A teacher at a northern Ontario adult Native literacy program describes how she cultivates student motivation. The teacher-student relationship is the most influential factor for motivating students. By focusing on cultural awareness, cultural teaching practices, and a sense of community, teachers can help students be successful. Program…

This article explains how key principles of holistic constructivism were used to revise a graduate teacher education program in behavior disorders and develop a portfolio model of evaluation, involving individualized portfolios, applied projects, collaborative work, and student evaluation, to demonstrate competency in eight areas. Three students…

Essential features of an outdoor integrated curriculum include experiential learning, whole process, authenticity, challenge, responsibility, and connection with the community. Additional factors that result only from outdoor learning include inescapable consequences, personal growth, and sense of wonder. Problems of curriculum integration include…

Several issues must be resolved to help teacher education become a truly multicultural experience. The paper discusses whether values can be taught in universities and suggests screening teacher candidates for prejudice prior to accepting them into programs. Universities need faculty who can model appropriate behaviors and teach about such issues.…

African-American teacher educator describes her educational experiences. Though elementary school peers and teachers were predominantly African-American, there was no focus on African-American history and diversity. Her secondary and postsecondary years in predominantly white schools showed her the need for multicultural education and helped shape…

Discusses the need for holistic curriculum development and reflective teaching, examining five persistent myths related to teacher education and noting strategies for refuting them. Challenges excuses for maintaining the status quo in education (lecturing and testing as the normal mode), viewing learning as an interactive process. (SM)

This model assessment procedure for gifted/learning-disabled students utilizes the concepts of the tetrahedral learning model and self-regulation versus other-regulation. Stage one focuses on the compilation of a summary profile of learner strengths and weaknesses; stage two deals with the learner in context, using a structured interview format.…

Examines how four third grade teachers improved students' health-related physical fitness while guided by a physical education specialist. Teachers in two treatment classes offered health-related physical fitness activities, and the specialist provided guidance and activities calendars. Positive results were noted in the treatment classes. (SM)

Describes the Health Education and Lifestyle Promotion (H.E.L.P.) program, Missouri University's employee wellness model. H.E.L.P. utilizes a carefully structured, comprehensive package approach. Its success stems from networking existing campus resources and personnel and creating effective program design, implementation, and evaluation. The…

Discusses how parents and teachers can encourage sensitivity in their children, providing them with tools to reach out openly to others and to be accepting regardless of differences. Specific strategies for putting differences in perspective and for making friends are offered. (SM)

Discusses teaching as a scientifically based art, noting that educational research must contribute to social justice, and examines controversy over social science, response to philosophers' criticisms, forms of research, process-product research, illustrative results of process-product research, necessary experiments, and other paradigms for…

This study investigated the technical adequacy of 7 objective indexes of writing quality in monitoring the progress of 36 middle school students with mild disabilities over a 6-month period. Three indexes (such as "percent of legible words") were moderately correlated with holistic ratings but were not sufficiently stable over time. (Author/JDD)

Discusses the following themes that pervade individual articles in this volume: (1) critical reasoning; (2) inductive anthropology; (3) active learning; (4) discovery; (5) open versus closed anthropology; (6) reflexivity; (7) cross-cultural comparisons; (8) films; (9) holism; and (10) problems in the 1990s. Suggests that these themes will be at…

Reviews effective schools research and discusses the theories behind it. Both the "empirical" approach and the multiparadigmatic approach have limitations. An evolutionary epistemology that interweaves qualitative and quantitative aspects of school effectiveness is preferable. People need realistic change models allowing them to balance…

This study documents the goals, purposes, and outcomes of a 6-week conductive education program for 10 children (ages 1-10) with cerebral palsy in Brisbane, Australia. Observations revealed little improvement in mobility or eating skills, though parents reported that their children had made gains in such areas as self-care, hand function, and arm…