Jane Tompkins, a Duke University (North Carolina) English professor, is working to transform the conventional approach to college teaching from combative to communal, focusing on students' personal development as well as their intellect and deemphasizing faculty career development. Critics feel her approach is extreme and unreasonable; supporters…

The project approach to learning engages students' natural bent for discovery through observation, play, hands-on tasks, and real-world challenges. Project-based learning complements systematic instruction in basic skills by making discrete bits of information relevant. Teachers must design projects that provide enough latitude for student…

Explores community service-learning as one way to address the multicultural dimensions of preservice science education. Provides background information on multicultural science education and the use of service learning. Presents a case study focusing on service learning and discusses the dimensions of service-learning to help preservice teachers…

Discusses motivation systems theory and the complexity of motivation. Recommends that teachers reframe traditional dual dichotomies concerning intrinsic versus extrinsic orientations in motivation, intellectual challenge versus self-esteem development, or personal growth versus shared standards by blending the best assets from both to create…

Highlights points that guide the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education: the learner is a social being who possesses rights and is an active constructor of knowledge; the instructors' role is one of collaborator and co-learner, guiding and facilitating, as well as researching; and knowledge is socially constructed, encompassing…

Examines the importance of the natural environment in Dewey's educational philosophy and the role outdoor play and activity have in children's education today. Cites reasons for the lack of a safe outdoor environment and offers suggestions for making improvements: schoolground improvement organizations, greenways movement, careful land…

Discusses the educational value of portrayals of emotional dynamics and conflicts of characters in Hebrew biblical and rabbinic midrashic texts. Asserts that these texts can increase student interest, provide useful insight into human nature, and enhance self-understanding. Provides examples from biblical and rabbinic narratives, Psalms, and the…

Suggest that autobiography ought to be considered both the telling of one's story and the using of that story with others to understand and use difference productively. Claims that autobiography, as telling and interacting, dismantles the universalistic tug of science as local knowledge. Presents selected autobiographical accounts to make both…

Describes an experience of trying to publish a book whose contents are in some ways marginal to what is normally considered science or science education. During the publishing process, ideas about what counts as science got tangled up with what counts as "credible" science, "marketable" literature, and academic competence. (Contains 26…

Examines John Goodlad's contributions related to: defining beliefs (regarding his agenda for educational renewal); principles of change (19 postulates that summarize the current agenda); and examples of renewal (new educational organizations based upon defining beliefs and principles of change). Goodlad encourages society to remember what schools…

Investigates the utility of deconstructive questions and the danger of taking such questions as an overriding methodological agenda in education. Uses two substantive fields of inquiry: (1) inequality and access in education; and (2) gender and education. Outlines a research methodology course constructed to put the assumptions about education…

A paradigm shift has occurred in the learning-teaching process that includes new ways of pedagogical thinking, post-modern curricula, digital learning, changed social interactions, and linear and lateral thinking. These changes require reorganization of the educational system in general and distance education in particular. Changes in the system…

Alberta's charter-school legislation responds to certain needs of both liberal and republican ideologies. Alberta's experiment indicates that parents are not very dissatisfied with their local schools. Few minority children are attracted, and charter performance has not been stellar. Schools are chosen for their value systems. (Contains 31…

Responds to a conference held in March 1996 entitled "Ongoing Inquiry" and designed to present the research methods and results of a five-year study of aesthetic education at the Lincoln Center Institute (New York). Discusses the assessment methods used, the assumptions underlying the assessment project, and the value of aesthetic education…

Describes the course "Introduction to Culture" that is a part of the Ursuline Studies Program at Ursuline College. Explains that the course is derived from the ideas of urban philosopher, Lewis Mumford, and discusses his ideas in detail. Reviews the academic goals of the course and the examines the broader Ursuline Studies Program. (CMK)