As part of a large-scale instructional intervention research, this study examined elementary students' science knowledge and awareness of social activism with regard to an increased greenhouse effect and global warming. The study involved fifth-grade students from five elementary schools of varying demographic makeup in a large urban school…

Eighty-three teachers across the curriculum were interviewed to explain their views on and approaches to, the teaching of socio-scientific controversial issues to 14-19 year olds, particularly with regard to developments in biomedicine and biotechnology. This study focused on teachers' views on the nature of evidence in controversial issues and…

Background: Environmental issues are frequently controversial and involve conflicting interests and values. Much environmental education literature explicitly encourages teachers to promote pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours amongst their students, despite evidence that teacher support for such a policy is ambiguous at best. The literature…

The purpose of this study was to gauge the profile of evolutionary theory in Lebanese undergraduate biology programs. The research focused mainly on the views of university biology department heads, given that they are the people who exercise the most direct influence over their departments' ethos. An Australasian sample was chosen as a reference…

In this article, the author describes how UNC Chapel Hill addresses the underlying conflicts between faith and reason in the wake of violence. In an effort to seek ways to improve the potential for respectful exchange of ideas on campus, the author, who works with faculty council, leaders, and colleagues, proposes a multifaceted strategy for…

What distinguishes students' sense-making of the past from historians' thinking is that historians know how to determine the validity of competing truth claims, a rather complex intellectual skill that requires a sophisticated set of heuristics and strategies. One way to help students learn how to determine the validity of competing truth claims…

Many educators and researchers have questioned the relationship between science and technology and the appropriate place of each in the curriculum. What researchers have discovered is that many countries approach this issue in different ways. The emphasis in this document is placed on the interdependence of science and technology in a pluralistic…

Governments, groups, and individuals have always tried to control information. This paper examines censorship, particularly textbook censorship and its effect upon the curriculum, and opposes the recent trend to censor textbooks in public schools. Since the mission of public schooling involves indoctrination and socialization as much as education,…

This book presents an overview of the interplay of religion and public education. The book states that schools must take religion seriously, and it outlines the civic, constitutional, and educational frameworks that should shape the treatment of religion in the curriculum and classroom. It examines religion's absence from the classroom and the…

The purpose of this study was to determine parents' perceptions regarding acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) education information for their eighth-grade school children. Their perceptions were based on their responses to a questionnaire that included topics such as AIDS as a disease, how the virus is spread, incidence of AIDS among…

A study investigated student involvement in large-group discussion. A high school sophomore American literature class and a world literature class for juniors and seniors were each observed for a semester. Students were asked to provide their definitions of knowledge and learning in a survey. From the 36 responses received, four perspectives…

Discussion of "Sex, Power, and Politics" course at the University of Southern California in which the videotaping of class sessions is used to reduce classroom controversy while studying controversy. (ND)

With proper inquiry into pertinent source material, a teacher can spark discussion and intelligent analysis of current issues on days when planned curriculum is not productive. Preplanning and questions for a discussion on Vietnam are offered as an example for teacher preparation. (DE)

Convinced that students in a college advertising class could profit from a discussion about AIDS and condom advertising and hoping to design a related creative problem that would incorporate effective advertising principles, an instructor planned a class project that revolved around public service advertising and the AIDS issue. The students…

An increase in foreign student enrollment and subsequent questioning of traditional concepts of western rhetorical practice, particularly freedom of speech, resulted in an evaluation of current teaching practices in South Dakota State University's basic speech communication course. In a summer session course, 36 international students responded to…