Noting that many teachers and teacher educators were unprepared for the rapid spread of inclusionary placements for at-risk and special learners, this fastback presents principles and practices for teaching struggling learners the basic reading skills they need for academic progress and lifelong learning. The discussions in the fastback are…

Noting that character formation within Catholic education has undergone several changes over the last 10 years, this paper examines character education and character formation as they are currently implemented in Catholic elementary and secondary schools. Section 1 of the paper considers the definition of character, and traces the development of…

This collection of training materials describes an educational philosophy for elementary level instruction called cooperative pluralism. This approach complements and strengthens traditional multicultural educational approaches while blending them with cooperative learning and democratic education. The following materials are included: (1) brief…

The contributions that the elementary curriculum, "Man: A Course of Study" (MACOS), has made to global education are examined in this essay. It is contended that MACOS, which incorporates ecology, biology, anthropology, and the humanities, has fostered several goals of global education. These goals include: understanding cultures through…

This paper proposes teaching strategies that promote positive interactions and scholastic success among Native American students. It is written from the perspective of a non-Native educator who has taught on reservations and at a federal boarding school. While the strategies are geared to the teaching of Native students, the underlying principles…

Quality Assurance Program (QAP) integration activities were studied at eight Illinois community and junior colleges. Data collection involved telephone interviews with career deans at the colleges, 11 follow-up site observations, and attendance at a regional vocational education system directors meeting. When classroom observations occurred,…

Schools in Alberta provide English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program support to immigrant students while they are adjusting to Canadian culture and learning the English language. This booklet is for parents who are new to Alberta, whose children are learning ESL and/or who need more information about ESL program support. A description of the…

Open discussion and a Likert-type scale (Characteristics of Effective Teaching) were used with 38 graduate students enrolled in an advanced methods class in secondary school subjects, to determine their perceptions of the characteristics of effective teaching and whether teaching is an art or a science. A survey completed at the beginning of the…

The High/Scope Perry Preschool study through age 27 found that high-quality, active learning preschool programs for impoverished African American children cut their crime rate in half, significantly affected their educational performance and level of schooling, increased their earnings and commitment to marriage, and returned $7.16 for every…

The United States is trying to prepare 21st century children with a 19th century, factory-model education system that measures educational quality more by input than by outcomes. Schools must be transformed to meet the needs of a technology-driven information society, producing citizens who can analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information and…

The Early Childhood Program in the Department of Curriculum, Instruction and Administration at Tuskegee University (Alabama) is described as a convergence of Jean Piaget's constructivism and John Dewey's progressivism. It is designed to provide preservice teachers with experiences that promote reflective practice and that view the learner as an…

Designed to provide direction for the production of instructional and non-instructional faculty portfolios, these guidelines describe the purpose and elements of portfolios and the critical steps in their development and evaluation. First, a definition is provided of a teaching portfolio, indicating that it is a collection of materials…

The premise of this paper is that vocational and nonvocational education can be reconstructed in a way that uses both in fashioning a new set of courses. This new curriculum should be able to bridge the differences perceived in the relations between academic and vocational cultures. The paper focuses most on educational history, from Aristotle and…

The curriculum guide outline (CGO) developed for the Richland School District One (Columbia, South Carolina) represents a structured effort to coordinate the curriculum across disciplines. The CGO is an outline that guides the total curriculum content of a course and states the level of mastery acceptable for course credit. It has five components…

A major problem with most contemporary social studies textbook series is that they cannot see the forest for the trees. Instead of being designed to accomplish major, long-term goals that reflect the purpose of social education, they have been constructed to cover long lists of topics and skills found in state and district curriculum guidelines.…