This article details the challenges that UC Merced faced in building up the critical areas of student and residence life. The new institution held great promise for achieving the ideal of a student-centered university, but certain bedrock problems proved difficult to overcome. One was that at the beginning, both administration and faculty saw…

This article explores the motivational causes for learning and community service of students, faculty, and volunteer supporters of the Baha'i Institute of Higher Education (BIHE) in Iran. BIHE is a grassroots initiative launched by Baha'i academics, who--after having been expelled from public universities as a result of their allegiance to the…

Many Americans believe that diversity issues are limited to the United States. The truth is, however, that many cultures struggle to recognize and foster cultural diversity. In this article, the authors have two aims: (1) to recognize various ethnic groups in Taiwan, in particular aboriginal groups; and (2) to inform educators about what they can…

This paper presents an exploratory study about the development of a structural and measurement model for the technological acceptance (TAM) of a web-based educational tool. The aim consists of measuring not only the use of this tool, but also the external variables with a significant influence in its use for planning future improvements. The tool,…

This research examined patterns of substance use and academic factors among a sample of 733 African-American and European-American adolescents from a metropolitan area. First, youth were classified into 11th grade high, moderate, or no substance use groups and classified as users, initiators, desistors, and nonusers based on eighth and 11th grade…

This report explores the development of modular education and its application in the Dutch Open University. The origins of modular education are examined from the first applications in American higher education and the development of electives and the credit system to the role of modular instruction as the basis of higher education curriculum.…

Increasing violence and threats of violence in American schools have prompted many school districts to take aggressive action in providing greater security and more positive learning environments. This book presents an alternative approach--that of training students in conflict resolution and peer mediation. The book offers specific, practical…

This book presents for discussion principles and issues that encourage early childhood educators to evaluate their current approaches to programming and planning for young chidren with emphasis on the individual child. The book offers the opportunity to affirm the practice of developmentally appropriate procedures and to suggest directions for…

This paper describes findings of a study that examined several dimensions of school functions--policy making, decision making, structure building, and relation building--to determine how they contributed to or hindered the development of a caring culture in a suburban middle school in a large midwestern city. The study also examined four arenas or…

The broader social issues (poverty, illiteracy, health care, single parent families) of school reform in urban settings are explored in a paper divided into four parts. The first examines the impact of urbanization on the conditions of schools in the inner city. Part two analyzes the value assumptions embedded in both the first and second waves of…

It is commonplace for school restructuring proposals to mention the need for support programs and services that will address barriers to students' learning and performance. This paper explores some concerns about prevailing policies that address impediments to learning (including but not limited to school violence and substance abuse). Emphasized…

This paper describes how a predominantly white elementary school responded to a school-district reorganization effort to promote ethnic balance among the schools. The redistricting plan reassigned some former students to other schools and bused in many Spanish-speaking students. The school staff encountered language problems with the new students…

This digest provides a framework for professional development of outdoor educators. Outdoor and environmental educators share similar principles of outdoor learning. Thus, the performance standards recently drafted by the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) can serve as a useful guide for outdoor education generally.…

This monograph considers the prospects for improving teacher engagement in urban schools through professional and organizational reform. Urban education is a special context for teaching, with the complications of social, political, and organizational conditions that make the schools difficult settings. One of the problems is increasing teacher…

This publication is part of a series of monographs on the art of teaching. Each volume, focusing on a specific discipline, explores theory in the context of teaching strategies connected to evaluation of both teachers' and students' learning. Three techniques for making use of the series are offered: dialogues (as self-evaluation and in study…