Much study remains to be done to make cooperative learning achieve its potential as a primary format for teacher achievement of traditional and innovative goals. Commentary by Philip C. Abrami and Bette Chambers criticizes Slavin's position on the underlying mechanisms of cooperative learning. (SLD)

Describes a program at the Waterford Public Library (New York) that expanded existing outreach efforts to children in local preschools and a local childcare center, while adding services to a preschool play group. Discusses costs, the creation of story kits that included picture books and related activities, and evaluation results. (Contains 16…

Describes a framework that higher education administrators can use to increase the utilization of technology on their campuses. Presents several categories of technological innovations that can be used in higher education, including both "product" technologies, such as computer-assisted instruction and "idea" technologies, such as constructivism.…

Describes the Florida High School (FHS), an online environment that offers students flexibility in time with courses via the World Wide Web. Highlights include teaching and learning in a virtual school; adapting skills; Gagne's events of instruction; Keller's motivational model; and constructivism in curriculum development. (LRW)

Discusses ways to empower student learning in middle schools by providing learning environments that encourage student input, influence, and responsibility; respect cultural pluralism; and engineer congruence between the content and methods of instruction and students' life experiences and cognitive styles. (JPB)

Focuses on issues related to safety, education, and entertainment in classroom demonstrations. Explains to preservice teachers how to conduct a demonstration to motivate students. Lists several elements that should be included for a successful demonstration which include purpose, planning, repeatability, simplicity, safety, visibility, and…

Presents a theoretical framework for analyzing students' social, emotional, and motivational interpretations and demonstrates the application of the framework in two studies involving 8 12-year-old boys and 14 12-year-old boys in which such interpretations were analyzed in a cognitive apprenticeship-based technologically rich learning environment.…

"All children can learn" has become a simplistic mantra leading to practices that can be harmful to students and unfair to schools. Unintended consequences include establishing accountability based on state-developed tests, downplaying poor children's need for early intervention, and using punishment to motivate school improvement. (MLH)

Argues that English teachers' use of popular culture is key to effective teaching and learning in the secondary school English-as-a-foreign-language classroom. By incorporating popular culture into meaningful communicative tasks and activities, teachers provide students with the motivation to use and speak English in realistic situations.…

Differentiates traditional education, progressive education, constructivism, and the Montessori approach. Examines the role of motivation in constructivism and in Montessori's planes of development. Concludes that Montessorians and constructivists are allies in the struggle to liberate children from conventional educational methods, which blunt…

Examines the effect of Catholic school culture on academic achievement in the Higher School Certificate Examination. Attempts to model achievement as the outcome of a Catholic school culture that is the result of variables operating at both the individual and school levels. Develops and tests the model. Discusses the findings in detail. (CMK)

Discusses the use of portfolios for assessing second language learning. Focuses on different kinds of portfolios, criteria for evaluating a portfolio, and portfolios as a motivating tool. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the link between adequately developed, current school library collections and better student achievement and highlights the importance of having students become successful critical readers. Offers suggestions for encouraging reading, including knowing the materials in the collection, knowing the students to meet their needs, building on…

Analyzes the concept of "knowledge base" in education. Describes the process and methods of inquiry into the nature of selective and universal schooling. Delineates the distinctive nature of teaching and learning based on the analysis of differential treatment of learners' individual differences and motivations of the two kinds of…

Computer games educate painlessly and incidentally, keeping students motivated and interested and enhancing instruction. Such games are particularly appropriate for English-as-a-Second-Language instruction, because they convey the meaning of language both visually and aurally, occupy all channels of the brain, provide a rich context for the…