Discusses how, by taking advantage of naturally occurring events in the classroom and at home, adults can help young children acquire five important scientific processes: observing, comparing, classifying, measuring, and communicating. Stresses the importance of science-related children's literature as a component of the science curriculum, as…

Presents the story of one graduate student's experience in an advanced instructional-design class at San Diego State University. The class places students with real clients for a semester of instructional design and technology-consulting work. Author offers students encouragement to learn about the softer side of educational-technology consulting.…

Despite a growing interest in the relationship between community and classroom, there is no shared understanding of basic issues about roles and responsibilities. Teachers can use the community as a learning laboratory by connecting the content studied to aspects of the local community. Characteristics of successful learning-lab programs, barriers…

Reviews Northern Virginia Community College's Prior Learning Activity for Credit Evaluation (PLACE) program, which helps returning adult students and those attending college for the first time capitalize on their experiences and earn college credit for them. Describes the author's grant-related activities of revising PLACE's workbook and teaching…

Provides an overview of service learning: definitions, reasons for including service learning as an instructional strategy, ways to maintain academic vigor, grading principles, risks and rewards, and adaptability. Includes students' written comments, details on Northern Virginia Community College's widespread use of service learning in 18…

A John Muir Award participant describes his satisfying experience cleaning up a wooded gorge near his home in Wales. Sidebar explains how the British award achieves its purpose of empowering people to conserve wild places through four challenges: discover a wild place, explore it, conserve it, and share the experience with others. The award has…

A group solving the task of climbing a steep wall illustrates how adventure education can enable participants to trace how they get stuck in their view of things, and what it takes to adopt a new and generative image. The ability to change metaphors can be applied to core metaphors of relationships, communication, and visions of oneself. (TD)

At a New Jersey school, students spend one year studying each of three time periods: ancient Egypt in fourth grade; Greece in fifth grade; and Rome and the Middle Ages in sixth grade. The history curriculum becomes the focal point for other areas (art, music, drama, language arts, science, geography, and math). Teachers use primary sources and…

Describes how child cooperation in an experimental nursery school contributed to the children's experience of learning and mutual, sustained concern that prevailed through frustration, fatigue, or disappointment. Discusses how children's intuition and inventive thought contributed to positive experiences. (KB)

Increasing violence and suicide among adolescent boys is attributed to a lack of security in our fast-changing society and a lack of direction and value for young men. Rites of passage constructively channel the undirected energies of youth to initiate a purposeful and responsive adulthood. Nine British programs are described, and recommendations…

Correlates the kinds of strategies associated with a deep approach to learning science. Analyzes the interactions of two groups of grade 8 students while they were engaged in hands-on science activities during instruction in a chemistry unit. Focuses on two students who showed a deep approach to learning. (Contains 47 references.) (Author/YDS)

Discusses how management students need to be aware of the psychological underpinnings of communication as more emphasis is placed on groupwork in business environments. Considers how management students benefit from understanding how people learn because they are likely to have to incorporate such understanding and they have to become life-long…

Focuses on four of the methods used by aboriginal peoples to transmit knowledge and to teach younger people. Describes the Anishinaabe ways of: learning by doing, story telling, dreaming, and ceremonies. The conclusion discusses the benefits and limitations of using such "ways of knowing" in academic endeavors. (Contains 26 references.) (VWC)

Discusses problem-based learning (PBL) and its effects on the development of sociomorality, based on a case study of first graders in a Korean elementary school. Discusses constructivism and the four principles of PBL environments, including experiential learning, collaborative learning, authentic learning, and the role of the teacher. (Contains…

Makes recommendations for new science teachers about what to do in the middle level classroom. Advocates being creative in the classroom and in finding resources. (YDS)