This paper describes and compares six models for teaching second languages developed and adopted since 1840 (grammar-translation, direct, structural, situational, audiolingual, and communicative methods), and proposes a seventh, the cognitive-linguistic method, incorporating Noam Chomsky's theory of learning. The model takes both extralinguistic…

This paper describes the research and development of a fully World Wide Web-based credit course in the English Department at the University of Waterloo (Ontario). One hundred students from across Canada complete four exercises in technical writing over a four-month term. In the process, they learn to understand and apply the principles of SGML…

This book presents performance-based projects to provide elementary school students both the structure and the freedom to become actively engaged in their own learning. The approach is based on the concept of authentic learning, which advocates a relevant, real world experience to personally engage students in learning. The book is divided into…

This document contains 22 papers presented at a conference on practices in adult higher education. Representative papers include the following: "The Classroom as a Model of Social Justice" (Keith B. Armstrong, Susan A. Timm); "Adult Students with Learning Disorders and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorders" (Richard…

This paper reports on the development, design, and initial field testing of a narrative simulation, "'This Just Is!' Jeff's Story," that focused on homophobia and adolescent suicide. The initial field test was conducted with two user groups--a graduate class of professionals in the field of higher education student development, and a…

Community colleges are on the cutting edge of the multidirectional change with the coming of a new century. Peters and Waterman, two management consultants, have spawned thousands of models, designs, and strategies for using organizational excellence as a gyroscope for navigating the turbulence of change. This paper presents Waterman's four-step…

A study explored the language use patterns, motivations and attitudes toward Americans or the British in the formal English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom, changes in orientations and motivations, and instructional preferences of limited-English-proficient Korean high school students. Subjects were 40 male and 40 female students randomly…

In 1996, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessed the knowledge and skills of students in the areas of earth science, life science, and physical science. It also collected information related to the background of students (grades 4, 8, and 12), their teachers (grades 4 and 8), and the schools they attended (grades 4, 8, and…

This essay examines the ways in which anthropology, as a discipline, currently reflects ongoing scholarship on gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation. It argues that feminist anthropology since the 1970s has become an important subdiscipline, primarily within cultural anthropology, but also with a growing impact on…

This essay examines the ways in which education, as a discipline, has been influenced by feminist scholarship in the field. It explains that foundational studies by feminist scholars have examined sexual differences in identity and ways of knowing, and have challenged the arrogation of feminine experience and viewpoints to generalizations of male…

This paper seeks to build on the growing body of literature demonstrating the value of a dialogical process in second language learning, especially in work with students who are not part of the dominant cultural or linguistic group. It identifies and describes the ways in which bilingual secondary students engaged in dialogical processes begin to…

This practitioner brief focuses on the question: What happens when beginner-level English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students work in small groups? This question was pursued because the ESL teacher wanted to make use of small self-directed groups during class time. She found that the students needed a lot of structure from the teacher to make…

This paper presents the framework used in implementing "Marketing on the Web," an interdisciplinary course that integrates marketing and technology strategies, with an approach that is grounded in cognitive psychology and in constructionist theory. Though applied at the undergraduate level, the framework may be adapted to primary through graduate…

This paper presents a case study of an online block of four courses leading to certification of secondary teachers who are presently teaching in middle and secondary schools on emergency certificates. The courses were taken by 16 post-baccalaureate students during fall semester 1998 and spring semester 1999. The primary goal of the project was to…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Bringing Parents on Board: Strong Home-School Connections Enrich Learning Opportunities for Immigrant Kids--and Their Parents, Too (Sue Miller Wiltz); (2)…