The traditional way of studying history is unappealing to many students because they rarely perform the historian's tasks: defining essential questions, sorting through available source materials, determining topics, drawing conclusions, and presenting them persuasively. Teachers in two Rhode Island high schools have provided students with the…

Discusses three leadership styles: the glacial, or impersonal, leader; the driven, or power-obsessed, leader; and the human, or quiet, leader. Readers are advised to imitate successful leaders; discover and develop skills and techniques consistent with their values; merge these into a personal style through trial; discover and develop mental…

Defines "content literacy" as the ability to use reading and writing for the acquisition of new content in a given discipline. Identifies three principal cognitive components: general literacy skills; content-specific literacy skills; and prior knowledge of content. Discusses the implications of content literacy for content area reading…

Provides lists of gang identifiers and terminology. Suggests that, to find out names and associated identifiers of local gangs, readers should talk to their local police. Included in listing are descriptions of gang-related symbols, physical signals, graffiti, slogans, right-left rules, colors, clothing, jewelry, hair styles, and fingernails. Also…

Notes that "suicide" has not always been preferred term in English-speaking societies for self-inflicted death. Recounts evidence suggesting that "suicide" was devised by Sir Thomas Browne and first published in book "Religio Medici" in 1643. Traces how "suicide" had become established as noun and verb by…

Discusses the definitional move of linking environmental concerns to security concerns. Reviews and critiques the arguments for and against this definitional change based on the degree to which they functionally view definitional argument as a strategy rather than as a truth claim. (SC)

Uses Lytle and Wolfe's metaphors for literacy (literacy as skills, tasks, practices, or critical reflection) to identity the consequences attached to literacy in each category, focusing on adults in the developing world. Concludes that consequences depend on who is evaluating them and for what purposes. (SK)

In a November 1998 "Forbes Magazine" article, Peter Brimelow claims that seven states, including Indiana, employ a greater percentage of "nonteaching bureaucracy" than classroom teachers. Using National Center for Education Statistics school staffing definitions, this article paints a different picture and decries the folly of…

Technical terminology such as shaft and axle has a range of meanings in instructional support materials. Studies of children show that they use their own terms to describe unfamiliar components. Although appropriate vocabulary is desirable in technology education, teachers should find ways to incorporate children's own vocabulary to help them…

Examines attempts to teach primates how to communicate using sign language. Much of the debate over whether it is possible to teach primates to communicate centers on the definition of language. (Author/VWL)

Reacts to Jennings and Skovholt's (1999) study on master therapists. Discusses the lack of clear definition of master therapist, lack of meaningful comparison groups needed to infer the distinctive characteristics of master therapists, the incomplete communication of data-analytic procedures, and the formulation of results as a uniform…

Lists the classifications of 3,856 institutions of higher education under the Carnegie Foundation's new classification system. Includes text of the category definitions and lists institutions alphabetically by state, with new and, when different, old classifications. (DB)

Developed a construct of sexual issues/sexual harassment in the workplace based on survey responses of 101 participants in a training program on sexual harassment before the training and 111 participants after the training. Results show a progression of attitudes toward behaviors from safe to most dangerous. (SLD)

Incident reports filed by school nurses may be one of the best sources for analyzing and preventing school injuries. By using an appropriately formatted injury report form and simple data-management computer program, information can be stored, retrieved, and analyzed. A systematic analysis may yield patterns or trends leading to changes in policy…

Comments on measurement aspects are presented in discussions of (1) methodology and morality (W. P. Fisher); (2) Rasch measurement (E. Choi); (3) novel wisdom of the Rasch approach (W. P. Fisher); (4) development of construct definition and calibration (A. J. Stenner and I. Horabin); and (5) origin of dimensions (B. D. Wright). (SLD)