In recent times the ultimate role of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Alaskan education has been questioned, focusing on how much longer the BIA will operate schools and what form, if any, BIA education will have within and following the next 5 years. Therefore, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs (former Area Director for the Juneau Area…

Progressive format or sequencing of strategies in the conversation class is proposed as a solution to the problems of conversation grouping for foreign students. Structures and formats and sample activities are outlined for the six activity categories or strategies: restructuring, one-centered, unified group, dyad, small group, and large group.…

Presents findings of a study designed to identify the background and process factors that influence the success of groupwork with computers. The multisite case study involved mixed-sex mixed-ability pupils, aged 9-12, who undertook mathematics tasks using LOGO or a database. The discussion includes the impact of organizational styles and patterns…

This handbook on participative learning is designed for workers involved in community and adult education programs, staff development, and youth, community, and social work organizations. The introduction explores a theoretical basis for participative learning and defines terms. Chapter 1 examines program planning issues and includes some useful…

Presented is a descriptive account of guided design, an educational strategy in which students work together in small groups to solve open-ended problems designed to provide experience in applying the subject matter content of a course. The essential elements of this instructional strategy are described, and the instructor's role clarified as…

Social contact through informal speech, a basic adolescent need, can be most effectively developed in secondary schools through the learning, working, and creating situations of drama activities. Since drama is conflict and living language is action, the process of making a play is as important as the play. Thus, drama creation within a small…

This paper presents a framework for understanding and facilitating teacher self learning in the school organization at the individual and group levels. It focuses on how individual teachers and their groups acquire self learning and self renewal while managing their work. The paper also discusses implications of the framework for teacher…

Reports on the impact of an introductory biology course sequence that incorporated experience-based, group learning. Achievement results indicate that students were not disadvantaged by this new approach and, in fact, displayed a superior grasp of group-work, open lab utilization, and creative problem solutions. Attitudes regarding anxiety over…

The relationship between cooperative learning in staff development programs and the practice of collegial interaction is examined. Thirteen administrators and supervisors from one school district participated in a staff development program that stressed a cooperative learning method. Methodology involved a comparison of participant and control…

This pamphlet is the second in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet contains a description of a study designed to…

An American history class in Melbourne, Florida, provides an opportunity for tenth grade students to experience the reality of interpersonal interaction and small group cooperation in the classroom. The first three days of the year-long course are used to identify leaders and to assign groups, numbering five to seven students. In addition to…

This volume reports experiences in individualizing and opening classroom instruction of elementary teachers in the League of Cooperating Schools (18 Southern California School districts). Written for teachers by teachers, it offers specific details and advice to aid both the new and the experienced teacher with the organizational and technical…

Discusses the reactions to two empowering styles of teaching introduced into a newly developed interdisciplinary unit in geography and environmental sciences. Peer assessment was embraced more thoroughly than group work which was eventually accepted with some reservations. Includes charts illustrating student reactions to both innovations. (MJP)

This article, in Section 1, describes language learning as learner growth or development in three interrelated areas: personal awareness, awareness of learning processes and task awareness. These are the three angles of a triangle that constitute the notion of school learning as learner education. The second section discusses how to promote the…

This paper presents a description and analysis of the work of a group of primary grade teachers who decided to study their practices and engage their students in inquiry. Their school was in a lower socioeconomic area with a multiethnic student body. The political nature of their work is documented via two themes that emerged from their work. The…