The significance of a school's physical environment is explored through a discussion of a metaphor used by some students in a study in Finland and England in which students characterized their schools. The "ant's nest" metaphor communicates the lack of spatial and embodied autonomy that students experience in school. (SLD)

Describes how AIHEC's Cultural Learning Centers share the people's stories through photos, artwork, Native languages, exhibits, and gardens. Give examples of a variety of learning centers including Where The Water Stops, Omaeqnomenewak Pematesenewak, Haskell Center For Healing, and the Spirit of the Plains. Concludes the future of Cultural…

Explored the crisis of respect needed to establish authority in two urban public high schools. Data from observations and interviews indicated that in classrooms, battles for respect involved defending the dominant educational regime and control over the daily regimen of pedagogical practice. In corridors, students moved between mainstream…

Attempts to create a safe environment at many inner city high schools tend to separate students, who are largely black, working class, and poor, into criminal and noncriminal categories, creating a labeling system that denies complex individuality. Demonstrates how teens reaffirmed and subverted harmless/dangerous labels by disguising themselves…

Introduces three papers that discuss the design methodology for developing learning systems for cognitive skills acquisition. Provides specific examples of processes that underlie the acquisition of cognitive skills. Confirms that through the embrace of lifelong learning, cognitive skills-based learning environments are finding a more prominent…

Examined the association between psychological separation and adjustment to university among college students. Found that two dimensions of psychological separation--independence from parents and positive separation feelings--predicted better adjustment to college life. Independence from parents was moderated by grade, gender, and perceived…

Narratives by three undocumented immigrants relate the realities of surviving in hostile and often cruel school environments. These students have succeeded not because of the system, but despite the system. Such testimonials can be effective in teaching future teachers and raising the consciousness of people who do not have sympathy for…

This discussion of blended learning environments covers: (1) background; (2) why the term "blended" is used, and what can be blended; (3) goals of blended learning environments, including pedagogical richness, access to knowledge, social interaction, personal agency, cost effectiveness, and ease of revision; and (4) characteristics of…

Presents a critique of the five case studies of blended learning environments in this issue. Comments are organized around the following four frameworks: (1) the J-curve of implementation; (2) the theory of Engaged Collaborative Discourse; (3) adaptation to individual differences; and (4) Validity-Centered Design. (MES)

A review of the limited evidence regarding grade-span configuration effects on academic achievement and other outcomes indicates that achievement in middle grades is higher in schools with an elementary-wide configuration than a middle-grades configuration. Continuity of experience may explain this finding, but more research is needed to…

Examined children's play in indoor and outdoor environments at a New Zealand child care center. Identified four dimensions of difference illuminating the relationship between outdoor and indoor playspaces and the play occurring there: physical versus constructive play, change and stability continuum, freedom and control dimension, and differences…

Describes software tools designed to help students investigate relationships among representations of rational numbers that emphasize the part-whole model of a rational number. (KHR)

Describes responses of four southern U.S. middle schools to increased potential for violence. Teachers and administrators viewed the cause of school violence to reside outside the school, whereas students saw the cause resting firmly within a school environment in which students were permitted or even expected to be cruel to one another. (KB)

Twenty-eight studies on instruction in natural environments with children with disabilities were examined from an effective teaching perspective. Results indicate that more powerful and uniform effects with instruction in natural environments may be produced by adapting some practices and principles of effective group instruction, including…

This article reflects on a review of 28 studies on instruction in natural environments with children with disabilities that indicated instruction in natural environments may benefit from adapting some practices and principles of effective group instruction. Discusses using milieu teaching for language development in preschool children. (CR)