An award-winning Alaskan elementary school is designed to blend into the landscape; capture as much winter daylight as possible; and generally accommodate safety, flexibility, practicality, and whimsy. In a sidebar, the architect explains the importance of architect/educator collaboration in designing a building that supports an educational…

Investigated body figure preferences, eating disorder symptomatology, and role concerns in 142 Australian Caucasian adolescent girls in private single-sex and private coeducational schools. Reasons girls in the single-sex school had a thinner ideal figure and displayed more eating disorder patterns than those in the coeducational school are…

Twelve Swedish day-care centers were studied concerning patterns of adult behavior towards children, and adult intentions, attitudes, and norms regarding work and interpersonal relations. Found that patterns of adult behavior were proscribed by three different center climates: future focused, present focused, and combined. Three patterns of adult…

Examines current academic culture and how it affects growth in nontraditional and distant student populations. Characteristics examined include goal ambiguity, limited flexibility in adapting academic programs to students' needs, low faculty interdependence, and high vulnerability because of decreased funding and societal demands. Examples of…

Involvement in various college activities and educational gains of black students (n=1,200) attending a historically white institution were compared. Involvement in academic activities had a greater impact on gains of students at the black institution, and social engagement was more important for black students at the white institution. (Author)

Delineates the historical and sociopolitical factors that influenced the educational development of sociology in Brazil. Discusses leading theorists, educational reformers, and the university's role in opposing the military regime. More recent crises have included shrinking academic budgets and declining enrollment. (MJP)

Examines the educational development of sociology in Singapore from its beginnings in 1965 to the present. Singaporean sociology is noted for its openness to international influences and scholarship and its close association with anthropology. Includes a tabulation of Singaporean sociological research by subject field and authorship. (MJP)

Compared student-teacher perception of discipline and examined how ethnicity, achievement, gender, and position influenced practices. Data from 16 urban high school students and 9 teachers indicated that interpersonal conflicts were more consequential for students of color. Evidence surfaced of disparate perceptions among ethnically diverse…

Discusses the prevalence and power of rituals in school settings, focusing on the potential of rituals to instruct through cognitive and affective channels simultaneously. Notes the positive benefits of rituals such as fairness, cooperation, and respect for others. Describes the three stages of ritual: separation, transition, and incorporation.…

Argues that, while teacher and school efforts are important, the conditions outside of schools hold the key to increasing academic achievement substantially. Family socialization practices in American and Asian families are reviewed; and children's early cognitive and social behaviors are linked to later school behavior, including academic…

Focus group research methods were used to investigate the alignment of inclusive education with other reform efforts at a targeted urban school with 347 students. Results found the teachers, principals, and the parents shared a commitment to sustaining a school community and breaking down the walls of segregation. (Contains references.) (CR)

Describes how the Absorbent Mind uses human tendencies during the first 6 years of life to construct one's own individual self. Maintains that the adult's task is to form the link between the child and the environment so that the human tendencies to explore, orient, order, work, repeat, control errors, be exact, create, invent, and communicate can…

Examines how students use evidence, determines when they add further ideas and claims, and measures progress in understanding light propagation. Uses the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration (SKI) instructional framework for design decisions. Discusses design studies that test and elaborate on the instructional framework. (Contains 33 references.)…

A survey of 123 teachers enrolled in a university principal- preparation program revealed that teachers valued three kinds of principal behaviors: empowering (23 percent), supporting (36 percent), and communicating (41 percent). Praising is less important than treating teachers professionally, demonstrating support, and having an open-door policy.…

Elements aiding block-scheduling implementation at an Ohio Catholic school include a supportive principal, systems thinking, adequate time and resources, benchmarks for quality, responsible faculty decision making, readiness-based staff development, democratic process, process/content coordination, a nonthreatening learning environment, and…