Since early 1998, AEL, Inc., has been assisting state departments of education in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia in the implementation of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program. As part of this assistance, AEL established two types of electronic networks to link school staff at CSRD sites,…

This paper examines the Kalamazoo Ladies' Library Association during the 25-year period in the last half of the 19th century when the association formed a Reading Circle, held Social Meetings, and finally established a Ladies' Library Club. The Reading Circle met weekly and bi-weekly between 1861-1868; the Social Meetings took place once a month…

This paper explores how faculty from various disciplines at one southeastern university used the threaded discussion group feature of such integrated Web packages as FrontPage, Blackboard, and WebCT. Ten faculty members from the colleges of Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Communication, Engineering, and Nursing were surveyed. Qualitative…

Although the principal virtue of the study group is its collective effort, it is flexible enough to provide help where it is needed in individual skill areas or to foster individual exploration within the over-all subject area. (Author)

Describes how members of one community organization tried to get their school district to move toward an Educational Planning-Programming Budgeting System. (Authors/MB)

Libraries and librarians can live up to their commitment to freedom of the mind by grasping the initiative, wherever possible, by supplimenting the traditional role with continuing seminars on the choosing and deciding roles of society. (Author/JS)

Summarizes the views of panel members at a symposium on the place of inorganic chemistry in the undergraduate curriculum. Suggests one semester of intermediate inorganic chemistry, followed by a year of physical chemistry and a semester of advanced inorganic chemistry as a reasonable prescription for the modern undergraduate curriculum. (Author/JN)

Examines changes in disciplinary identity demonstrated in the discourse of several Internet discussion groups and suggests the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to address digital storage and retrieval problems. Highlights include the culture of intellectual disciplines and the organization of knowledge; the culture of the Internet; and…

Examines a model of professional development including preprofessional, autonomous, collegial, and postprofessional phases. Addresses the importance of reflective practice in moving from autonomous to collegial. Suggests the potential for computer-mediated communication to promote reflective dialogue. (Contains 30 references.) (SK)

Examines the hypotheses that students need to improve communication skills and that an innovative pedagogy is more effective than traditional methods for improving communication skills. Describes the teaching pedagogy and its implementation in an introductory sociology course. Results suggest that this pedagogy is more effective than conventional…

Comparison of matriculated freshmen from 1988 and 1989 at the University of Washington found that those students participating in the Freshman Interest Group (200 students from 1988 and 435 students from 1989) were more likely to stay in a competitive course, had higher grade point averages, and were less likely to drop out of college than…

Small groups of gifted high school students meet weekly during lunch periods to have topical discussions, with the goals of developing self-awareness and affirming capability. As the school year progresses, the group discussions become less structured, with more free-wheeling exchange. Topics include learning styles, stress, suicide, and college…