Twenty-six professors at a research intensive university participated in this study of senior women professors' career experiences and reflections. Themes surrounding community and collegiality with respect to disciplinary commitment, salience of gender to discipline, and the role of personal choices are identified and discussed. Resulting…

Higher education has two primary purposes: (1) student learning for the improvement of self, family, employers, and society at large; and (2) knowledge generation, conservation, and dissemination for the advancement of everyone, now and in the future. To succeed in meeting these goals over the long term, colleges and universities: (1) have to be…

This article revisits the debate between cultural and critical literacy through ethnography challenging popular academic views in education and literacy. Set in a preschool classroom at the inception of the "No Child Left Behind" initiative, this essay focuses on teaching assistant Marylou Anderson. Her experiences growing up in…

Survey data from 174 university students are presented, on a scale designed to measure preference for absolute knowledge and perspective in instruction, including online discussions. Results demonstrate a strong effect of class level such that students in lower grade levels reported a greater preference for instruction involving unambiguous…

This article describes psychodrama action techniques that were effectively implemented in a university-level race relations course. Essential elements of these techniques included acting out and critical self-examination of the individual's personal beliefs. In a semi-structured class format in which uncensored spontaneity was stressed, students…

Language is a means by which different minds communicate ideas to one another. It is also a means our minds use to understand ourselves, other people, the world around us, and the relationships among them. In language acquisition, we are basically developing a code that we will use to understand, formulate and communicate ideas. The acquisition of…

Prior research concerning young children's moral development has been conducted primarily in same-age environments. This study investigated whether preschool children's moral (helping) behaviors are related to younger peer-directed internal state language (talking about younger peer's feelings, wants, and abilities), perspective-taking skills, and…

The purpose of the conference reported in these proceedings was to help enrich the field of critical thinking through the perspectives of scholars and professional practitioners in a variety of academic disciplines. The papers included in these proceedings reflect the thoughts of 49 authors representing 10 academic fields. After the presentation…

This role-play activity is designed for use by teacher educators in a general or content area methods class to help education majors become knowledgeable of role expectations in the student teaching experience and build good interpersonal role relationships. Students conduct library research and interviews concerning role expectations, use the…

This paper presents two examples of the case study method applied to enhance preservice teachers' decision-making abilities and multicultural perspectives. In the first example, preservice teachers (N=17) enrolled in a sophomore educational psychology course chose a case from a preselected list to diagnose and present to the class for analysis and…

This conference focused on the field of critical thinking emphasizing social and cultural inquiry, through the perspectives of scholars and practitioners in a variety of academic disciplines. Following an overview describing the mission of the institute, and an introduction entitled "Critical Thinking and the Improvement of Undergraduate…

This paper describes an undergraduate teacher education course offered at Urbana University (Ohio). The course introduces preservice teachers to the nature of multiculturalism in terms of economic, social, intellectual, age, and gender differences, leading participants to explore this educational process from sociological and psychological…

To determine how bilingual children display a sense of story in an oral reading activity at home, researchers video- and audio-taped samples of four bilingual Chicano second grade chidren engaged in matched narrative tasks. While the two male and two female children read aloud storybooks in English and Spanish in the home setting, reseachers…

A teacher's guide to developing global perspectives about nuclear arms control among proactive action students in rural schools oulines the historical development of the current nuclear situation, describes a nuclear age curriculum, explains the importance of proactive and global perspectives, covers simulated situations, and provides a glossary…

This paper examines the appropriateness of the case study approach, commonly used in medical and law schools, for prospective and inservice teachers in schools of education. Developing courses in which case studies would be used to illustrate moral dilemmas would aid teachers in examining their ethical principles, weighing moral issues, and…