Describes the Capacitor-Aided System for Teaching and Learning Electricity (CASTLE) project which is a high school electricity curriculum developed by high school and college physics teachers. The project is motivated by research on students' conceptual difficulties in electricity. The instructional materials developed allow students to challenge…

Describes high-speed photographic methods used to demonstrate that the tip of a snapped towel does break the sound barrier. (ZWH)

According to Scott, educators have uncritically accepted tracking as harmful, although little empirical proof has been presented. Jennie Oakes retorts that research evidence on untracking abounds. Anne Wheelock insists that students learn more with untracking. Barbara N. Pavan cites research on effective schools and nongraded schools showing that…

Training, not education, is a common outcome of Japanese education--even at the university level. Individual initiative and independent thought are savagely repressed, and students are harshly punished or bullied for nonconformist behavior. Children of executives transferred to foreign countries face great discrimination when reentering Japanese…

To keep Deming's ideas alive, this article reexamines how Deming's philosophy connects with education and discusses implications for educators, parents, and legislators. Expecting to achieve "quality" results in little time encourages "quick fixes" and a crisis mentality that distort Deming's message and lead nowhere. There are…

Claims of character educators must be reexamined. Enthralled at the prospect of reducing violence, crime, and other irresponsible behavior, untutored readers may assume a direct relationship between values and behavior. If the public enthusiastically endorses programs based on this fallacious assumption, the resulting disappointment may doom all…

Challenges misconceptions suggesting that outdoor and adventure experiences lead participants to advocate protection of natural areas, to value aesthetic experiences, to appreciate and understand the environment more deeply, to develop a spiritual relationship with the natural world, and to fight for environmental causes. (LP)

Two questionnaires were given to 38 students (16-18 year olds), in which they were asked to classify a list of different conceptual entities by several ontological features. The results suggest the form of a fundamental "ontological space" and locate some scientific concepts in this space. (Author)

School bashing has been a national pastime for years. Government officials and business leaders demoralize teachers and administrators carrying out improvement efforts by telling them how poorly they are doing. Although many educators truly believe in a national desire to improve education, there is no national will to compensate and empower…

Compared to Germany, Japan, and Denmark, U.S. fails its students by neglecting basic health and welfare needs, permitting inequitable school funding system, and perpetuating cultural ethos that undermines serious academic achievement. Teachers are not to blame. Factors influencing underachievement are low parent expectations and standards, local…

Because many drug-exposed children have normal-range cognitive abilities despite having some language-development and attention problems, schools do not have to build new special-education wings or teach these children one-on-one. Schools can serve these children best by setting up and coordinating intervention programs with other agencies. (18…

Ruth Stott violates canons of scholarly debate by attacking author's October 1992 "Kappan" article on world-class academic standards. Average class size predicted only 10% of variation in 13 year-olds' mean mathematics scores in 14 nations supplying reasonable comprehensive sampling frames for International Assessment of Academic…

In April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education issued a 32-page report ("A Nation at Risk") calling for drastic educational reforms. A decade later, four top education reformers--John Goodlad, Henry Levin, Phillip Schlechty, and Ted Sizer--assess this document and its legacy. Most see substantial progress despite the…

Educators must realize that, in Japan, authentic learning means mastery of memorized information, not experiential learning and independent reasoning in preparation for life. Although many Japanese can recite long strings of facts, few can answer "why,""how,""what if," and "what do you think" questions about…

Discussed is an approach to learning in which students are given the opportunity to discuss and rationalize the conflict between the students' existing misconceptions and the phenomenon to be studied. Curriculum materials for a unit on acids and bases were developed using this strategy. (KR)