Florida Atlantic University restructured its undergraduate teacher preparation program to provide a bachelor's degree in elementary education with an English as a Second Language (ESOL) endorsement. The program prepares graduates to meet the needs of ESOL students in regular elementary classrooms. It integrates ESOL competencies into methods…

Annotates selected ERIC documents and journal articles discussing issues related to developmentally appropriate practice (DAP). Topics include DAP in early childhood and elementary settings and regular and special education, the current debate regarding DAP and multicultural education, student evaluation, teachers' and parents' beliefs regarding…

Idaho secondary students learn the scientific method through outdoor environmental projects related to water quality monitoring. A program trains teachers to design project-based learning and provides extensive followup support. Five-day summer workshops immerse teachers in the types of projects they will orchestrate with their own students.…

Describes how the Hershey Montessori Farm School in Huntsburg, Ohio, developed an advanced biology course, which begins with an experience-based, task-oriented approach within different biomes of the surrounding environs while incorporating high school content and scientific method. Concludes that integrating place-based and contextual inquiries…

This article comments on two studies (EC 629 876) that investigated the validity of a set of 15 general growth outcomes (GGOs) for identifying young children with disabilities. It discusses concerns that the respondents were not culturally diverse and need to provide public and empirical demonstrations of the operationalization of the outcomes…

A study investigated the effects of a 2-week summer institute that taught kindergarten and first-grade teachers (n=44) about learning disabilities and effective instruction, stressing the importance of explicit instruction in phonological and orthographic awareness. First-graders taught by trained teachers outperformed controls on phonological…

Essential components in second-language teaching include motivating students, teaching in the target language, using a language-management system, accepting interlanguage in the early stages, emphasizing vocabulary, teaching function and grammar, consulting Canada's National Core French Study to understand and deliver the latest programs, and…

Reviews the worker's theater movement of the 1930s that attempted to unite actors and audience in devising solutions to societal problems. Maintains that re-enacting its dramatic forms is a thought-provoking way to introduce students to the issues of the time. Includes instructions for suggested activities. (MJP)

Explores the evolution of postmodernism and the many differences between modernism and postmodernism. Describes two strategies (authentic instruction and discipline-based instruction) for structuring a postmodern curriculum. Highlights an activity that helped fifth-grade students learn about postmodern art and real-world issues by studying the…

Reports on a study of Web-based learning environments in Singapore that focuses on the cross-validation of the Geography Classroom Environment Inventory (GCEI) which assesses undergraduate students' perceptions of psychosocial aspects of their Web-based instruction. Examines gender equity, instructional innovation, internal consistency…

Describes junior high school students' understandings of some common non-technical words used in science classes and compares results for students in Botswana and England. Finds that considerable concerns remain about the way in which teachers use words in science. Concludes that the greatest problems occur with second-language students in…

Summarizes research on educational programs that use stigmatized varieties of English in the classroom, and reviews relevant theory and research in psycholinguistics and second language acquisition. Research on educational programs shows that using the stigmatized variety in formal education seems to have a positive effect on the acquisition of…

This study examined the performance of 59 at-risk, African-American preschoolers on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III. Student scores were below those reported for the standardization sample, however, the performance spread resulted in a normal distribution of scores. Level of education of the primary caregiver influenced performance.…

Describes library services available to distance learners at the Rochester Institute of Technology's library. Highlights include courseware products; subject specialists; electronic course reserves; interlibrary loan; research databases; online library instruction, including online guides, streamed instruction, and computer based training for…

The construct of complexity has been advanced as a variable in the efficacy of treatment for children with functional phonological disorders. This article focuses on clinical complexity as it influences selection of target sounds, with three clinical factors reviewed: consistency of error, normative age of acquisition, and number of errors.…