This article reports on a study of pre-service French immersion teachers who were required to compile second language (L2) portfolios as part of their professional development. Documents included a brief biography of the students' lives as speakers and learners of French; an action plan in which students assessed their L2 proficiency and set…

This article presents the findings from a qualitative study that sought to learn about students' perceptions of a Cross-Cultural Learning Community (CCLC) at a large Midwestern University. The article focuses on three major areas that emerged as a result of focus groups: 1) students' reasons for joining the CCLC, 2) the role of the CCLC in the…

This article describes how a K-12 school in South Florida adopted a course management system with e-portfolio capabilities. E-portfolios are available tools, though more costly, in higher-end course management systems and are gaining recognition in the K-12 market. However, according to a recent survey administered by the technology team at the…

This study combines research in education and services marketing to develop and test a model of seven factors hypothesized to be significant in student attitudes toward the classes they take and behavioral intentions that may be influenced by those attitudes. Based on a review of relevant literature and a series of focus groups, a survey was…

The Future Teacher Institute (FTI) is a minority teacher recruitment model, initiated and field-tested at California State University Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) over a 5-year period. The FTI's goal is twofold: (1) to involve promising minority high school students in a direct teaching/learning experience; and (2) to familiarize fourth- through…

The High/Scope Institute for IDEAS began in the early 1960s as a summer camp program and is now a dynamic learning program for teens that emphasizes working with them in an environment which supports emotional, social, and intellectual development. The High/Scope model for adolescent programs is based on the following principles: (1) adolescents…

The eight chapters in this book explain a teaching model to help students develop their kinesthetic intelligence through purposeful movement education. The major focus is the kindergarten through third grade child, but because in movement one can be a "beginner" at any age, movement experiences of both older and younger learners are occasionally…

This paper presents the report of a University of Maryland focus group evaluating a seminar in teaching designed for undergraduate teaching fellows in engineering. The course's purpose was to provide the fellows the opportunity to apply teaching theory to practice. Focus groups were conducted in order to evaluate the course and the teaching…

Data for a study of learning within farmers' cooperatives were collected by interviewing members of 25 such cooperatives in Imo State of Nigeria. Information was also gathered from a literature review and interviews with Nigerian government officials who worked closely with cooperatives. Three types of cooperative associations were identified:…

This handbook was developed to assist educators and parents in fostering children's self-concept through developmentally appropriate kindergarten experiences. Guidelines for parental involvement, classroom volunteers, and families under stress are included. The handbook describes basic characteristics of children from ages 3-8 in terms of…

Contract learning is an alternative way of structuring a learning experience. Instead of specifying how a body of content will be transmitted (content plan), it specifies how a body of content will be acquired by the learner (process plan). Students identify problems or issues that are real for them and relevant to the course at hand, state…

The bridging theme of the AMTEC'93 conference provided the stimulation to look beyond traditional boundaries: across international borders; across levels of disciplines and school systems; across social differences and across individual differences. These bridges can help make learning more effective, as can attention to related contemporary…

This paper posits that metaphor, in addition to embellishing language, promotes a comprehensive understanding of complex concepts and phenomena and provides teachers with a powerful way to talk about their work. The main body of this document, which includes an extensive review of the literature, considers the use of metaphors for mentoring in the…

A series of studies that investigated the validity of abilities learned in college for later career and professional work are summarized. After describing the rationale for validating outcome-centered higher education curricula, the following types of measures for program evaluation and outcome validation are discussed: performance measures of…

A set of "creative competencies" provides a framework for assessing the extent to which local school environments contribute to the production of creative citizens. Following an introduction to rationale and organization of the Vermont Creativity Task Force, material is divided into five substantive sections. Section 1 pinpoints the…