Analysis of data on a conflict between the Joshua Gap (California) school district and local parents over the district's decision to utilize a multiculturally oriented textbook series suggests that contrasting images of the local and larger U.S. community, and contrasting views about the role of schooling, contributed to the conflict. (IAH)

This survey found that regular education teachers (n=312) felt that friendships between students with and without disabilities are possible, should be facilitated by adults, and are beneficial to all students. The survey also identified educational settings in which friendship, functional life skill, and academic skill development were most likely…

Discusses factors which influence performance when authoring multimedia instructional materials, including background knowledge, resource accessibility, learning and teaching styles, learning or job setting, access to expertise, performance support, cooperative learning, tutorials, models, online training, and expert guidance. (Contains six…

Discusses conceptual difficulties in the field of geometrical optics and describes RAY, a microcomputer-based graphic interface that was designed to serve as a teaching aid and as a learning environment. The ability to combine theory and formal representations with real demonstrations and experiments is discussed. (Contains seven references.) (LRW)

A survey of 45 at-risk students enrolled in an alternative rural high school revealed that teachers appeared more concerned about students, were less authoritarian, allowed students more input into decision making, treated students more fairly, and were more enthusiastic than teachers at traditional high schools previously attended by respondents.…

This paper offers a model of the nature and development of talents, which views genetic factors as determining potential strengths and setting limits and views abilities, aptitudes, and intelligences emerging as a result of experiences, motivations, and styles. Specific talents are characterized by precocity, creative insight, a functional…

Reports the results of a questionnaire given to eighth-grade students in Moscow (Russia). Presents results on student opinions about the school environment, their teachers, their image of schools of the future, and the significance of peer groups in their lives. Includes quotes from students on each topic discussed. (CFR)

A framework is proposed for evaluating the learning ecology and processes created by information technology in schools and developing an ecological model for research. The evaluation of Project Comptown, an intervention with extensive use of computers in two Israeli communities (with over 6,000 students), illustrates the framework. (SLD)

Urges cooperation between students and teachers as a means of enabling teachers to help students reach their fullest potential. Lists characteristics of cooperation, including motivational basis, character and forms of interaction, and presence of interpersonal relations in and outside of joint activity. Stresses the importance of developing a…

Principals must ensure that school climate promotes acceptance of all races and cultures and discourages racial slurs, jokes, and other acts of bias and discrimination. An Ontario (Canada) school district has developed a comprehensive race relations policy governing six areas: incidents of expressed bias and discrimination, student assessment and…

Examination of school-improvement efforts at small-town New England high school shows limits of effective leadership, site-based management, and curricular innovations as improvement agents. Efforts are doomed without community consensus about reform goals and best ways to measure progress. Communities must synthesize information about academic,…

Summarizes seven ERIC documents and three journal articles on student motivation, focusing on students in the intermediate grades and middle level education. A number of factors that influence student motivation, as well as strategies for improving student attitudes toward learning, are covered. (TJQ)

Argues that social studies teacher educators verbally promote the concept of social studies as education for democratic citizenship but do not practice democracy in their classrooms. Contends that social studies teacher education programs should be considered as an apprenticeship in democracy. Acknowledges that this approach is not easy to…

Two studies involving 801 middle school students examined the effects of changing educational environments on children's academic self-concepts and motivation. Overall, the findings suggest that changing emphases in the educational environment have complicated academic outcomes that depend on the individual resources that children bring to the…

A survey of 417 high-achieving high schoolers, 103 young prison inmates, and 105 dropouts enrolled in a GED program disclosed significant differences between high-achieving and less-successful adolescents regarding family background, interactions with parents, religious versus material orientation, self-motivation, and interest in school…