An ERIC digest considers several approaches to community study within the social studies curriculum. Material is divided into four sections. Following an introduction, "A rationale for community study" outlines skills and concepts that can be presented through community study and presents the rationale that community study can provide…

A project to help students assume more responsibility for the quality of teaching and learning is described. A three-credit-hour course in learning analysis (LA) exposed 875 students at six colleges to alternative teaching methods. Faculty members who were outstanding practitioners of various learning strategies (Keller Plan, audiotutorial,…

The curriculum now being taught in many kindergartens is profoundly different from what it was two decades ago. The kindergarten classroom, once conceived of as a play- and group adjustment-oriented setting, may now also be a classroom with an "academic" approach, characterized by direct teaching of discrete skills with specific…

Project KIT (Kids in Transition) of the Northern Trails Area Education Agency in Iowa assists in preparing for children's transition from early childhood special education programs to elementary regular/special education programs and transition from special education home intervention services to the preschool special education classroom. This…

A wide variety of second language teaching techniques reflecting the communicative approach are presented and discussed, with examples illustrating good practice in a communicatively oriented classroom drawn from recently published teaching materials. Most illustrations are for English language instruction because of the availability of suitable…

This handbook provides guidelines for teaching test-taking skills to students of all grade levels to help the students raise their standardized test scores. Topics covered include: understanding instructions and following directions, efficient use of time, intelligent guessing, and application of special strategies for multiple-choice and…

While the lecture method of instruction is a good way to transmit facts and information, techniques that actively involve the ego of the learner are preferable for affecting attitudes and/or developing conceptual skills. One family of such techniques is known as simulation techniques. Two methods widely used in industry and colleges are role…

Designed for use in grades K-12, award winning teacher-developed projects and courses in economics are described. Descriptions indicate grade level, project background, time allotment, objectives, activities, and evaluation. Arranged into 5 chapters, chapter 1 suggests ways to teach economic concepts to grades K-3. Projects include a lesson on…

The Prime Minister's Committee on Natural Science in Education in Great Britain reported in 1918 that "...in many schools more time is spent in laboratory work than the results obtained can justify." Seventy years later this conclusion can often still be drawn. This is particularly a problem in open distance education where laboratory practicals,…

This short guide examines three types of syllabi that can be used in helping adult English-as-a-second-language (ESL) students develop functional communication skills--grammatical, topical, and functional syllabi. Examples of the types of vocabulary that would be introduced in each curriculum are provided, and the main approaches that would be…

Despite predictions that handwriting would become obsolete in the age of technology, it is still considered an important skill today. Examples are cited of individuals who improved their understanding of themselves and of particular concepts after writing about their thoughts and feelings. Frequently, dyslexic students are denied access to this…

To examine the role of elaborations in learning a procedural skill (i.e., using a personal computer) from an instructional text, 88 members of the Carnegie-Mellon University community (students, faculty, and staff members) participated in two experiments. Experimental sessions consisted of a reading period followed by a task performance period in…

In order to substantiate the need for college level developmental reading programs, this paper reviews research conducted in the area from 1971 to 1981. The paper provides bibliographic information for 96 entries drawn from a search of ERIC, Dissertation Abstracts International, the William S. Gray Research Collection in Reading, and journals in…

This manual is intended to be a survival guide for newly assigned teachers who have had little or no preservice training in teaching English as a second language (ESL) and who do not have access to such training prior to being assigned. The manual contains a set of beginning and intermediate lessons that can be used for the first 20 to 30 hours of…

Designed to focus on student learning and to illustrate techniques that might be used with computers to facilitate that process, this paper discusses five types of computer use in educational settings: (1) learning ABOUT computers; (2) learning WITH computers; (3) learning FROM computers; (4) learning ABOUT THINKING with computers; and (5)…