Studied elementary through high school teachers' views on how to improve teacher preparation programs. Found that recommendations were consistent with those proposed by current reform initiatives: (1) requiring all teachers to know subject content; (2) teaching pedagogy in the context of academic content; and (3) offering prospective teachers many…

Most identity development models are unidimensional and mutually independent. They rarely acknowledge multiple cultural identifications or their relationship to diversity-awareness training. This article discusses this relationship in a four-stage conceptual model for diversity identity development and its implications for the design, structuring,…

Examines the various ways that social sciences can promote the social and governmental transformative process in Eastern Europe. Defines three functions of social sciences: to reveal real processes, to understand and diagnose problems, and to foresee future trends. Discusses the tensions among social scientists and policy makers and politicians.…

Charts a step-by-step path from the pedagogical theories of teacher education to an effective and engaging method of classroom instruction using excerpts from Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls," as illustrative guideposts. Provides cogent, insightful, and productive ideas for improving classroom instruction. (MJP)

Describes the benefits of including the ninth grade within the 3-year multi-age group setting within a Montessori farm school. Notes how seventh, eighth, and ninth grades work together in one family cluster, allowing 15-year-olds to avoid the pecking order of the high school freshman year while developing personal leadership, confidence, and a…

Examines educational resistance to nature study, focusing on the subtle resistance evident in the vicarious approach that limits nature study to books and videos, while ignoring the sensory richness and kinship developed through direct connection with the natural world. Suggests that environmental science, citizen education, inquiry learning,…

This review provides an updated synthesis on peer tutoring research focusing on school-age students with mental retardation serving as tutors and/or tutees. The focus included peer tutoring implementations in the areas of academic, social, and daily living/self-help skills. Results of the 52 studies were categorized and discussed according to…

The written testimony of the authors before the President's Commission on Excellence in Special Education in April, 2002, identifies five areas of needed effort in early childhood special education research: (1) early identification and eligibility; (2) services; (3) outcomes; (4) infrastructure; and (5) the research funding process. Specific…

Discusses how to teach about the U.S. Civil War by appealing to the seven intelligences included in "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences" (Howard Gardener). Explains that for each intelligence, there is a description offered with learning activities to enable students to learn according to their abilities. (CMK)

Questions gender-related assumptions affecting the theory and practice of art education histories. Challenges the great man theory of art education history. Advocates research approaches that analyze individual backgrounds and achievements. Offers the author's research experiences as a case study, examining areas of concern, personal motivations,…

Shares how one teacher and her class of seventh graders learned to share and discuss literature through the notions of stances and instructional scaffolding. (MG)

Examines the degree to which whole language practices have become a part of reading instruction offered by first grade teachers in six school districts. Finds that teachers spent less than 10 percent of the reading instructional time engaged in practices which could be considered in agreement with whole language theory. (MG)

Some important theoretical work done in the field of education/schooling has come close to losing touch with the hard facts of lived experience. Educational theorists must resist making untenable motivational claims for the power of teachers and students which ignore the massively greater power of capital and its allies. (IAH)

Describes a study to determine if a school district implementing an unfamiliar curricular change completed the same tasks as those using a model developed by Bishop. Reports that the district was more task oriented when confronted with an unfamiliar curricular change than previously reported. (MVL)

Argues that the best alternative to assigning children to grades on the basis of birth date alone is to implement a child-centered and process-oriented curriculum for younger children and push back the academic curriculum to the upper grades. Suggests this allows children to develop at their own pace. (RS)