Constructionist learning is characterized by three principles: "learning-by-making,""holistic learning," and a freedom to choose learning styles. This paper describes a project with second grade homeschooling students that tested the feasibility of using HyperCard as a medium for constructionist learning. The "worlds"…

A study focused on a university-school collaborative research project on language assessment in the classroom context and the benefits of preservice teacher participation. Personnel from the Pennsylvania State University (including 20 preservice teacher education students), intermediate unit (Pennsylvania's regional service centers), and four…

Based on the premise that teachers are the chief condition in the literate classroom, and that one of the most important things children do is to observe the way adults think and learn, this book presents five essays suggesting methods of inviting children into the adult world of reading and writing. After a foreword by Donald Graves and an…

This paper presents findings of a study that examined teachers' and parents' attitudes toward teacher evaluation, particularly in regard to the usefulness of instruction-based instruments to measure holistic, integrated classroom practices. A pilot teacher assessment instrument was developed and field-tested at seven schools in which holistic…

The notion of educating and encouraging the whole child is not a new idea, but it awaits full acceptance. Strategies for teaching the whole child in a middle-school environment are presented here. The text opens with an overview of how schools have failed to use the latest ideas and technologies in educating students and how schools can draw on…

This pamphlet relates this quotation by R. Buckminster Fuller to the educational process: "To be optimally effective, undertake at outset the most comprehensive task in the most comprehensive and incisively detailed manner." The principle of synergy can be used to determine when something is "optimally effective." One example…

Free verbal responses to pictures as an indication of cognitive style were studied for 199 college students, at Eastern Kentucky University. The Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) was administered following presentation of the pictures, a series of colored pictures of simple, medium and complex configuration. Responses given to three graduate…

The assumption behind this paper is that teachers should adopt the strategy of simplification of a learning task by integration that captures the inherent tendency for the integration of the objective world into subjective wholes, rather than through simplification by isolation of topics. An effective way of establishing the theme of a course is…

The current "third-wave" educational reformers are committed to deeper and more far-reaching school improvement efforts that have been conceived almost totally in structuralist terms. The word "restructuring" often appears in such reforms to signal reformers' intent to institute "systemic" reform. The latter term…

This presentation addresses ways to meet the needs of African-American gifted students and offers suggestions for inclusive classroom interventions that are liberating for students who exist simultaneously in African American culture, American mainstream culture, and as gifted and talented learners. The identification of these learners must begin…

This article examines two aspects of preservice English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher education programs: (1) the knowledge base or information that students must learn; and (2) the way or ways in which the knowledge is delivered to students. The knowledge base includes content knowledge, pedagogic knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge, and…

Two major trends have affected the responsibility of the public schools in providing health education and services over the past 2 decades. First, the structure of the family and the demographics of the school-aged population have changed dramatically, placing greater burdens for child welfare on school systems. Second, the leading causes of…

This document offers administrators a concise approach to the various theories of total quality management (TQM) and the tools necessary to implement these theories at postsecondary educational institutions. The book is divided into four chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the principles of TQM by briefly: (1) reviewing the ideas of TQM leaders; and…

Findings from a study to formulate a comprehensive program for the promotion of greater gender equity for women in educational administration, especially at the secondary principal level, are presented in this report. Two research focuses include an assessment of the status quo of women in educational administration in the United States, United…

The combined concepts of holism and general systems theory have led to the belief among health care professionals that people cannot be fully understood unless the mind and body are seen as having an integral relationship. The relationship between nutrition and behavior is one area in which the holistic approach is relevant for the field of…