A study examined the problems faced by the Warsaw School of Economics (Poland), a prestigious university that must change rapidly from a training ground for central planners and bureaucrats into a Western-style business school. Issues include course offerings, mix of academic and practitioner-oriented courses, language of instruction, and the role…

Social workers in direct practice rely on critical thinking to apply theories, make informed decisions, and explain their assessments and decisions. This paper defines critical thinking and discusses skills needed for its development, methods and assignments for teaching those skills to undergraduate and graduate students in practice courses, and…

Provides a list of developmentally appropriate activity areas for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers which could be used in multi-house, module, or medium-sized child care centers. Describes these age-appropriate physical, academic, sensory-motor, fine arts, and multi-use areas, and provides suggestions for inexpensive materials, toys, storage,…

Describes a curriculum-embedded focus for character education. Outlines a series of character-related topics (justice, responsibility, civic virtue) and combines them with corresponding social studies topics and activities (reviewing the origins of self-government, interviewing community elders) for each grade K-12. Includes reading list and…

Relates how character education can be quickly incorporated into the curriculum when teachers, the school, and the community share mutual goals and work as a team. Outlines some of the techniques used such as devoting each month to a specific character attribute and sending home newsletters to keep parents informed. (MJP)

Analyzes how Canadian immersion education has developed from its origins to the present in terms of a cycle guided by the interplay between theory and classroom practice of second- language acquisition. Johnson responds by questioning the extent to which bilingual education theory and practices are universal or context specific. (38 references)…

Drawing on 11 years' experience with a problem-based learning master's in business education program, educators at Ohio University identify critical issues in implementation of the approach, including definition of goals, elements of the curriculum development process, problem design and method of extracting learning, the teacher's role, skills…

Recommends that undergraduate journalism and communications majors receive more thorough training in local and public affairs education. Changes in communications technology have raised the importance and accessibility of local news for national candidates, often without a corresponding rise in sophistication of coverage. (MJP)

Considers the problems inherent in researching changes in social values and individual perspectives among selected age groups. Asserts that studies aimed at researching both aspects need to be organized as longitudinal studies. Utilizes data taken from a study of East and West Berlin adolescents to reveal specific research problems. (MJP)

Provides suggestions for meaningful field trips through collaborations between schools and informal education organizations. Discusses guidelines including ensuring connections to curriculum, connecting to multiple content areas, including informal educators in planning, ensuring developmental appropriateness, involving informal educators in…

Describes a constructivist teaching exercise consisting of a group of teachers involved in regular instructional conversations. Raises issues related to conceptualizing frameworks for teaching and developing new teacher assessments, arguing that new assessments should reflect a comprehensive view of teaching based on a broad continuum of teaching…

Evaluates three participatory civic education learning programs developed by the Citizenship Education Clearing House: the Election Program, Missouri State Government Program, and the Metropolitan Issues Program. Evaluation consisted of questionnaires, observation, and interviews. Discovers that the programs are both popular and effective. (MJP)

Assesses the state of social work education and makes suggestions for improvement including distinguishing between specialized and professional knowledge courses; teaching interpersonal skills for working with organizations and communities; differentiating subventionary and instrumental interventions; reformulating course content on policy and…

Presents a roundtable discussion among several high school and university educators who have conducted oral history projects. The teachers discuss their specific projects and extrapolate some general guidelines for conducting oral history research. Examines the influence that Foxfire has had on these efforts. (MJP)

Asserts that most research into the effects of high school economics curriculum upon performance in college level economics courses fails to consider that secondary economics education rarely teaches micro- and macroeconomic concepts. Discovers that any gap in learning between students in economics is narrowed by the first semester in college.…