Residential liberal arts colleges provide the most important form of undergraduate education for the 21st century, by virtue of their primary focus on teaching, small size, residential nature, quest for genuine community, engagement of students in active learning, concern for a general and coherent education, and emphasis on development of the…

A five-day adventure-based residential camping program for Boston middle school students and their teachers develops cooperative learning skills and leadership abilities. Matching staff and students' background and race cultivates and celebrates diversity. Teachers' assistance in program development helps meet new standards and ensures follow-up.…

Discusses cooperative learning, asserting that students must be individually accountable and credited for their efforts to help teammates attain goals. Describes the Peer and Self-Evaluation System (PSES), a new and reliable procedure in which students identify and record team skills and receive confidential feedback regarding personal strengths…

Investigates the educational and moral significance of an African-American gym teacher's practice at a Chicago elementary school. Although her teaching is far removed from professional ideals, her strict discipline style and her caring, friendly nature are valued by students, parents, and colleagues. Student development is her primary concern.…

Chris Mercogliano's book tells how teachers and students at Albany Free School create their own curriculum daily in a free-wheeling atmosphere shunning competition, compulsory learning, and social-based status awards. Founded in 1969, the school advocates attending to emotional and interpersonal dimensions of students' everyday lives. (MLH)

Identifies features of junior high schools that are undergoing change and those that are enduring; reviews four characteristics that have been sought, and to varying degrees attained, and whether they should continue. Describes three other characteristics that many professionals seek. Concludes with a tentative model of the new middle school that…

An interview with Wilbert McKeachie, a leading figure in college teaching and learning, focuses on advice for beginning faculty, including the importance of effective testing, mid-term student evaluations of teaching performance, discussion and questioning techniques, cooperative learning, and peer review strategies to improve college students'…

Explores whether listeners can discern if melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic parameters and pairings of these parameters are abstracted from the ongoing flow of a musical event. Reports that students in grades 3, 6, and 9 identified phrases as being the same as the initial phrase; grade 12 students identified different phrases more often. (CMK)

Describes one elementary school's experimental, inclusive, fifth-grade class that was team-taught by a special and a regular educator, focusing on: shared decision making, curriculum development, how the teachers changed, how the students grew, and the school support system (which included the teachers, the students, the principal, other faculty…

The Silver Drawing Test of Cognition and Emotion was standardized for Brazilian children (N=2,000). ANOVA results are presented for age and education groups from early grades on, including distinguishing adult education levels; results are compared for U.S. and Brazilian populations. Growth in test scores, emotional content responses, and…

Ongoing controversy exists over how to practice character education in public schools. Parents are responsible for developing their children's character, and they must be involved from the beginning in developing character education in their schools and communities. Like the self-esteem movement, the character education movement requires…

Based on an examination of related literature, reviews the pre- and post-enrollment characteristics of first-generation community college students, and discusses what colleges should do to help these students be successful. Asserts that while considerable research exists on first-generation students on four-year college campuses, the findings and…

Pre-health freshmen from a New York university worked at a traditional Mohawk community in return for lessons in Iroquois spirituality, healing, and ecology. Reciprocity between community members and students alleviated problems related to appropriation of Native American traditions and "great white hope" philanthropy, and deepened…

A longitudinal study examined the impact of undergraduate study on 3,942 arts and sciences students, as measured by change in their freshman and senior ratings of four Clark-Trow "educational philosophies": vocational, academic, collegiate, and nonconformist. Results indicated significant increases in academic and nonconformist…

Examines research that studies the effects of students' out-of-class experiences on academic, intellectual, or cognitive learning outcomes. Identifies the following aspects of student out-of-class experiences which student affairs professionals have control over through policy and program interventions: (1) residence; (2) fraternities and…