An effective way to expand students' knowledge and enjoyment of noncanonical, or at least unfamiliar, works is by using more familiar works as benchmarks. For example, in a sophomore-level world literature survey course, students have already read a large part of the "Iliad" and all of the "Odyssey" when they are asked to study…

This booklet contains a series of articles outlining the problem with developmental mathematics training in the United States, with comments from numerous educators and high-ranking business executives. Solutions to improving mathematics training are offered as the result of research from the Continuous Sequence in Basic Mathematics (CSBM)…

Kenneth Burke was a college dropout who did not enjoy notable success until quite late in life. His major interest was the development of a meta-theory of language, which he called "rhetoric." Denied the resources and material rewards of academia, Burke was both scapegoated and redeemed by the academic community. Furthermore, the…

This document contains a critical analysis of Project Learning Tree (PLT). PLT was developed and distributed in the mid-1970s. It consists of 2 activity guides, one for grades K-6 with 89 activities and another for grades 7-12 with 88 activities. The program also provides free workshops for teachers and others. The analysis of PLT includes the…

Noting that discussions about the interaction of science and politics are often heard, this paper addresses how these discursive arenas are defined and distinguished. It argues that political and scientific discourse may be distinguished by the roles they assume on the rhetorical stage, and the relevant roles which emerge are implementers and…

Several science education researchers are embracing postmodern relativist notions of both evaluation methodology and of the structure of all scientific knowledge. They blame bad educational evaluation and research on several causes, the worst being the following of the fundamental tenets of mainstream science. These researchers feel science…

Deng Xiaopeng's rise to leadership in the People's Republic of China has been accompanied by massive economic and structural reforms. Some claim that these reforms led to the rise of the pro-democracy student movements of 1987 and 1989, and there has been a notable amount of scholarly investigation into their political and economic consequences.…

President Bush's declaration of April 5-7, 1991 as National Days of Thanksgiving is a unique example of Presidential civil religious discourse: no other President has ever made such a declaration to thank God for a victory in war. Whether he intended to or not, President Bush engaged in a rhetorical form which allowed him to manipulate a very…

The characteristics necessary to looking at art thoughtfully also characterize reflective thinking. Reflective thinking directs and manages experiential thinking. Reflective art viewing counters negative thinking dispositions of hasty, narrow, fuzzy, and sprawling thought by cultivating four habits: (1) taking time to look; (2) looking and…

In the last 6 years, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been undergoing fundamental political reinvention. Scholars of language, literacy, and rhetoric can learn much from the study of rhetorical histories. Accordingly, a brief rhetorical history of these upheavals, particularly those in…

Although the notion of teaching literature in an intensive weekend format may present numerous problems to be solved by the instructor, it can be a format that results in considerable success. It is conducive to the schedules of many students who work during the week, and weekend literature courses have proven to be popular. Intensive weekend…

This paper (1) examines textbooks in group performance of literature to determine how they describe the use of stage light in production; (2) explicates the four qualities and five functions of stage light; (3) explicates the four structural tensions of a text as defined by J. H. Maclay (1972); (4) considers their application to the production of…

Rhetorical norms of early McCarthyist discourse reveal a reliance upon images of chaos and the body. Through such metaphors, rhetors crafted a model of discussion that feminized "democracy" and "tolerance" to support anti-Communist measures and de-legitimize their opponents. Political variety was coded as deviant to national…

A total of 107 children of 5 and 6 years participated in interactive scenarios in which mastery experiences were pitted against external criticism. The 39 percent of children whose positive assessments were undermined by the criticism were more likely than other children to make broad negative inferences from specific information. A large…

A study examined the question of what sequence patterns, if any, of covering oral interpretation topics emerge from forensic coaching sessions. To answer the question it was first necessary to analyze the process used by the coaches. Process was defined as the action of passing through continuing development from a beginning to a contemplated end.…