This newsletter, created for teachers, parents, and others interested in current educational themes, addresses the issue of mentoring, what it is, how it works, and why it is needed; and provides some examples of current mentoring programs. It explains that there are two types of mentoring: natural, such as through friends, relatives, and…

Family Life Education is a unit which teaches facts and encourages the development of skills and attitudes that contribute to self-understanding, healthy interpersonal relationships, and successful family life. It promotes the development of physical, emotional, social, and intellectual well-being of young people. This brochure is designed to…

This paper discusses the characteristics of middle school students and teachers, and provides suggestions for the development of cultural awareness at the middle school level. Between the ages of 10 and 14 years, adolescents experience rapid physical growth, changes in social relationships and in emotions, and changes in intellectual development…

Current literature on youth development supports the theory that out-of-school programming has an effect on youth development. However, little research has been conducted on types of out-of-school programs and comparisons among involvement in various activities in relation to developmental assets. Hence, the purpose of this study was to analyze…

This guide is one component of Hawaii's State Plan for Comprehensive Guidance Program for grades 9-12 and is intended to provide a structure for a sequential, required, one-semester course in guidance at the 9th or 10th grade level. It includes 62 lessons equally divided among the three central themes addressed in the course: Self-Awareness and…

Designed to provide useful information for middle school teachers and administrators involved in planning and implementing microcomputer programs in their schools, this focus paper begins with a brief discussion of the "who, what, when, where, and why" of microcomputers in the schools, followed by discussions of two types of relevant research: the…

Verbal learning does not prepare adolescents for a society which expects students to graduate as adults from secondary school. This is obvious when one sees how often adolescents are excluded from adult activities and responsibilities. Experiential learning can provide students with a link between academic content and the self-confidence adulthood…

This document is an index to the "Basic Stuff" series, published by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (1981). "Basic Stuff Series I" contained six publications: (1) "Exercise Physiology"; (2) "Kinesiology"; (3) "Humanities in Physical Education"; (4) "Motor Development"; (5) "Motor Learning"; and (6)…

This volume, a report of a National Institute of Mental Health Conference, presents a synopsis of the informal presentations and discussions along with a summary narrative and quotations from each of the three sessions. The first section of the book deals with adolescent personality, socioemotional, biological, and cognitive development. The…

Dramatic accounts of adolescent turmoil may confuse psychopathology with normal development if derived from the study of clinical populations. To compare the development of normal adolescents, 108 students aged 17-22 from the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Western Samoa were studied. Results of three different personality measures…

School guidance and counseling programs have been quite effective in providing vocational guidance and counseling for mental health, but the effectiveness of these programs in the future is cause for concern as rapid scientific and technological advances influence youth's creation of ideas and values. Adults today have experienced such rapid…

Designed to provide information for teachers wanting to use adventure activities with students and to help teachers in developing programs with clear objectives, solid logistic support, and safe policies and procedures, this teaching guide focuses on the goal of having a permanent impact on the self-concepts, behaviors, and attitudes of troubled…

Developmental changes in self-perceptions were studied in children and adolescents in grades 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. The responses of subjects to the question Who am I? were analyzed by means of a 30-category scoring system. Children described themselves in terms of their physical appearance and their behavior, while adolescents referred to their…

Three case studies are used to illustrate how adolescent male-female relationships in a psychiatric hospital setting can effect growth in the developmental tasks of separation-individuation, identity formation, and preparation for successful adult relationships. (Author/JW)

The educational needs of middle school students are truly unique. In no other period of PreK-12 education can one find such a wide range of physical, social, and cognitive development among students. For students, the middle school years can be a time of both great vulnerability and great responsiveness to change. These years are highly formative…