Several trends are significantly affecting the early childhood education field, with the major accomplishment of crystallizing the scope of early childhood education as birth through 8 years of age. These trends and innovations include the following: (1) restructuring early childhood education programs, by introducing formal schooling,…

This paper discusses the three types of online learning-- asynchronous collaborative learning, sametime collaborative learning, and self-paced learning--and how these modes are supported by the Lotus LearningSpace product. The following requirements for distributed learning technology are then considered: (1) flexibility, specifically the…

This paper focuses on the Vicarious Learner project, at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Edinburgh (Scotland) that is looking at issues concerning the role of dialogue in learning. Efforts to understand how the value of dialogue in learning depends on the structure of the environment in which it takes place are discussed. The…

This paper presents findings from two studies on the use of computer mediated communication (CMC) in distance learning courses in higher education administration. The first study compared differences between students (n=17) in a face-to-face (F2F) classroom and students (n=7) taking the same course using CMC. It analyzed differences in interaction…

As part of the Learn and Serve America Program of the Corporation for National Service, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) has helped develop campus-based programs that have instigated a growing community college service learning network. Ten colleges, selected in a national competition for grants ranging from $2,000 to $12,000…

As the need for distance education grows, requirements for the development of high-speed network-based real-time distance learning systems increases. MHEG-5 is the fifth part of the MHEG (Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Experts Group) standard, and it defines a final-form representation for application interchange. This paper…

This paper examines an intervention to change prospective elementary teachers' knowledge and beliefs about mathematics education. The intervention consisted of a sequence of mathematics courses, a methods course, and a curriculum seminar in which establishing a community of learners was a central feature. The concept of community embodies the…

Education, like experience in general, is not static but evolutionary. The writing classroom of the two-year college must and does function as a multicultural environment which replaces the traditional melting pot metaphor with images of mosaic and tapestry. Today, over 50% of college freshmen are enrolled in two-year colleges, and these include…

This report describes the current status of evaluation findings for the Child Development Project (CDP), a project to bring about caring and responsible attitudes in students in kindergarten through grade 6. The program was begun in a suburban San Ramon, California school district in 1982, and has recently been introduced in urban, ethnically…

A study examined the collaborative process in young children and also the role that the collaborative process played in improving the quality of classroom instruction. Subjects were approximately 60 students in a grade 3/4 pod of two classroom teachers at the University Elementary School, Calgary. A teaching unit of 6 weeks duration dealing with…

This study examined how methods courses affected preservice teachers' knowledge of and attitudes toward cooperative learning. Data were gathered utilizing a pre/post course attitude survey, a pre/post class true/false test, postclass interviews, and interviews conducted with subjects during their respective student teaching experiences.…

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts) has developed a new freshman course titled "Computer Analysis in Civil Engineering" as part of a curriculum revision project which emphasizes critical thinking, cooperative group learning and problem solving, the integration of knowledge through projects, and student responsibility for…

The effects of orienting activities and practice on performance and student behaviors in a cooperative learning environment were studied with 80 graduate education majors in an educational psychology course. A 2 x 2 factorial design was used, with orienting activity (advance organizer versus objectives) and type of practice (verbal information…

Thirteen research syntheses were analyzed to determine the academic, social, and psychological effects upon learners who are gifted and talented of three grouping practices: (1) ability grouping for enrichment; (2) mixed ability cooperative grouping for regular instruction; and (3) grouping for acceleration. It was concluded that the research…

This paper describes the experience of a fourth- and fifth-grade, first-year teacher's participation in the Book Club Project of the Center for the Learning and Teaching of Elementary Subjects. The Book Club included the use of high-quality children's literature, opportunities for response to literature in multiple ways, and instruction that…