Describes a unique approach to teacher education that involved teaching students within a multidisciplinary, collaborative, student-centered learning community. Interviews with students and faculty provided information on the transitional issues they experienced in the process of unlearning old conceptions and imagining new ways to think about…

Profiles a Puerto Rican family who participated in a cross-cultural ethnographic study of family influence on children's school achievement. This low-income, single-parent household reflects broader Puerto Rican cultural values, including the influence of the extended family, in its support for school achievement. (SLD)

Interviews with 35 members of Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs), authorized by Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, revealed that a wide variety of public awareness and child-find strategies were utilized to improve program participation of culturally/linguistically diverse groups. There was some ICC representation…

Presents an inquiry-based approach to promoting critical thinking in psychology. Maintains that the model emphasizes helping students ask thoughtful questions. Discusses research results supporting the use of questioning techniques to enhance critical thinking. (CFR)

Asserts that conference teaching techniques foster critical thinking skills. Describes conference-style learning and discusses its use in the college psychology classroom. Concludes that the approach helps avoid the sense of struggle and alienation that can arise between teachers and students in the traditional classroom. (CFR)

An evaluation was conducted of an educational planning process for inclusive education called COACH (Choosing Options and Accommodations for Children), which was used with 30 elementary and secondary students who are deaf-blind. Interviews with 72 teachers, parents, and staff addressed effects on relationships between parents and professionals and…

Describes a future search conference that addressed the future of school library resource centers and their role in enhancing student learning in Washington State. Highlights include whole systems analysis; and participative planning that included teachers, administrators, librarians, parents, students, business representatives, and consultants.…

Argues against the Bush administration's school choice proposal from historical and sociocultural perspectives. The Bush approach to education reform espouses educational excellence without addressing needs of children who are at risk of school failure. Equity for minority groups has never occurred as a by-product of a focus on excellence. (SLD)

Explores issues faced by designers of school choice systems as numbers and types of choice arrangements proliferate and become more complex. Defines elements of a successful system of choice. The system developed will depend on the intentions, assumptions, and commitments present in the initial design. (SLD)

Considers issues of school choice and school autonomy. Parents, society as a whole, and the educator team of each school should have a lead role in answering the basic questions about schooling. Examples from schools in other countries illustrate some new approaches to school autonomy. (SLD)

Interviews 40 British parents and their children's nursery school teachers, concerning parental involvement in children's preschool reading and writing. Reveals parents frequently assist and direct their children in language arts activities but do not feel confident and teachers expressed doubts about parental interest. Shows need for greater…

A program for training health care students, including pharmacy students, to provide interdisciplinary community-based services in rural areas is described. Students participate in a course and a summer practicum, in which interdisciplinary student teams live in rural communities and work together to solve health care problems. (Author/MSE)

Reviews the literature on education to reduce prejudice, and advocates a whole-school approach to countering racism and promoting equity. Urges comprehensive reforms in curriculum; classroom practices and teaching methods; teacher attitudes, behaviors, and expectations; hiring and promotion practices; racial harassment policies; student-assessment…

Presents an analogy between classroom space utilization and Peter Brook's 1968 play, "The Empty Space," used in a modern, dramatic literature, college course. Taught from a feminist and student-centered perspective, students configured the classroom and class members as part of their dramatic readings. Stresses the indispensability of…

Common instructional practices in the teaching of language minority students are described. The case study of a fourth grade classroom in Longmont (Colorado) illustrates how a teacher's enthusiasm for literacy instruction creates an environment where all students, including the Hispanic language minority, can be active participants. (SLD)