Contends that speech ensembles can be useful in the music classroom, particularly at the middle school level, to help develop students' creative thinking, powers of expression, and skills in notation and counting. Offers five steps to guide students in creating speech ensembles that address the National Standards for Music Education. (CMK)

Discusses the difficulty children with learning disabilities have in making friends and describes a strategy for incorporating children's literature into teaching friendship skills. A practice lesson that used this strategy with five elementary children with disabilities is described and found to be effective in promoting friendship skills. (CR)

In an Israeli elementary school program to stimulate students' development of oral English skills, students write dialogs and conversation themes in areas of interest, then practice and conduct the conversations with amateur radio operators around the world. Challenges and successes are detailed. (MSE)

College teachers are encouraged to provoke students to analyze the grounds of their beliefs but to use care not to inflict personal biases and preferences. Several principles to follow in formulating provocative teaching techniques and to support students' critical thinking are outlined, with examples from philosophy instruction. Classroom…

Analyzes the generalization failures of social-skills instruction, outlines some critical differences between instruction in social- and academic-skills areas, and suggests the depth of analysis, instruction, and facilitation that will be required to achieve generalization of social skills. The modification of environments to support behavior is…

Discusses problems that educators face in attempting to emphasize high-level cognitive skills in their curriculum. Identifies four elements of informal learning that guide the creation of these skills, through a comparison of the characteristics of formal and informal learning environments. Notes benefits for development of students' conceptual…

Describes three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) models for every component in a representative mechanical system; the CAD models made it easy to generate 3-D animations that are ideal for teaching perceptual skills in multimedia computer-based technical training. Fifteen illustrations are provided. (AEF)

Six of seven adolescents who attended a summer rehabilitation program at the Vacation Camp for the Blind (VCB) reported they were performing the majority of skills two months after they completed training at VCB. Parents' responses confirmed self-reports and noted the performance of new skills or skill improvement. (Contains eight references.) (CR)

Using longitudinal data from 875 students, assesses whether student participation in leadership education and training programs has an impact on educational and personal development. Results indicate that leadership participants showed growth in civic responsibility, leadership skills, multicultural awareness, understanding of leadership theories,…

Examines some of the best school-based interventions being used for children of divorce and their effectiveness. These interventions include consideration of developmental stages, parent and teacher involvement, structured activities, and skill building. Offers a delineation of the salient features across the models. (Contains 20 references.) (GCP)

Presents an activity combining music and art in which students create a picture expressing a particular style of music. Develops skills in painting and drawing from observation. The paintings include a realistic drawing of one or more instruments and convey the feelings of the instrument's musical style. (CMK)

Reviews five transfer models that are effective in organizing knowledge sources and stimulating understanding in the process of transferring training skills to the job. Highlights include trainee characteristics, design factors, work environment, a systemic model of factors that predict employee training, trainers becoming performance…

Explains why the national standards effort in education failed, discusses the existence and diffusion of current standards, and describes how credible national level standards might be developed. Development recommendations include brevity; concentration on skills required for student advancement; the need for review, revision, and field testing;…

This article proposes teaching strategies and an instructional format to make traditional secondary physical education classes more fitness oriented. Suggestions address the preclass activity, fitness lectures, skill development, integration game activities, playing of traditional games, fitness activities, and closure activities. Sample week…

A theory of how people detect and correct their own performance errors during skill practice is proposed. Blame assignment, error attribution, and knowledge revision are identified as three cognitive functions in explaining error correction. The theory is embodied in a computer model that learns cognitive skills in ecologically valid domains. (SLD)