Describes the planning and implementation of an online writing center for adult students of SUNY Empire State College, a non-residential, independent-study distance-learning institution. Highlights informational and facilitative properties of hypertext and the need for a personalized instructor "voice." Components of the program included…

Describes the Touchstones Discussion Project at New York's Rice High School, in which students lead and participate in discussions on writings related to controversial issues. Suggests that the project helps students master complex material and develop leadership skills as they take increasing responsibility for their education. (AJL)

Thirty-one 6th-grade students with and without mild disabilities participated in an eight-week project-based investigation about immigration to the United States. Students were assigned the role of the immigrants or opponents of immigration and asked to debate desirability of immigration. Debates promoted high levels of engagement and equal…

Discusses the potential of technology to reduce isolation during student teaching and reports on a study that examined entries of secondary student teachers and faculty related to readings, projects, and daily experiences in schools through an electronic discussion group. Makes recommendations for increasing reflectivity and improving use of…

Examined the use of online discussion as a medium for learning in an elementary teacher education program. As part of an Education Studies course, students engaged in discussions of issues related to technology and equity in schools. Through the online activity, distinctive sets of writing practices were created, which enabled students to make…

Explains Teachers' Domain, a digital library being developed for the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) by WGBH, the Boston public television station, which includes an online index of archival resources related to K-12 life sciences supported by customized lesson plans, background essays, discussion questions, and correlations to national…

Discusses the reasons why students do not see constitutional rights as applicable to their own lives. Focuses on the formal and informal curriculum of schools. Presents court cases for students to learn about the reasons why their rights must differ from adults. Describes how students can be included in making school rules. (CMK)

Describes a study unit focusing on the book, "A Street through Time" (Anne Millard). Explains that the unit incorporates small group work within learning centers and daily class discussions. Outlines the student activities and individual projects within the learning center. (CMK)

Describes the content of the picture book, "Encounter," written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by David Shannon. States that it focuses on the arrival of Christopher Columbus to San Salvador (El Salvador) from a boy's perspective. Includes questions for use when discussing the messages and content of the book. (CMK)

Introduces students to the issues of constitutional free speech, and provides hypothetical situations that allows them to make decisions concerning a proposed action and to identify when free speech is protected by the First Amendment. Each action is based on a legal precedent, and the teacher is provided with case references to aid in classroom…

Proposes the use of literary texts in the intermediate-level college second language course as a means of discovering tools for decoding and interpretation that will be useful to other language tasks. An approach to the introduction of texts includes preparatory exercises, discussion, and written analysis. (MSE)

A longitudinal study investigated whether or not discussion in the mathematical classroom was an aid to understanding. This preliminary analysis showed that evidence to support the hypothesis has been limited. A method of classification of mathematical talk is described. (Author/YP)

Describes a study which examined classroom discussions of content area readings and attempted to modify the discussions to reflect more higher-order thinking and critical reading. Finds that teachers did elicit more inferential responses, even though they did not effect substantial and lasting changes in classroom interaction patterns. (RS)

The teaching profession can benefit from the examples of medicine and law by incorporating truly specialized professional knowledge into educational practice. Educational research should be acknowledged to have comparable validity with research in hard and soft sciences. The communication of research findings to practitioners will improve…

The experiences of some faculty members who were recently honored at the American Association for Higher Education's National Conference on Higher Education, where they participated in a Forum on Extraordinary Teaching, is described. To talk publicly about one's teaching was a unique experience for the participants. (MLW)