Rituals provide a latent structure for teachers that goes beyond the surface meaning of conformity and control to a deeper symbolic meaning for the participants. They are used as a way of defining what is to be taught and how it is to be taught, reflect the teacher's decisions about what is pedagogically sound, and are based on their personal…

The diverse student body at Illinois Central College has an average age of 30. For such students, life-long learning equips them to move beyond provincial aspects of their own communities and to place value on other heritages as well. To reach the diversity of the students found in the community college composition classroom, teachers need to…

This booklet focuses on teaching individuals with autism some social rules and routines that can be used in a variety of situations and applied across settings. It addresses the selection of interpersonal skill objectives, motivating the person with autism to try to interact, teaching ways to express feelings, helping peers to interact with…

This book is the result of a project to identify and disseminate examples of good practice in providing for children experiencing social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties in schools. The focus is on whole-school or classroom approaches to mainstreaming with experience from teachers of preschool to secondary grades. A major theme is providing…

This paper focuses on Steve, a high school science teacher, and his philosophy, including his beliefs and practices, over a 1.5-year period in an attempt to understand his change process--how his beliefs changed as a result of his dissatisfaction with his teaching practices. The paper shares this teacher's struggle with change and his transition…

This study investigated the effects of central control of mathematics content or examinations on classroom practice. Data from Population B of the Second International Mathematics Study was used to examine United States, British Columbia, and Ontario teachers' responses to questions concerning the amount of agreement among teachers about which…

This booklet reviews the literature and suggests effective strategies for teaching social skills to children and youth with autism. The first chapter reviews the four common approaches for promoting social development. An individual chapter is then given to each of these: direct skill instruction; antecedent prompting procedures; peer-initiated…

Many children who live in information-rich and eventful situations seem to know and to care relatively little about what is going on around them. Stimulating prosocial behavior and getting children involved in actual caring activities in their own environments may enhance children's interest in others, make them more open to relevant information,…

Models for structuring professional collaboration among teachers and special education staff in delivering services to mainstreamed secondary school students are described: (1) "Traditional Model"--special educators provide instruction in content areas so that students meet graduation requirements, and the students' enrollment in elective courses…

An experiment was conducted using the suggestopedia method to learn German vocabulary words. Four students who had failed, or nearly failed, tests during the regular university term, took part in two tutoring sessions in which the following procedure was used. First, a pretest of 72 lexical items was given. The students cooperated with the teacher…

Implementation in a college level course of the Therapeutic Community Teaching Concept, which creates a comforting community that values mutual concern, is described. (JH)

An examination of the effects of collaborative interaction among 13 elementary school teachers implementing an innovative teaching approach collected data pertaining to the subjects' interdependence and lateral communication from teachers' responses to questionnaires answered at 2-week intervals throughout a school year. Data for measuring teacher…

The potential influence of cognitive-behavioral theory on counselor preparation is an important aspect to consider in training counselors and therapists. To determine the effects of self-instruction and the knowledge of how to develop a clinical hypothesis on master's degree counselor trainees, two studies were conducted. In the first study, entry…

The proceedings from a 1983 conference on severely handicapped and autistic persons are presented. Eight papers focus on research findings and on issues such as alternatives to punishment, employment opportunities, and curriculum content. The following papers are presented: "Employment Outlook for Severely Handicapped and Autistic" (P. Wehman);…

Stephen Krashen's L2 (Second Language) Acquisition/Learning Theory and Georgi Lozanov's method of teaching through suggestion are compared in both their underlying theories and classroom applications. The seven component hypotheses of Krashen's theory and their neurological implications are analyzed for their agreement or disagreement with the…