This qualitative study of nine women examined the changes in their everyday lives as they cared for their terminally-ill husbands and after their husbands died. It also studied how the women coped with these changes, and how their coping contributed to their identity change from wife to widow. Symbolic interaction was utilized to study the changes…

This study explored the perceptions and perspectives of African American male students with regard to their experiences in a youth development initiative sponsored by a community-based organization. This examination aimed to ascertain the aspects of the program that, first, prompted the students to be a part of the initiative, but also those…

This article introduces a sociology role-playing game (RPG) used to demonstrate the broad range of social forces, institutions, and structures in a semester-long series of in-class and homework assignments. RPGs and other simulation games have been frequently suggested as a useful teaching methodology because of their unique ability to allow…

The transition to adulthood can be particularly challenging when a young adult experiences mental health problems. This fact sheet uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 to explore the young adult outcomes and adolescent risk behaviors of youth suffering from depression and anxiety as they make this transition. Depression…

This book offers an examination of the related topics of school prayer and character education in the United States, advocating for their return to public schools. In 1962 and 1963, the U.S. Supreme Court made rulings that removed prayer and Bible reading from public schools. But in the aftermath of the rulings, the nation endured one of the worst…

This study seeks to begin answering two simple questions: "What motivates our students?" and its corollary, "What prevents our students from being motivated?" The motivation-hygiene theory (F. Herzberg, "Work and the nature of man," World Publishing, Cleveland, OH, 1966), a well-tested theory from organizational…

As university educators, we need to prepare students for the transition from the information age to what Daniel H. Pink (2005) calls the conceptual age, which is governed by artistry, empathy and emotion, by including in the curricula activities that stimulate both hemispheres of the brain. This can be done by promoting activities that energize…

In this article, the author provides a self-portrait of his intellectual life. He states that his educational journey has always been something of an ongoing fight from his first day at primary school, to the secondary school curriculum and a social philosophy, and what he learned practically in the Navy. Changing the philosophy curriculum in…

There is a certain similarity between the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia (PESA) and the leaning tower of Pisa. Both have a certain presence on the landscape: the tower has a commanding appearance on the Italian countryside while PESA has left its mark on the academic fabric of Australasia. Both are much loved: Pisa by visiting…

Positive turning points touch upon the essence of education. They epitomize its power and reflect its core agenda: maximizing human capital. Paradoxically, previous studies have not looked into this important phenomenon. The current exploratory study fills this lacuna by building on extensive empirical research of key educational experiences to…

Anxiety is one of the most basic human emotions and occurs in every person at some time, most often when someone is apprehensive about uncertain outcomes of an event or set of circumstances. Anxiety can serve an adaptive function, however, and is also a marker for typical development. In the school setting, anxiety is experienced often by students…

Personal and Professional Development (PPD) is now key to the undergraduate medical curriculum and requires provision of appropriate learning experiences. In order to achieve this, it is essential that we ascertain students' perceptions of what is important in their PPD. We required a methodological approach suitable for a large medical school,…

Literature on globalisation claims that changed global patterns of production and industrial organisation have intensified international economic competition, prompting nations globally to restructure their education systems in an attempt to position themselves favourably in an increasingly competitive economic environment. This is an environment…

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Project Green Reach (PGR) is a children's program that has offered garden-based youth education since 1990. PGR focuses on Grade K-8 students and teachers from local Title I schools who work in teams on garden and science projects. In this exploratory study, the authors used field observations, document analysis, and past…

Gilbert Gottlieb's theory of probabilistic epigenesis is a fertile ground for further theoretical construction in developmental science. It fills the gap in the domineering empiricism and honoring of inductive generalization that dominates psychology in the beginning of the 21st century, by offering a basic deductive framework for guiding the…