An instructional activity is educational only when students understand its meaning and apply their understanding to future situations. Outdoor educators seek to improve teaching and learning through direct experience but, if such experiences are to be meaningful and applied to life situations, teachers must help students learn from carefully…

This study assessed the influence of reflective thinking on the early field experiences of preservice teachers who later taught in urban settings that were radically different from those they experienced as students. Reflective thinking refers to consciously identifying and defining schooling and classroom problems, generating reasonable…

The Technological Baccalaureate (TechBac) is a new award that aims to achieve parity of status between academic and vocational qualifications in England. It is designed primarily to be awarded to people aged 18-19. The number of British students who stay in full-time education at 16 is lamentably below figures for other advanced countries. In…

Foreign language teachers must do some career counseling if their students are to be informed about the choice of profession and application of foreign language skills and knowledge. Because most teachers do not have time or resources to do full-scale counseling, Macon College (Georgia) has instituted an internship program for foreign language…

This report presents findings on the early work experiences of youth with disabilities, part of a 5-year study on the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. The study examined trends in students' career development by comparing employment characteristics 2 and 4 years after leaving secondary school.…

This study compared doctoral students at three stages of their graduate career in the areas of relations with faculty, relations with peers, emphases of classes and other program experiences, personal gains due to the program, and attitudes toward the program. A sample of 596 doctoral students at the University of Illinois (Chicago) were surveyed…

The Mentor Teacher Program in the state of California is designed to retain capable teachers by expanding their rewards and opportunities. This report focuses on the character and quality of mentoring in an alternate route program sponsored by a large urban school district. A 30-hour required training course for mentors introduces them to their…

This book contains 11 theory-based chapters reporting the findings of a study on patterns of work, love, and learning in adulthood. (The study gathered data about events related to work, relationships, and learning from 405 adults and graphed them to identify life patterns.) The following topics are covered: (1) the origins and development of the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the contributions of student effort, campus environments and institutional culture to student learning in three types of institutions: small residential colleges; large residential universities; and universities located in metropolitan areas. Data sources were qualitative assessments of 13 campus cultures…

The data presented in this paper were collected from 73 early childhood, elementary, and middle school teachers who were among the first teachers to prepare for formal mentor teacher leadership roles in Massachusetts. These teachers were enrolled in a graduate mentor teacher preparation course at Wheelock College (Massachusetts). The Inventory is…

The two reports combined here examine process consultancy in the summer school program of the Open University in England. The first report presents an enquiry into relationships in summer schools, conducted through a role of process consultancy, that addressed: (1) anxieties at the inter-group level; and (2) relationships between students and…

This study of 1989 graduates represents the second year that the Detroit (Michigan) Public School system has conducted a follow-up survey of public high school graduates to establish their occupational status at about 16 months after graduation, collect their perceptions of their high school experiences, and record their postsecondary educational…

This conference presentation describes the characteristics of a living educational theory, explores its implications for self-study methodology, and offers a self-study from an educative relationship with a teacher educator. The theory has its basis in the following ideas: educators exist as living contradictions when their values are negated in…

These proceedings contain 68 author-prepared abstracts of presentations given at the Seventh International Conference on the First-Year Experience, a 5-day conference that focused on the foundations for improving the undergraduate experience. The majority of the one- to two-page abstracts report on specific programs undertaken by colleges or…

This study examined how methods courses affected preservice teachers' knowledge of and attitudes toward cooperative learning. Data were gathered utilizing a pre/post course attitude survey, a pre/post class true/false test, postclass interviews, and interviews conducted with subjects during their respective student teaching experiences.…