Using trained counselors and students, compares the effectiveness of a Brief Counseling Model (BCM) versus traditional counseling approaches during a four-week time span. Results indicate that BCM can maximize elements of the student developmental level. Specific action within the capabilities and control of the student yield rapid results. (RJM)

Analyzes strategies that successful minority students employ to overcome barriers to academic success. Uses an expertise model of successful college students on one campus so as to identify specific knowledge and actions that effective minority students employ. Describes various barriers students face and describes implications. (RJM)

Describes the importance of four essential elements in a community's efforts to create positive youth development: connectedness, continuity, dignity, and opportunity. Identifies children who are in need and discusses what communities can do to care for and love them. Lists strategies that each community member can take to foster change. (RJM)

Describes a life space crisis intervention (LSCI) with a seriously disturbed adolescent. The LSCI showed how the youth unwittingly provoked peer rejection by making outrageous and inappropriate comments. Discusses the New Tools Salesmanship Intervention which taught the student prosocial skills and the student's reintegration into a regular…

Describes the multiple dimensions of identity development and difference among 10 diverse women college students. Data analysis using grounded theory methodology yielded 10 key categories and a core category, which described contextual influences on the construction of identity. Findings reveal the deep complexities of identity development when…

Describes problems associated with student-promotion systems and practices and specifies the situations in which grade retention works best. Offers recommendations for rethinking the policy and practice of retention. (LMI)

Responds to A. L. Brown's 1994 assertion that behaviorism and most learning and developmental research impede theoretical progress and negatively affect educational practice. The author first discusses how Brown inappropriately uses the most outlandish research and practice in the behaviorist tradition as an excuse to reject behaviorism outright,…

Defines total community coverage as the presentation of divisive issues through such media as electronic town meetings and public debates. Suggests ways to improve these media formats, including a 4-level model. Describes in depth each level--Foundations, Conceptual Awareness, Investigation and Evaluation, and Action Skills. Presents a case study…

Provides an overview of this special issue that examines the implementation of the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative in seven local communities. An overview of the SS/HS Initiative is provided. Critical lessons learned from the seven sites are discussed with a focus on the special role that school psychologists can play in…

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative in Pinellas County, FL, emerged as a part of a broader local effort to implement creative educational and mental health programs to support children and families. Describes Pinellas County's plan, and highlights the instrumental roles played by school psychologists, which included grant writing, program…

A study at Potchefstroom University (South Africa) over two academic years investigated changes in study skills and strategies during the first year of university study, and their relationship to academic achievement. Gains in scores on the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, administered to 306 introductory chemistry students and 201…

Describes aspects of the moral voice of the self and of the institution, and makes suggestions for assessing and reducing the dissonance between these two forces. Examines student services' ethic of care and argues for the desirability of "moral bilingualism": the need for an ethic of care and an ethic of justice. (RJM)

Claims that pairing children fosters interpersonal development, problem-solving skills, and moral development, when other interventions have failed. Offers tips to school counselors on getting started, on session content, on play and problem-solving activities, and on ways to explore moral dilemmas. Outlines the counselor's role in pair…

Contends that, because writing is one intellectual activity that finds its direct source in the emotions, writing teachers must come to terms with the existence and importance of familial diversity and examine more fully the manner in which the emotional and intellectual lives of their students intermingle. Discusses, in this context, personal…

Suggests that effective advising practices can be found on a continuum including prescriptive advising, developmental advising, and counseling. Discusses technological tools for positive intervention with students (such as e-mail), and addresses developmental theories, use of narrative, defense mechanisms, and reframing. (EV)