Modeled on the county medical society and bar association, the University of Pennsylvania's Academic Alliances Program brings together teachers from all levels of the educational system. Faculty members from the schools and colleges in a local area, who teach the same academic discipline, are drawn together. (Author/MLW)

Various student development theorists have postulated that the collegiate experience is a strong contributor toward cognitive development in college students. This essay examines Kitchener and King's (1981, 1985) reflective judgment model of cognitive development as both a metacognitive exercise and as a particular skill. The development of…

This book presents 350 classroom-tested activities for use with children to create an environment that will stimulate young children's brains. Designed to be used by families, classroom teachers, family childcare providers, or others caring for young children, the book includes information on current brain research and describes interest areas in…

This paper reports on observations from teaching an undergraduate information-based organization (IBO) course and builds on past research to explain the findings in student issues, achievement motivation, and small-group effectiveness in information management teaching. The paper has three purposes: (1) to describe the development of a new course…

Presents ideas to promote higher-level thinking in general chemistry classrooms/laboratories, focusing on applications of Patricia E. Blosser's taxonomy to enhance students' convergent/divergent/evaluative thinking. Compares Blosser's taxonomy with Bloom and Piagetian taxonomies, suggesting a combined Blosser/Piagetian taxonomy to achieve goals of…

Reviews the social-psychological research pertaining to female-headed families published between 1970-1980. Literature indicates that theoretically children do not need the presence of the same-sex/opposite-sex parents in the family to develop sex-role behavior. Suggests children in female-headed families are likely to have good emotional…

Summarizes a study of instruments developed for use in assessing aspects of science curriculum and instruction. (PB)

Fifty-one very bright adolescents participated in a productive-thinking program and a challenging course in either creative writing or the social sciences. The program produced significant gains in verbal intelligence scores. The productive-thinking program also significantly raised scores on measures of creativity. (Author/GDC)

Reexamined Piagetian stages of males (N=182) and females (N=176), ages nine to eighteen, using cluster analysis, and sought information concerning occurrence of stages and influence of different tasks and gender on cluster patterns. Findings, among others, indicate that deviation from Piagetian stages was influenced by gender and type of task.…

Reed College, a small, liberal arts college with high academic distinction, is described. Faculty participate in virtually all policy decisions and are hired and promoted according to the quality of their teaching. Its finances are improved, but it is still underfinanced and too heavily dependent on tuition income. (MLW)

This paper describes recent advances in split-brain research and summarizes the qualities characterizing the two cerebral hemispheres. Traditional patterns of education, it is argued, are inadequate since they concentrate almost exclusively on the left hemisphere. Teaching strategies and school experiences are suggested to accelerate right…

Changes in the college and university environment (oversimplified instructional materials, demand for detailed instructions, avoidance of challenge in curricula, overuse of student evaluation of faculty) suggest that in their efforts to recruit and retain students, institutions have promoted students' increased intellectual dependency. This…

Reiterates the need for an understanding of the concepts of continuity and change, not simply in the representation of historical events, but in the writing and study of history. Uses Thomas Hobbes's riddle of Theseus to illustrate the need for multiple readings and critical analysis in history instruction. (MJP)

Examines four problems associated with developing character in college students: two concerned with moral cognition, or knowing what is right, and two concerned with moral action. It then reviews educational programs concerned with moral action, and provides suggestions for designing character development strategies. (Author/TE)

Examines the variables that influence females' success in science by experimenting with the outcomes of measures of formal reasoning ability. Concludes that women turn away from science for reasons that have little or nothing to do with their reasoning ability. (YP)