotten the wonder and uncertainty of the adolescent years to declare that students today are more uninterested in school and undisciplined in life than…

Contemporary reflection on queer-radical and queer-deconstructionist curricula has only marginally included a radical deconstruction of the principle of curricula itself. This article explores this "hidden discourse" by referencing the idea of curricular subjectivity and proposes a contextualizing perspective on the politicized interplay between…

This paper summarises the results of a Learning & Skills Development Agency-funded research project that focused on the pedagogy of teaching younger learners in English Further Education colleges. It sets out the background and rationale for the research, the methods used, and the main findings. It concludes by suggesting some features of best…

Examines results of a survey documenting the current state of adolescent programs in the Montessori schools of North America. Includes information on the students, adults, and physical environment of such programs, as well as the programs' enrollment, grouping, activities, and materials. (HTH)

Revisits the middle-level school movement. Provides an overview of young adolescents' development, offers representative examples of developmentally appropriate practices, and looks at progress educators have made as well challenges encountered. Emphasizes the importance of understanding physical, pychosocial, and cognitive development in young…

Many young adolescents, possibly as many as half, feel boxed in and bored in their middle schools. Research suggests that schools, parents, and the rest of the community must do more to make middle schools places where young adolescents thrive. In spite of the emergence of the junior high school and later the middle school in the 20th century,…

Following the introduction of the middle school in the 1960s with its advocacy of a 5-8 or 6-8 grade configuration, no comprehensive statement appeared to crystallize the educational beliefs inherent in this emerging educational reform effort. This paper is not just a revision of the 1982 position statement, but a "re-vision" of middle…

Concerns about middle level education began early in this century and will continue to be discussed by researchers and observers well into the next century. This digest examines the evolving characteristics and goals of middle level education, especially in terms of the most recent statements of purpose by major organizations in the field. Noting…