Guidelines for helping special educators contribute to transition planning for students with disabilities include understanding the legislative mandate, identifying relevant persons and resources at the school district level, investigating alternative approaches to transition planning, promoting family participation, using various assessment…

A school board member and a superintendent realized in their three years of working together in a Florida school district how crucial the board/superintendent relationship is to a smoothly running school district. Advises board members and superintendents to keep their roles straight and to work as a team. Offers guidelines to board presidents.…

Analysis of 24 responses from members of transdisciplinary teams to a survey on implementation of the transdisciplinary service delivery model for young children with disabilities identified consistencies and discrepancies between theoretical principles and implementation in the areas of parent participation, child assessment, team activities, and…

Weaknesses in the field of education that have implications for collaborative research are considered, and education is compared to the more mature professions of health sciences and engineering which have agreed-upon standards and controls. Educational practitioners and researchers are seen as turning to collaborative decision making to bridge…

The implementation of peer coaching at an elementary school is described. Pairs of teachers worked together through initial discussions, classroom observations, and coaching meetings to refine specific areas of their teaching. The initial training in preparation for peer coaching is described, along with advantages and disadvantages of this…

Focuses on the work of girls who take on the role of refereeing the course of action within the game of hopscotch. The fieldwork for this article is based on a study of the interaction of bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking girls. The range of experiences within this game challenges characterizations of girls' play as limiting the development…

This article proposes that law schools teach trial advocacy and appellate advocacy as a two-course sequence, in which a "trial" is conducted in the first semester and appealed in the second. Students would work on teams and gain experience representing either the party with the burden of proof or the responsive party. (MSE)

Reports research on cooperative learning strategies used in a college computer skills lab course and compares learning performance and retention of students taught via cooperative teams or traditional individual learning. Results show that both performance and retention were significantly improved with the use of cooperative learning. (Author/JMV)

Three teachers share techniques for adapting to learning styles: "The Personal Touch Eases Anxiety of Adult Students" (Bilderback); "Learning to Cooperate: Recipe for Success" (Lindsay); and "Thoughtful Questions Lead Students to Answers" (Crowley). (SK)

The Collaborative Approach to Writing, which has turned reluctant writers into enthusiastic authors, involves the direct teaching of the mechanics of writing and provides students an opportunity to practice their skills as they work together to write a novel. Students work in groups to develop a plot outline, write, edit, and publish. (JDD)

Role play is effective in cooperative learning because it reduces anxiety, promotes risk taking, and is versatile. Students share ideas, values, knowledge, and skills, creating mutual problem solving. Limitations include the time required and student personalization of roles. The article lists guidelines for enhancing role play, noting alternative…

Educators who introduced cooperative learning (CL) in their school district present their feelings, ideas, and experiences. They note that CL takes commitment, work, time, and practice. The rewards are improvements in learning, social skills, and achievement. They recommend CL because it addresses current educational needs. (SM)

Deming's work emphasizes advantages of teamwork, investment in ongoing training for all employees to increase their value to the company, and insistence that research and employee-gathered data guide and inform every decision and improvement effort. The parallel between psychologist Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi's work and Deming's shows that Total…

This commentary on an earlier paper (EC 230 267) notes that the debate on the regular education initiative (REI) should focus on the future, teachers should become personalizers of curriculum and instruction, classroom teachers are one member of an interdependent teaching team, and an adhocracy should be developed among educators of all…

A review of studies of mentoring for new college faculty suggests practical guidelines for maximizing the mentoring experience. Recommendations include "cataloging" (of past, current, and planned activities); group mentoring; and application of a theory stressing involvement, regimen, solving the right problem, and social networking. (DB)