The authors review studies on the effects of these three types of learning situations on students' motivation, self-concept, attitudes, and psychological health. While concluding that all three can be appropriately used in the classroom, they give particular attention to the teacher's role in implementing cooperative activities. (SJL)

Theme articles focus on FFA (Future Farmers of America) conventions and contests. They examine FFA as an extracurricular versus intracurricular activity, keeping competition in perspective, contests as student motivators, how a sponsor views FFA, improving the teaching of leadership, benefits of FFA participation, the needs of disadvantaged and…

The military is drawing a large share of minority students by offering recruits training, further education, and decent pay. It is less advisable for academia to compete with the military for students than to see military personnel as potential students. (MLW)

Urges development of gifted programs appropriate to rural schools. Discusses groupings, curricula, technology, and differentiated education. Emphasizes the importance of peer and community involvement. Provides 21 references. (SKW)

Discusses the status of U.S.-Japan relations regarding science and technology. Describes Japan's science and technology structure. Outlines trends in cooperation and competition for the technology market between the U.S. and Japan. (CW)

Current challenges to the nursing profession are examined, including changing health needs, health care providers and the cost and quality of their services, the recruitment, retention, and regulation of nurses, and competition. Implications for nursing and parallels with pharmacy are discussed. (MSE)

Values and beliefs that govern educational practices are discussed, as is an alternative value perspective more consistent with the spirit of reform suggested by national reports. Reputational and resource views of excellence are described. Curriculum, teaching, grading, testing, and faculty personnel policies are discussed. (MLW)

Investigated differential impact of various cooperative learning methods and the interaction of student characteristics with learning methods in 864 elementary school students and 32 student teachers. Results revealed substantial differences in effects of cooperative techniques. Cooperative-competitive social orientation and ethnic status…

The West German debate over state-controlled higher education planning versus market-oriented competition is examined in the context of recent West German educational history, actions taken by the federal government and science council, institutional reactions, and research on the use of performance indicators. (MSE)

Japanese school teachers provided examples of cooperative and competitive student behaviors in order to construct rating scales. Further ranking and factor analysis resulted in nine competitive and eight cooperative items. Age differences are discussed, as well as the Japanese society's encouragement of cooperative activities. The items are…

Forces acting on medical education and compelling a reexamination of current approaches include cost containment, competition and price sensitivity, new technologies, the physician surplus, and a rapidly expanding, politically assertive aging population. (MSE)

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the sports-governing body for over 500 small colleges and universities, will weigh a series of major alterations in rules and procedures concerning standards for freshman athletes, separate competition divisions in all sports, an accreditation system for monitoring academic standards,…

Finds that (1) while females were significantly more cooperative and males more competitive than were subjects of the opposite sex, both sexes responded much more positively toward cooperative than competitive items and (2) cooperative and competitive orientation varies across activities. Age, gender, and situational factors were related to…

The validity of the Medical College Admission (MCAT), undergraduate grade-point average (GPA), and "competitiveness" of undergraduate college in predicting the performance of students at a predominantly black college of medicine was examined. No differences between men and women were found in the validity of MCAT scores and GPA.…

Describes a program created by members of the English department at Youngstown State University that achieves the goal of fostering cooperation between universities, area schools, and the community at the same time that it demonstrates the potential of raising the levels of basic writing skills and stimulating a desire to read. (HOD)