This book is a reflection on higher education and a personal memoir of Murray G. Ross, first president of York University (Ontario, Canada), and his role in the founding and shaping of that institution from 1960 to 1970. Parts 1 and 2 provide an intimate glimpse of the university which grew faster and with a more clearly defined mission than most,…

Some personal reflections on instructional design and its relation to constructivism are explored. Instructional design in its present form is out of sync with the times in that its orientation, methods, and research base are behavioristic, or positivistic. However, a constructivist theory of instructional design is possible, particularly if…

The Australian Language Levels (ALL) Project offers a coherent model for elementary and secondary language curriculum design. Book 3 of the four-volume series focuses on teaching methods, appropriate instructional resources, and student evaluation and provides advice for teachers in each of these areas. The section on methods discusses the…

The age appropriate units of AIDS/HIV instruction in this guide are based on the student outcomes listed in the "New Hampshire Educators HIV/AIDS Handbook: Curriculum and Policy Guide." All of the units, organized by grade levels, were written collaboratively by teams of New Hampshire educators, each team consisting of a library media…

This paper provides an overview of the High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, an organization that sponsors studies of the efficacy of intervention in the early years of development, especially with economically disadvantaged children. Using several High/Scope Foundation studies to illustrate its points, the paper examines issues common to…

A discussion of the current direction of second language instruction looks at the decline in college language enrollments, possible reasons for the decline, and efforts to adapt course offerings and curriculum format to current educational goals. Three factors in re-directing second language teaching are highlighted: establishment of standards for…

This book explores ways to design courses and units to emphasize understanding and uncoverage rather than coverage, offering practical solutions for teacher-designers. It focuses on a different use for performance assessment, concluding that performance is the key to assessing understanding. The book analyzes the logic of backward design as an…

This discussion of second language instruction through subject-area content reviews trends and literature in the field. Content-based language instruction is defined and distinguished from other forms of language instruction. Three major types of college-level content-based language instruction are described: sheltered instruction, taught by a…

This curriculum, designed to improve elementary school foreign language teacher training, was developed jointly by school teachers and university educators in North Carolina. It is based on the successful practices of current elementary school foreign language teachers, translated into desired teacher competencies. Introductory sections describe…

A framework is presented for syllabus design in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction. A case is given for a discourse level focus in the ESL classroom, from beginning stages of learning through advanced levels. Following this, three rhetorical modes (critical analysis of fiction, truth-searching logical conversation, and classical…

Integration of vocational and academic education at the secondary level has been suggested as a way to strengthen students' education. Concerns about the vocational-academic split found in high schools center around human rights issues; economic competitiveness dependent on strengthened education; and graduates unprepared for life, work, or…

As second language teaching moves away from traditional graded exercises to instruction in which communicative competence is the primary focus, exercises have become practice- and task-based, and systematic grading and diagnostic testing have disappeared. Students are sometimes being asked to perform tasks with which they would have difficulty in…

A reprint of a 1975 article on multi-sensory exercises for communicative second language learning is presented. The article begins by noting that the use of drills as a language learning and practice technique had been lost in the trend toward communicative language teaching, but that drills can provide a means of gaining functional control of…

An innovative high school curriculum in Finland is designed so that the year is divided into six 6-week periods. In an experiment begun in fall 1989, English second language instruction was provided to second-year students in the form of content-area instruction in computer science, chemistry, and physics at one of two levels. Each course lasted…

An English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) curriculum is presented that was developed and implemented by the Spanish Education Development (SED) Center in Washington, D.C. SED's ESL program, which offers beginning and intermediate instruction during the day and evening, expands from a traditional survival skills base by incorporating a problem solving…