Within diverse outdoor educational activities, a core experience of connection with the earth balances self, others, and nature with elements of ritual. Most effective when experiential, integrated, and technologically simple, the core experience's educative power lies in awakening awareness of interconnectedness between human and nonhuman life.…

An explanatory mixed-methods design was used to evaluate a service-learning model on academic learning, personal and interpersonal development, and community-engagement for 59 service-learning students. A repeated-method ANOVA demonstrates that students improve their academic learning and participation in service but reduce their interests in…

The effects of living on campus on educational gains were estimated for a sample of African American college students. This study also examined the effects of specific residence hall experiences on African American students' educational gains in college. Controlling for an extensive array of demographic characteristics, institutional…

The increasing emphasis on accountability in early care and education has created an opportunity for programs to revisit their child assessment practices. This article presents a model for using authentic assessment practices to document children's progress toward a set of program standards, specifically the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, as…

A charter school has focused on technology and arts in order to help urban students develop a strong intellectual, moral, environmentally conscious and artistic foundation. The different policies and programs used by the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School (ATA), Washington, D.C., to educate students are discussed.

Over the years, family and consumer sciences (FCS) classrooms have provided education for all students--from the gifted and talented to the mentally challenged. The typical classroom environment is warm, inviting, and realistic. Students work together to apply knowledge to real life experiences. The importance of reading, writing, math, and…

This research investigated expertise development among instructional designers by tracking novice designers' unfolding perceptions of instructional design (ID), design-related self-perceptions, and other individual differences. It examined development toward ID expertise from multiple aspects: processes, product, and cognition, through a case…

In so far as education has acknowledged creativity at all, it has commonly focused on "allowing" rather than "developing" creativity, on arts-based "expression" rather than broader or deeper kinds of creativity; and on the role of techniques rather than dispositions. This paper seeks to redress the balance by arguing…

As an empirical study based on multiple linear regression analysis of the investigation data, this paper studies the communication between teachers and students in universities. It reveals that the interaction between university teachers and students promotes the personal development of college students. For some reason, however, a rather low…

The adjustment to college represents a potentially invigorating and unsettling time for students. As students are socialized into college experiences, they must simultaneously navigate issues of identity, uncertainty, and change--all of which take place in a dynamic, ever-changing communication environment. The purpose of this study was to explore…

This article describes the action taken by a school regarding the numerous complaints and criticisms about students trespassing on lawns, picking flowers and fruits, and destroying trees. The school decided to take the opportunity to launch an environmental education campaign to teach students to protect flowers, plants, and the environment.…

In Design and Technology lessons English primary school pupils between the ages of 5 and 11 learn to design and make artefacts with materials and tools. Teachers, mainly non-specialists, are expected to teach specific skills, knowledge and understanding in contexts which are deemed to be meaningful to the pupils. In 1996 a set of primary school…

The aim of this article is to orient those interested in adult community college student research to a wide array of discourses and theoretical tools that can help us understand the underlying complexity of the problems faced by this often-marginalized group. Reviewed are categories of theory about student involvement and engagement, student…

The authors describe how the effective use of groups can promote academic achievement for adolescent African American males. Literature regarding adolescents' and African Americans' experience with groups is reviewed. The authors provide information on academic disidentification and achievement gaps, both critical to understanding the problem of…

First-year programs and freshman learning communities (FLCs) have become an institutionalized feature of the higher-education landscape. Although a vast amount of literature asserts the positive consequences of these programs, less attention has been devoted to the unintended, and occasionally negative, consequences of FLCs. The author identifies…