Describes a year-long study in second and fourth grades examining how teachers' school-to-home communications influence parent perceptions about school and their effects on children's motivation. Results from 25 classrooms (15 controls) confirm the importance of school-to-home communications and the positive relationship between parents' comfort…

Examines views expressed in "Godey's Lady's Book," a U.S. nineteenth-century women's magazine, about the role of music and music instruction. Ideologies, biases, and controversies were expressed in the magazine. Comments that music instruction and decisions about who should receive musical training was highly controversial. Identifies…

Outlines a program to develop general process skills in which students consider the level of public understanding of science, analyze the role of national daily newspapers in communicating news and information about science, and gain insight into the problems of popular scientific communication by writing pieces on scientific topics. (MDH)

Presents a series of learning activities using artifact analysis. Artifact analysis consists of extracting historical information from the use and construction of material objects. Outlines procedures for turning a classroom into an artifacts history lab for analysis of any variety of objects. Discusses assessment and follow-up procedures. (MJP)

Presents a lesson plan that uses content analysis of an advertisement for an early sewing machine, the Vindex, to examine issues of marketing, new technology, and consumer economics. Includes a reproduction of an early advertisement, a list of additional readings, and several sets of questions concerning target audience, information, and image…

Provides four lesson plans using discipline-based art education techniques to examine the content and technique of a series of art works portraying Texas. The lesson plans use "mind mapping" (nonlinear visualization of a concept or idea easily linked to others). Includes background information on artists Bruno Andrade, Dennis Blagg,…

Compares the coverage and accuracy of economics in the National Council on Economic Education voluntary standards with the treatment of economics in other K-12 standards. Considers the economic concepts and relationships emphasized in the history, civics, and social studies standards. Includes a table illustrating economic concepts and other…

Argues that, although most K-12 social standards are deficient in their coverage of economic concepts, the National Council on Economic Education standards are equally deficient in addressing history and social studies subjects. Maintains that both disciplines must cooperate and coordinate their efforts for any meaningful educational reform to…

Explains how to design, implement, and evaluate self-contained Web-based learning modules for university students. Discusses remote access for distance education; interactivity; multimedia; student control of learning; content; intended audience; scaffolding; individualized feedback via online assessment; navigation; collaboration and expertise;…

Reports on a study of innovative city and county government programs in four western states. The study discovered widely divergent assessments of the same programs, dependent upon whether the survey instruments used qualitative or quantitative techniques. Discusses the possible reasons for this and the implications for future research. (MJP)

Presents three works of art that examine issues of exhibition, display, culture, and access in contemporary museum practices. The works include four black mannequins dressed as security guards, a room-size installation consisting solely of objects related to the artist, and a poster highlighting the general exclusion of women artists. (MJP)

Identifies elements that are important for academic libraries to use in evaluating electronic books, including content; acquisition and collection development; software and hardware standards and protocols; digital rights management; access; archiving; privacy; the market and pricing; and enhancements and ideal features. Describes netLibrary, a…

Which pedagogical processes and practices that target the recognition, value and sharing of world views in teaching and learning can be identified as strategies for learning to live together in an Australian multicultural classroom? The question is addressed by this paper, which presents two discrete but complementary pedagogical models that…

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of triad journaling as a collaborative tool for enhancing teaching and learning in a professional development school context. This study employed descriptive case study methodology (Merriam, 1998) in an effort to capture the content, complexity, and interactive nature of the participants' journaling.…

210 children (110 girls and 100 boys) were interviewed individually about causes that lead to success or to failure in school tests. They were presented fictitious scenarios about an unknown peer who had either success or failure in a dictation task and a sums task. The free answers were taken as mirroring means-ends beliefs of the interviewed…