South Carolina's Teacher Cadet Program, an "experiencing education" class offered to proficient high school students, is helping attract top students to teaching and is renewing teachers without exhausting them. The course enables students and teachers to engage in profound discussions about growing up and stimulates critical analysis of…

A teacher of sixth grade social studies classes describes how he implemented the core practices of the Foxfire approach, including student ownership, problem solving, and decision making; connections to the community; small-group teamwork; the teacher as facilitator and collaborator; and ongoing reflection and group self-evaluation. (SV)

A group of core French studies involving the development and validation of the COLT (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) observation scheme, a French immersion observation study of vocabulary instruction and talk, and a French experimental immersion study regarding the effect on proficiency of functionally focused materials are…

Discusses the contributions of Junior Achievement to the curriculum from kindergarten through high school. Describes economic programs for elementary schools, junior and middle schools, and high schools. Includes Project Business, Economics of Staying in School, K-6 Initiative, and Applied Economics. Gives brief descriptions of each Junior…

Presents study results exploring the use of learning activities in secondary school mathematics instruction. Explains that seven categories of learning activities, one traditional and six active learning, were identified. Reports that heads of mathematics departments estimated occurrence of the activities in their schools. Concludes that active…

Discusses constructivist theory and its role in educational reform. Defines the theory as a focus on active rather than passive learning. Relates constructivism to the reflective inquiry approach to social studies. (CFR)

Describes the effects of Camp DETOUR, an adventure experience program for sixth-grade students at a Georgia middle school. Program goals were improvement of student self-esteem as a component of drug abuse prevention and improvement of student behavior. The program was shown to have positive effects on student self-esteem. This result may deter…

Reports on a study of 200 lesson plans developed by student teachers. Found that lessons based on the Teach-Practice-Apply Model had fewer objectives and more fully developed lessons than those based on a conventional model of lesson development. Calls for additional research to examine the effects of lesson planning on student achievement. (CFR)

Competency-based training workshops based on Kolb's experiential learning theory were held for North Carolina adult basic education teachers; 251 attended 1-day sessions and 91 a week-long summer institute. Topics included interpersonal communication, reading, numeracy, language arts, math, assessment, and program evaluation. (SK)

A survey of 76 college professors of advertising investigated the extent of their use of experiential learning in courses. Respondents were in journalism/communication, management/business, or combined departments. Results document widespread use of experiential learning techniques and also indicate opportunities for expansion. (Author/MSE)

Examines issues related to situated cognition and learning, both in the classroom and in the world. Topics discussed include educational theories; the situated nature of knowledge; the perception of experts; and the role of technology in situated learning, including virtual reality, hypertext, and telecommunications. (26 references) (LRW)

Discussion of situated learning focuses on classroom instruction. Topics addressed include individual uniqueness; a knowledge community, including the process of knowledge acquisition; situated instruction, including the role of the teacher; authentic activity, including teacher-student interaction; and implications for educational technology. (26…

Outdoor education staff in Toronto developed definitions of outdoor education, environmental education, conservation education, experiential education, environmental studies, adventure education, and global education. Predicts influences on outdoor education, lists implications of those influences, and recommends directions for outdoor educators…

Assessed differences in teaching of the theme of "the shop" in four Swedish preschools and outcomes in terms of children's understanding. Interviews of children were used to assess their levels of comprehension of the workings of a shop. Results indicated that children from experimental groups developed a significantly better…

This article offers quick, inexpensive activities for teaching concepts in three basic areas of the elementary science curriculum (air, sound, and light) with instructions for assembling more sophisticated laboratory tools (e.g., an electroscope and a balance scale). Hands-on science activities that use household items are described. (SM)