While provincial governments in Canada are increasingly regulating public schools in the name of accountability, more parents are choosing unregulated tutoring businesses or "new sector" private schools. Reasons include a competitive edge, an emphasis on cognitive development, a more personalized environment due to small teacher-student…

Assessed the effectiveness of one effort to curb urban teacher attrition through a nontraditional approach to teacher education, induction, and ongoing professional development. Results from quantitative data about teachers' 5-year retention rates and qualitative data about types of preparation and ongoing support underscore the importance of…

Analyzes differences between graduate-level statistics students who used peer assessment and students who used traditional assessment. Reports that peer assessors displayed greater increases in statistical self-efficiency, as well as larger reductions in math and test anxiety. Concludes that these results may be notable in terms of real-world…

Briefly examines past military distance education practices and then focuses on discussion of the Department of Defense's (DoD's) initiative in Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL). Outlines some of the potential problems that should be addressed in the near future and possible solutions towards the goal of implementing a successful ADL system for…

Investigates how online instruction affects locus of control (LOC) as a belief in one's own competency, for graduate students enrolled in an online class in Instructional Technology. Two LOC instruments were administered at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. Results indicate: learners tended to be external at the beginning of the…

A growing number of health care educators are concerned with the effectiveness of the traditional approach for educating health care practitioners. The problem-based learning approach has been advocated as an effective alternative method for addressing many current concerns and for producing a more effective doctor. (Author/MSE)

Examines how interdisciplinary teaching teams were used in a midwestern middle school to produce a nontraditional work environment. Describes the following features of this environment: (1) interdisciplinary organization; (2) shared leadership; (3) focus on children; (4) principal's influence; and (5) integrated programing of children. (JS)

Discusses the various uses for the journal in an introductory course in the University without Walls (UWW) program. Discusses how the journal can be a means of discovering meaning in the chaos of the social world and how it provides an opportunity to integrate life and experience with academic life and theory. (JS)

Sixty doctoral students aged 37-48 completed the Sentence Completion Test and a personal orientation inventory. Results indicated that they experienced significant personal growth and greater intrinsic locus of control at schools with nonauthoritarian environments emphasizing support, trust, respect, and self-directed learning. Exposure to a level…

Consists of seven articles on the theme of summer agricultural education programs. Topics discussed include (1) Future Farmers of America, (2) supervised occupational experience programs, (3) alternative strategies for secondary agricultural programs, (4) information gathering and program planning, and (5) summer program accountability. (CH)

Discusses the development, testing, and implementation of videotapes to deliver hospital accounting courses in a nontraditional format to students at Southwest Texas State University. The use of videotapes for nontraditional students is discussed, the production process is explained, and the survey questionnaire used to determine student attitudes…

New York's Dropout Prevention Initiative (DPI) is examined from the perspective of Dewey's educational philosophy. DPI employs an approach which "blames the victim" in contrast to the Deweyan approach which considers the social organization of schools as critical. Three components of DPI are critiqued: attendance incentives, career…

French immersion is seen as a viable alternative to traditional unilingual education. Issues needing to be addressed so that French immersion education can be supported and enhanced as part of a pluralistic approach to language and culture are discussed. (23 references) (Author/MSE)

Case studies of two children illustrate the ways in which an overemphasis on functional goals stressing efficiency through categorization and specialization has made special education in the United States a bureaucratic patchwork that should be disassembled and rebuilt. The relevance of current practices to student needs must be evaluated. (SLD)

Drawing on Foucault's notion of discourse, it is suggested that post-Fordism and globalization trends can be found in changing theories of distance education and open learning. Argues that notions of distance education are part of a trend towards uniformity under conditions of globalization, while those of open learning are part of a trend to…