Explains that narrative history is usually the focus in history instruction but contends that argument-based history should be taught instead. Views argumentation as a means for engaging students actively in historical interpretation where the students can express the higher order thinking skills that interpretation entails. Provides examples of…

Review of 205 continuing medical education (CME) websites found the following: most university sites offered only class schedules; far more commercial sites than university sites offered online CME content; 60-80% of content met quality control standards; only 10% of sites provided information on peer review of content. (SK)

Teaching about diversity or multiculturalism in counselor education programs is a challenge. Racism as a topic is an emotionally charged subject. Knowledge about racism provides a foundation for personal exploration. A course in multicultural counseling is outlined with strategies for teaching it. (Author/EMK)

Proposes a two-pronged shift in distance higher education investigations by reassessing the emphasis on students and placing it on the course itself, and expanding the scope of investigations to include students' subsequent performance in other classes. Presents a case study from Christopher Newport University (Newport News, Virginia). (AEF)

Describes an undergraduate course entitled "Nontraditional Families and Individual Development" that focuses on nontraditional families and their implications for life-span development while familiarizing students with psychological research, theories, and applied issues. Explains that this course was created as a response to the changing state of…

Describes the genesis of a developmental critical-thinking course offered at Southeastern Louisiana University (SLU) that melds two imperatives: to provide a comprehensive developmental-education program and to satisfy the critical-thinking requirements of the job market and the university. Provides some preliminary evaluation results from faculty…

This article defines service learning and describes service learning as a distinct pedagogy from field-based professional programs. Fundamental components of service learning courses and guidelines for developing, implementing, and evaluating service learning courses in special education programs for majors and non-majors are presented. (Contains…

Distance education is a well-established medium for training specialist teachers of children with visual impairments at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. This article describes the background and organization of the program, analyzes its outcomes, and considers the challenges the program will face in the future. (Contains four…

Explains that a lectlet is a short Web streamed-audio lecture synchronized to an interactive text-graphics display. Compares lectlet-based distance education to traditional education by simultaneously teaching two courses (one lectlet-based, one traditional) of introductory statistics. Reveals that the lectlets were better than the traditional…

Describes an introductory exercise from an undergraduate class taught at the Pratt Institute (New York). Students are asked to move away from their desks to stand in the middle of the classroom. Addresses the students' reactions to moving beyond their normal space in the classroom. (CMK)

Describes a family history course for first-year college students that emphasizes critical thinking skills. The course is organized first chronologically, through three historically-ideal types of families, and then by topics, such as generational relations and courtship. Includes a list of concepts and words students must know. (CMK)

Provides suggestions for creating a writing-intensive course. Focuses on meeting course goals or objectives with student writing, describing the different types of writing assignments and discussing the mixture of assignments, amount of writing, and ensuring success. Includes a syllabus for a writing-intensive undergraduate sociology course. (CMK)

Describes the "sexual orientation guessing game," an exercise, using the teacher-as-text strategy, in which the teacher hides his/her sexual orientation throughout the semester and the last week the students are asked to guess the teacher's sexual orientation. Discusses the outcomes of the activity and the students' reactions. (CMK)

This study examines the effort of a baccalaureate social work (BSW) program to infuse aging content throughout the foundation curriculum. The authors designed a 3-part approach to curriculum development and innovation: (1) increasing students' interest and exposure to aging contents through curriculum innovation, (2) faculty development, and (3)…

The present study attempts to discover organizing principles in college students' evaluations of their formal and informal educational programs. The study was conducted during the 1998-99 academic year. The data consisted of 14,344 assessment sheets completed by students at the Jordan Valley Regional College in Israel. Each assessment sheet…