This article discusses a "peer mentoring" teacher education initiative that aims at developing pre-service teachers' capacities to participate successfully in learning communities, both during their initial teacher education and throughout their teaching careers. Peer mentoring utilizes the latest conceptualization of mentoring, that of…

Many students fail to integrate biological knowledge into larger conceptual frameworks. Although textbooks and lectures in general biology courses emphasize major concepts, when students respond to questions, they often appear to be randomly grasping at disconnected sound bites of biological knowledge. The knowledge they have accumulated does not…

This paper describes the details of a National Science Foundation multi-year educational project at the University of Oklahoma (OU). The goal of this comprehensive active-learning and hands-on laboratory program is to develop an interdisciplinary program, in which engineering, geoscience, and meteorology students participate, which forms a…

This study reports the results of a peer-mediated intervention, total class peer tutoring, on the academic performance of six urban students at risk for reading failure. A multiple baseline design across subjects was used to evaluate the effects of this intervention. The results showed that five of the six students significantly increased their…

This article describes the methodology and program effects of a multicomponent model of interventions designed to prevent antisocial behaviour in secondary school students. Interventions included cooperative learning, classroom management, and peer tutoring, mentoring, and mediation. Data from the Secondary Schools Demonstration Project (SSDP)…

To increase student achievement, schools and districts are hiring teachers as leaders to support peers in improving teaching and learning. Their roles are variously called coach, school-based staff developer, instructional specialists, or program facilitator. Yet though many have exceptional teaching skills, they seldom have a deep understanding…

Focusing on student experience rather than distinguishing between vocational or academic education is essential to preparing students for future society. Seven trends are influencing the future for adolescents preparing for the work world: (1) a shift from employment where manual labor, physical dexterity, and minimal education are needed for jobs…

Prevention of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) transmission is increasingly an international priority. Education of high-risk populations, such as incarcerated individuals, is particularly important in thwarting the spread of HIV. To address this concern, the attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge of inmates concerning HIV and AIDS related issues are…

This paper is an overview of cooperative learning and its application at the college level. Cooperative learning is defined as occuring when small groups of students work together to maximize their own and each other's learning. The essential elements of cooperative learning include positive interdependence, face-to-face interaction, individual…

The consequences of alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses across the United States has been well documented. Designed to bring the problems related to drug and alcohol abuse into focus, this training manual is a compilation of seminars created to allow facilitators (counselors, professionals, trainers) to train students as peer educators. The…

The Professional Development Laboratory (P.D.L.) is a model for staff development in which experienced teachers serve as peer coaches for other teachers who want to refine their skills, learn and practice new skills, and share classroom techniques with one another, in selected New York City school districts. Visiting teachers spend 3 to 4 week…

This research abstract describes two studies: first, "Class Instructional Programs with Autistic Children; Group Structures and Tutoring Models" (Debra M. Whorton et al.) and, second, "The Use of Explicitly Trained Peers To Facilitate the Social Behavior of Autistic Children" (Andrew Egel and Michael Shafer). Both studies investigated effective…

This study examined the effects of two variations of the Student Teams Achievement Divisions (STAD) on university students. STAD is a system of cooperative learning which features small heterogeneous teams of 4-6 members who tutor each other on the material in the course and prepare each other for weekly quizzes. Students take the quizzes…

The literature on peer tutoring indicates that gains for tutors often outdistance those of the students receiving help. Learning through teaching is a significant mechanism that provides an opportunity to reformulate and extend the use of peer tutoring. This digest discusses a new tutor-centered, peer tutoring model being designed at the Peer…

This report describes the process used by a small, one-building kindergarten-through-grade-six school district in New Jersey to improve the reading scores of students who had fallen below their current grade in reading. Areas of need included improving the reading scores of students in regular education, special education, and…