Addresses outsourcing of school facilities services and the steps facilities services staff can take to help preserve their jobs. Steps include increasing organizational communication of staff efforts; investigating computer software to better manage service delivery; training and motivating staff in new ideas and practices; and establishing goals…

Introduces this special journal issue re-examining the contributions of Myrtle McGraw to developmental psychology in order to clarify misinterpretations of her work and to highlight dimensions that constitute promising lines of inquiry for contemporary researchers. Maintains that McGraw failed to receive credit for her alternative to…

Discusses how McGraw's work broached the notion of a reciprocal relationship between structural maturation and function, thus anticipating the current understanding of the role of experience in the cortical and motor maturation of infants in the first year of postnatal life. Also presents her clear formulation of a flexible critical period concept…

Reexamines McGraw's research and theoretical principles on early neuromotor development, focusing on unaided walking. Notes that contemporary research supports and clarifies her observations providing greater detail about factors involved in the formation of higher-order control, and amplifying the role of experience. Discusses possible mechanisms…

Maintains that McGraw conducted a more complex analysis of neurobehavior than acknowledged by those characterizing her position as maturationist; that she advanced a unique analysis of brain development and consciousness, singling out the reciprocal relationship between neural growth processes and early experience; and that her studies of the role…

Five preschool students with disabilities received direct instruction on matching shapes, colors, and numbers or letters, followed by guided practice using constant time delay under two conditions: computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with interactive software and teacher-assisted instruction (TAI). CAI was either equal or superior to TAI across…

This study demonstrated the use of peer sampling in establishing goals for instructing two older women with visual impairments in independent living skills. The participants nominated their own peers who provided measures on specific tasks that would add a greater degree of self-determination to the goal-setting process. (Contains references.)…

Reports on a study that focused on Australian students' cognitive and social skills in group decision-making activities conducted in the classroom. Finds that students were motivated to participate in group decision-making and that students' decision-making strategies are destructive when students assert their own ideas at the expense of others.…

Relates how elementary students tend to behave differently in the art classroom than in the content area classrooms. Addresses how art teachers can develop the appropriate skills to promote classroom management in the art classroom. Provides 12 classroom management hints. (CMK)

Highlights an activity from an introductory psychology class in which students applied concepts learned in the course toward learning a new skill (juggling). Explains the procedure and discusses the activity evaluation. Provides suggestions for improvement. (CMK)

Discusses a project that uses nature to teach students about texture. Explains that students collect items from nature with interesting textures, learn about those items, create a collage using those items, and draw the most interesting part of their collages. (CMK)

Provides suggestions for teachers new to Edwin Gordon's music learning theory, describing an incremental approach to audiation-based instrumental music instruction. Discusses teaching methods to introduce audiation, improving students' audiation skills, using tonal patterns to improve intonation, and Gordon's rhythm syllable system. Includes a…

Presents a lesson plan in which students explore the impact of industrialization on agriculture, the experience of William Ellison, a free black cotton gin mechanic, and the skills that Ellison needed. Students discuss handwritten documents, diagrams, and census information related to the cotton gin. Includes a bibliography and four handouts. (CMK)

Defines skills important for kindergarten success in areas of health and physical well-being, social and emotional skills, intellectual skills and general knowledge, and language and speech development. Lists eight "red flags" to help identify children who may need specialized assistance. (DLH)

Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning was evaluated through a demographic survey of 1,011 student participants and pre/posttest scores from 93. Community college students showed significant gains in communication skills, high school students in business knowledge. Community college students had greater gains than high school students in…