This paper discusses the instruction of adult performance outcomes and life skills in classes for students with mental disabilities. Basic considerations in teaching life skills include teaching for lifelong learning, teaching for relevancy, and teaching beyond textbooks and classrooms. Several strategies have contributed to the success of…

A conceptual framework of social competence is presented to formulate actions that will enhance the social competence of learners with mental disabilities. This chapter discusses the individual's culturally determined inputs; the processes of social affects, social skills, and social thinking; and the desired social outcomes. The history of social…

Using ethnographic research techniques, a study examined the nature of the process whereby a three-member collaborative writing group responded to literature and to each other through a local area network (LAN) and also generated a group composition. The three subjects--of varied educational backgrounds--discussed questions associated with a novel…

Operation SMART (Science, Math and Relevant Technology) is a project of the Girls Clubs of America, a national organization serving mostly low-income girls in local club centers. Girls clubs provide out-of-school programming that pays special attention to the needs of girls and helps them take charge of their futures. Operation SMART's hands-on…

The purposes of this teaching handbook are to provide building blocks necessary for developing a course of study for secondary students in economics and to present resources and references. It is arranged in seven sections. An introductory section describes some economic organizers--the models structure and methods of analysis--that are useful for…

An analysis is presented of the Hunter Staff Development Model. Suggestions for improving the implementation of the model are based on a review of the literature pertinent to the Hunter model, and a series of interviews with: (1) teachers and administrators who have received training in the Hunter model; (2) a group of Hunter Staff Development…

The old saying, that a single spark can start a prairie fire, appears in many forms and in different cultures carrying a range of shifting implications and meanings. In this article, William Ayers writes that in some instances, prairie fires are not always catastrophic. They are naturally occurring events necessary and renewing; removing the thick…

This paper focuses on the establishment of a curriculum model, as part of a larger study concerning the role of Chinese music in secondary school education in Hong Kong. The study employed a two-pronged approach, consisting of (i) a questionnaire survey conducted among 209 secondary school music teachers, and (ii) interviews with 26 professionals…

Operating systems theory primarily concentrates on the optimal use of computing resources. This paper presents an alternative approach to teaching and studying operating systems design and concepts by way of parametrically optimizing critical operating system functions. Detailed examples of two critical operating systems functions using the…

It is suggested that historical material concerning the model of the earth be utilised in the science classroom to construct narrative explanations. The article includes the various ancient models of the earth, the discovery of the spherical earth model, and the arguments and experiments coupled with it. Its instructional gain may lie in the…

A Presentation of Paulo Freire's approach to literacy, this article offers biographical information, a discussion of his educational concepts and a detailed description of his methodology. A two part appendix offers a list of key words and pictures of situations. (MW)

The teaching of poetry can be used as a language experience approach to develop good writing skills in elementary and high school students. This paper discusses the techniques a "poet-in-residence" employed to help students create poems and, indirectly, to teach the function of such writing skills as parts of speech, punctuation, and…

Contained in the curriculum planning guide developed by the Chapel Hill Gifted-Handicapped Project are a model, a training sequence, and 17 instructional units for use with preschool gifted children. The model is explained to be based on the hierarchy of cognitive tasks developed by B. Bloom. A worksheet for teachers suggests activities to help…

This document provides supplemental information for the user of the online version of the Job Aid for Selecting Instructional Setting which is one of 13 job aids presently available for use with the Instructional Systems Development (ISD) model. It is not intended to be a stand-alone publication. Included in this document are sources of…

Contingency management is a system focused on managing the motivation of students, and can be developed and utilized in any type of physical education environment from elementary to college levels. An analysis of two existing contingency management learning systems (one for a fifth-grade gymnastics unit and the other for a seventh- and eigth-grade…