Within the existing system of education, student work rarely has any value beyond the particular course that it is created for. The work is graded and then usually discarded. The authors describe in this article a way that student work can be systematically made available for use by others beyond the immediate learning context within which it is…

Assessing students' knowledge has always been a difficult task, especially in today's climate of standards driven curriculum. Challenges to educators include meeting content standards, assessing students' progress and focusing on diverse learning styles, as well as preparing students for work and life beyond schools. To meet these challenges,…

As experts on the nature and needs of young children, early childhood educators are in prime positions to advocate for the health and well-being of young children. Advocacy can take the form of personal, public, or private-sector endeavors. Personal advocacy is usually informal and involves educating others on an issue about early childhood…

As a second article in a series devoted to an ongoing evaluation of our antiracism field project, a controversial assignment rooted in our Smith College School for Social Work's antiracism commitment, this paper focuses on the review of 128 assignments completed between September 1998-August 2000. A thematic analysis of these projects revealed…

National standards in social studies, history, civics/government, and geography stress the importance of preparing young people to become active citizens, yet pay little attention to civic leadership. Several only imply that one of a citizen's responsibilities is to assume leadership roles at the community, state, and national level. Only one…

This paper focuses on one approach to making research students more reflexive in their writing. It is argued that the development of the ability to be reflexive in regard to their own qualitative research does not come easily to a significant number of students. A range of possibilities which supervisors might present to their research students as…

Approaches to intercultural communication competence (ICC) generally argue the need for objective knowledge about another culture as well as knowledge about and the ability to achieve appropriate behaviors of that target culture. Most of these approaches continue to base themselves on a conception of culture as comprehensive but static.…

Computer technologies develop at a challenging fast pace. Formal education should not only teach students basic computer skills to meet current computer needs, but also foster student development of informal learning ability for a lifelong learning process. On the other hand, students growing up in the digital world are often more skilled with…

Electronic portfolio technology can be used in different contexts to create classroom communities in which everyone, not just the teacher, cares about each student's learning. The authors describe how students in an urban middle school, undergraduate teacher preparation program, and graduate leadership program used an electronic bulletin board and…

This practical, how-to guide makes it easy for teachers to incorporate the latest technology in their classes. Employing an informal workshop approach, the book avoids technical jargon and pays special attention to the needs of teachers who are expanding the use of computers in their classroom. The authors focus on what teachers do and how they…

This bibliography cites sources to assist middle, junior, and senior high school students and teachers in planning, preparing, and executing science fair projects in the environmental sciences. In addition, a few books with experiments suitable for elementary grade students are included. The listing includes: (1) 5 introductory texts; (2) 31…

The urbanization and industrialization of a society based on commercial competitiveness has resulted in the marginalization of rural communities and the disempowerment of rural people. An alternative view of the future is needed, and rural schools have a part to play in creating it. Four sets of forces are driving society toward a different…

This paper discusses the creative use of information technologies to teach world theater in a course at Austin Peay State University (Tennessee). Compared with western theater, world theater demands a broader access to information than is generally available. The goal of the course is to compare various forms of theater using materials and human…

Educational research shows that technology can enhance student acquisition of discrete skills through drill and practice. This document presents findings of a study that examined whether technology could provide significant support for constructivist, project-based teaching and learning approaches. It also identified the elements necessary for…

In this chapter, a college teacher describes the use of personal projects in a class on mathematics teaching for preservice teacher-education students. The personal project required students to learn something new or to do something they had never done before, and to document their learning through a journal or other reflective record. In…