Argues that instructional strategies, like cooperative learning and inquiry-based learning, require new methods of evaluating student performance. Describes an assessment portfolio approach to student evaluation with four components: (1) a Decision of the Week; (2) a History Log; (3) Geo Storms; and (4) a Point-Counterpoint debate topic. Includes…

Examines issues concerning school vouchers as a way to improve the nation's public schools. Focuses on: (1) inequality in teaching and schooling; (2) public education and social mobility; (3) the Cleveland, Ohio school voucher program; (4) how school vouchers undermine public schools; and (5) the political debate. Asserts that voucher programs are…

This article concerns an issue that often remains implicit within the public debate about affirmative action and related race-conscious education policies: What role do contested moral ideals play in the disagreement about affirmative action? As background, the article first outlines what a moral disagreement is and then goes on to examine the…

This paper reports a qualitative study on students' informal reasoning on a controversial socio-scientific issue. Twenty-two students from four science classes in Norway were interviewed about the local construction of new power lines and the possible increased risk of childhood leukaemia. The focus in the study is on what arguments the students…

As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. Licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience. This course, Education 590 Culminating…

A set of lessons for teaching about the debate that produced the Bill of Rights to the Constitution of the United States is presented. Initially, the lessons introduce students to the positions taken by prominent Federalists and Anti-Federalists over the need for a bill of rights. These activities prepare students for a subsequent lesson that…

This is a compilation of selected articles and a bibliography on the 1978-79 intercollegiate debate proposition: Resolved, that the Federal Government should implement a program which guarantees employment opportunities for all U.S. citizens in the labor force. The introduction briefly reviews the United States post-World War II history of…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 14 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the effects of student generated self-management objectives on the frequency of higher cognitive verb and noun usage in classroom interactions; (2) a logarithmic solution to the…

A list of 87 French expressions that are commonly used in discussion and argumentation is presented. The list was compiled from over 200 documents consisting of transcriptions of radio or television programs and transcriptions of discussions or interviews published in newspapers or periodicals. The material utilized was in the form of dialogues…

This index to the major communication journals published before 1975 contains a table of contents listing the primary articles in 13 journals, a subject index of those articles, and a contributors' index. The journals included are "The Quarterly Journal of Speech,""Speech Monographs,""The Speech…

This article presents 10 practical teaching procedures to encourage students to develop formal reasoning skills. A twelfth-grade English course is used as an example. Procedures include pretesting, sequencing instruction, providing students with concrete experiences, discussing reasoning patterns and forms of argumentation, assigning argumentative…

This document is a transcript of a forum held in Washington, D.C. on June 6, 2006 on performance-based compensation in public education. The discussion was introduced by Eugenia Kemble, executive director of the Albert Shanker Institute, forum sponsor. The forum was moderated by Milton Goldberg and featured speakers Edward Lawler (director, Center…

In this lesson plan, each student acts as a Member of Parliament (MP) in England in 1832 who must analyze the effects of what some people are referring to as the "Industrial Revolution." Students will write a bill, write a speech, and participate in debates. Students are provided with background information, detailed instructions, online…

This article describes two techniques for using debate as an instructional method with undergraduate and graduate students in a health occupations teacher education program. Faculty and students involved with the debate process enjoy the debate method and find it encourages independent study, group discussion, and leadership development. (Author)

Two activities for grades 3 through 8 explore species adaptation and forestry issues in the North American rainforests. In one activity, students create imaginary species of plants or animals that are adapted for life in an ancient temperate rainforest. In the second activity, students role play groups affected by plans to log an area of the…