Describes a 10-year effort to restructure an urban school system. Central to the process was the role of school principals, who were vested with responsible autonomy in the administration and leadership of their schools. Those who were considered most successful in the restructuring effort were interdependent with, rather than independent of,…

Describes the mental and physical coping behaviors of a disabled adventure education participant in her efforts to make personal, challenging choices without group pressure. A "universal programming" commitment incorporates equity and inclusion by allowing for individual choice and attitude modification within challenging group activities. (SAS)

Reports an effort to teach second-language students how to become autonomous in their language learning by combining learning-strategy instruction with course content. Examines usefulness of a required language-learning project for guiding students through self-assessment, goal-setting, planning, monitoring, and evaluating their own language…

An experiential practitioner discusses the foundations of his ethical perspective on challenge by choice--participant choice within adventure activities. These foundations include existential and experiential philosophy, leisure theory, and the adventure-based counseling model. The ethics of choice and informed consent is discussed in relation to…

Discusses five Montessori insights about children's development as they relate to family and school life: independence and autonomy, community and socialization, interest in culture and morality, preadolescents' apprenticeship for adulthood, and adult acceptance of the evidence of change. Notes that underlying dynamics of home and school are alike…

A study investigated out-of-school outcomes for 505 students with disabilities. Conventional item analysis procedures were used to construct a priori quality-of-life composites (social relationships, employment, and independence) from 17 questionnaire variables. Results indicate that although quality of life is multidimensional, competence appears…

The purpose of this article is three-fold: to review issues to be considered when counseling African-American adolescent females; to discuss counseling implications based on those issues; and to illustrate a school counselor successfully assisting and empowering a member of this adolescent group. (Author)

Describes how in one English language teaching project in Japan, students studied English in a way that increased their ability to participate in their community, both presently and in the future. Searching out a range of information resources from their own context and on the Internet and connecting them with their daily life, they experienced…

Interviews with 10 itinerant teachers of students with hearing impairments found participants preferred working directly with students rather than consulting with general education teachers and families. Primary advantages to itinerant teaching included variety, autonomy, time for reflection, and student diversity. Professional isolation was…

Examines role that constructivist teachers play in fostering moral development in young children. Traces development of perspective taking, autonomy, and self- regulation, and examines effects of different teaching and parenting practices on children's character development. Provides suggestions for teachers to promote optimal moral development by…

As a profession, we are failing to socialize newer generations of faculty concerning the professorate's social contract with society and the critical importance of faculty professionalism (our ethical duties as professors) to the social contract. We strongly assume that the apprentice model of graduate education will acculturate the next …

This paper addresses the theme of the special issue by looking at the development of student autonomy in learning in the French programme at the University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. The paper explains why a focus on autonomy is apt to meet both the programme's linguistic goals and its larger societal goal of preparing…

Many practitioners are now grappling with the practical realities involved in collaborations between mainstream and special schools. Colin Gladstone is a teacher at Greenside, a special school in Hertfordshire. In this article he describes his experience of running a Young Enterprise Scheme project linking teenage students with severe learning…

Thirty-two middle class and 32 lower class southern Brazilian pre-adolescent (M=12.8 years) and adolescent (M=15.7 years) participants were individually interviewed regarding their perceptions of who (adolescent or parent) should determine the adolescent's actions in cases where the parents and adolescent disagree over the action choice.…

This paper discusses the findings of two case studies (two primary schools in Singapore), which are part of a larger research study, that aims to examine and analyze where and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are integrated in Singapore schools to engage students in higher order thinking activities. For students to engage in…