A study examined the effects of a "pen pal" letter writing exchange on undergraduate college students and second grade children. Subjects, 23 second graders, completed a letter writing attitude survey, and then (after receiving an explanation of what a pen pal is) exchanged letters with the undergraduates over a l5-week period. Results…

In a 6-month study of a small private school (Fielding) in central Virginia, seven participants in a curriculum practicum tested a research strategy for investigating the knowledge, skills, and attitudes fostered by a school's environment. Given the subjectivity of environmental influences, the team rejected scrupulous data collection to…

This paper on the state of general and liberal education in the United States discusses a project which sought to examine and improve general and liberal education programs at the higher education level. The first part of this paper delineates the undermining of liberal education in the nation's colleges and universities following World War II.…

The document addresses challenges that a developmental and wholistic approach to learning presents in the area of educational screening and evaluation in native communities. The introduction considers the connection between wholistic educational evaluation and alcohol and drug abuse, where to begin, the role of evaluation in learning, and…

A study examined experiential education programs in terms of how they developed participants' personal agency, sense of belonging, and levels of competence. Personal agency empowers students to become change agents in their lives and communities; sense of belonging enables participants to see themselves as members of a community with rights and…

If real growth is not made in teacher attitude and training and in institutional structural change to enhance the quality of interaction between "mainstreamed" students and "normal" students, mainstreaming will fail. (Author/LC)

Describes a pilot project, a mobile Catholic school with a health and pastoral services ministry, which follows its students, migrant children, from Ohio to Florida every year. Indicates the program emphasizes a holistic approach to combat attrition, flexibility, and the active participation of its parents. (10 citations) (AJL)

Reviews a study that used a collaborative action research model to explore ways to integrate music authentically into the curriculum of a particular whole-language first-grade classroom. Presents a more differentiated definition of integration, identifying five types: topical, associated skills, conceptual, higher-level thinking, and pedagogical.…

Compares the whole-child approach to early childhood education and Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences. Provides activities and ideas to address each of the seven intelligences, and lists specific suggestions for parent/child experiences, field trip experiences, and constructivist experiences. Stresses individual child potential.…

Describes a class project conducted by multiethnic, limited English speaking, fifth-grade students. The students produced their own videos as part of lessons they developed about their countries of origin. Maintains that this process increases language and social skills while it develops social studies content. (MJP)

Reports on a study of adolescent students' opinions concerning environmental issues. Students from rural and urban areas in England and Germany answered questionnaires covering environmental issues, their individual lifestyles. Questionnaires included free writing sections. Attempts to understand the students'"umweltbewusstsein" (the…

This article examines federal, state, and local initiatives that have influenced child welfare policy and practice on a national scale, with particular emphasis on those policies that offer opportunities for better coordination of services between mental health and child welfare agencies. The special circumstances of child welfare clients are…

Describes a holistic Native Studies curriculum for ethnically mixed classes, based on a project to eliminate Native substance abuse through traditional Native values. Discusses teaching strategies using Native and non-Native learning styles, teacher as role model, and use of appropriate cultural-symbol graphics to transmit ideas. Contains 24…

Illustrates the social construction of scientific knowledge by examining the modernist literary works of Chekhov, Ibsen, and Kafka. Demonstrates philosophical conflicts among the authors centering on the benefits and drawbacks of scientific inquiry and modernism. Students also read textbooks and treatises on the history of science. (MJP)

Argues that, far from being a dangerous and destructive break with the past, various factions of postmodernism actually parallel modernist beliefs. Both movements share groups whose creative revisionists approach seeks a constructive accommodation. Similar parallel destructive approaches also exist. (MJP)