The purpose of this text is to guide high school students to a greater understanding of the subject of authority and a greater ability to deal with issues of authority effectively as they go about their daily lives as citizens in U.S. society. This curriculum guide contains 12 lessons that are organized into four units. Unit 1, What is authority?,…

This teacher's curriculum guide is designed to help high school students to gain a greater understanding of the subject of authority and a greater ability to deal with issues of authority effectively as they go about their daily life as citizens in U.S. society. For each of the 12 lessons, the guide provides an overview, objectives, materials…

The relative importance of adolescents' levels of perceived social support and their satisfaction with their supportive relationships in terms of predicting personal agency beliefs (an individual's capability and context beliefs) was studied with data collected from 174 upper-middle class high school students (75 males and 99 females) in the San…

This study examined whether students at the Northeast Missouri State University felt the present Liberal Arts and Sciences Core Study requirements allowed enough freedom in choosing classes, and how students would respond to more free electives. Responses of 508 students were obtained to a questionnaire addressing the following areas: (1) how…

This paper describes the use of the Individual Career Plan (ICP) with students having disabilities at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) at Amherst. The ICP is a career development tool that encourages self-determination. First, a summary of the barriers to career achievement for students with disabilities in higher education is presented.…

A master's degree program for teachers of English as a Second Language is described, focusing on a method of student evaluation that emphasizes learner autonomy and seeks to extend that principle to trainees' classroom practice. The approach is based on the concepts that involvement in learning, including assessment, is vital to effective learning…

This paper examines the problems and barriers that individuals with severe disabilities often encounter in four areas of their lives: (1) dealing with medical professionals, (2) working with the public education system, (3) receiving rehabilitation services, and (4) socializing with others. The roles of the family, the individual with the…

This paper explores the detrimental effects that assumptions and labels have caused people with mental retardation and examines the concept of changing societal attitudes. The paper points out that: mental retardation has often been regarded not simply as one aspect of a person's life, but as engulfing the person's whole life and becoming that…

This report examines the need for inclusion of people with developmental disabilities in community life and describes activities of service providers in Minnesota toward meeting that goal. Part 1 reviews issues of eligibility involved in the exclusion of individuals with developmental disabilities from services. The lives of people who are…

Using a qualitative research approach, the researcher interviewed (over an 11-month period) four black, low-income mothers of children with disabilities concerning their perceptions of empowerment in interactions with professionals from an outreach agency attempting to increase family involvement in the special education process. In previous…

One teacher of English as a second language found that Gertrude Moskowitz' humanistic approach to instruction brought about significant changes in her small and diverse class. The direct results she perceived included very strong ties within the group, mutual trust and interest, values changes, and expressions of sentiment. Indirect results, those…

Several years of research support a differentiated system of supervision in which teachers can choose from among four different supervision styles. With the clinical style, intense observation and feedback is conducted by a trained supervisor. Cooperative professional development consists of small teams of peers working together for their mutual…

A prevailing myth holds that modern families, characterized by high mobility and individualistic life styles, do not care for their aging members. To assess the quantity and characteristics of the care of noninstitutionalized elderly parents by their adult children, parents and adult child pairs (N=50) responded to interviews. Specific research…

A critique is offered of three papers on the student's role in learning. The first, by Robert Sternberg and Richard Wagner, makes connections between cognitive processing of information and the metacognitive processing of one's own approach to a situation and the information contained therein. The second, by Deborah Stipek, implies that…

As participants in a "choice training" program, three moderately/severely handicapped adolescents were reinforced or prompted first to select a leisure activity and then to sustain the activity for gradually longer periods of time with decreasing teacher supervision. Results included sustained activity maintenance from one week to four months…