Australia's process for quality child care improvement has 20 core principles, 4 of which relate to interactions between children and staff: (1) staff interactions with children should be warm and friendly; (2) all children should be treated equally, and their individual needs and backgrounds should be respected; (3) both sexes should be treated…

This digest considers teacher- and child-initiated strategies for enhancing young children's self-expression and creativity. When teachers think about art and creative activities for children, it is important for them to consider that young children: (1) are developmentally capable of classroom experiences which call for (and practice) higher…

Experiences of a San Francisco, California, kindergarten teacher whose students include 15 limited English speaking children are recounted, and observations on English Language Development (ELD) teaching strategies are offered. It is noted that the kindergarten program and classroom setting are both conducive to and appropriate for second language…

This guide is one of a set of 10 science guides, each covering a separate grade in Manitoba, together covering kindergarten through grade 9. The guides have been designed to provide a framework for building scientific concepts and developing the learning of process skills. They replace an earlier set of guides dated 1979. Each guide is essentially…

Contemporary findings of brain research and language function can be analyzed and related to the teaching of creative and critical thinking and active learning through writing. A great deal of work has been carried out concerning the integration of the cerebral hemispheres for heuristic procedures in writing invention. In the integrated brain, the…

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) is a long-term research project sponsored by Apple Computer, Inc., to explore how learning and teaching change when teachers and students have access to interactive computer technologies. ACOT adheres to a philosophy that instruction should be learner controlled; i.e., students take responsibility for their own…

Ten activities that feature a hands-on, student inquiry-based investigatory approach to rocks and minerals are presented. "Guided discovery" and/or inquiry instructional strategies are emphasized. They focus on a student-centered active classroom. Each activity includes the heading, science content, the scientific process skills, objective or…

Invitational education aims at creating a total school environment that intentionally summons teachers and students to realize their potential in all areas of worthwhile human endeavor and to make classrooms "the most inviting place in town." Within this model, invitational teaching addresses the role of the teacher in summoning…

Studies conducted by Rand Corporation suggested that students did not need to be taught generic skills and work-related attitudes in actual workplaces. Such instruction could occur effectively at schools in traditional stand alone classrooms. To develop an instructional model for teaching generic skills, researchers used ethnographic methods to…

Sharing both collective and individual experiences and insights about whole language, teaching, and educational change, this book explains whole language instruction and its implementation on a school-wide basis. Each chapter moves from research to theory, and from theory to application in classrooms that actually exist. The book explains why…

A study analyzed the number and types of contributions that girls and boys made to a science discussion in a sixth-grade class. A 48-minute, student-centered cross-discussion was videotaped and analyzed. The exceptionally long discussion and the complexity of the topic (involving moving shadows and frames of reference) make the lesson a rich…

This study examined the relationship between students' perceptions of the two-way audio/video classroom and their anxiety, as well as their satisfaction with their distance learning experience. Students (n=222) in 12 two-way audio/video distance classes at two major midwestern universities and two midwestern community colleges completed…

This book is intended for early childhood educators, student teachers, practicing teachers, and parents who are interested in improving observation and assessment processes for children from infancy through the elementary school years. The book covers the history, philosophy, and practice of observing, recording, and analyzing children's behavior.…

This working paper presents an analysis that seeks to refocus thinking about the question of educational resources needed for transformation in schools. Both the context of science education and the teaching practices of science teachers as potential resources that can be marshaled to facilitate the transformation of science education in schools…

Looping refers to the increasingly common practice of keeping groups of students together for two or more years with the same teacher. This booklet, first in a series of "Themes in Education" provides information on the educational practice of looping and includes selected current references on the topic. The booklet outlines the history of this…