This paper describes an innovative course in educational administration and presents students' reactions to the experience. The class was based on the constructivist perspective, which emphasizes the individual's construction of reality through dialogue, observation, writing, and reflection. The class was organized to focus students on the purpose…

This document presents the initial set of research findings for social studies that is part of Project BETTER, a project of the Maryland State Department of Education to promote more effective instruction. The project has three major objectives: (1) to identify current research on effective instruction; (2) to synthesize this research in the form…

Grounded in an in-depth study of the politics and practice of a single curriculum, "Facing History and Ourselves" (FHAO), this book integrates a close-up look at the classroom with a broader discussion of educational theory and policy. Study of the daily practice of the FHAO curriculum in a multiracial alternative and urban middle school…

Educators at all levels are increasingly being told that classrooms should be places where students are guided through processes of critical inquiry, work collaboratively, and use both written and oral languages as tools for learning. The value of a collaborative, language-centered approach to teaching and learning can be demonstrated by drawing…

Designed to introduce students to pleasure reading while teaching and reinforcing reading comprehension, vocabulary, writing, and critical thinking skills, this book presents over 240 reproducible quizzes, activities, and project pages. The book is divided into 12 monthly units covering four favorite children's books each, all suitable for…

Based on a journalist's experience with students, observation of and conversations with hundreds of teachers and principals, and 22 years' experience as an employer in business communications, this keynote speech reports on the current crisis teachers face in developing the communication skills of their students for the future. The speech outlines…

This is one of a four-volume series intended to improve students' (grade 6-adult) critical thinking through evaluation of conflicting viewpoints of United States history. Each lesson is a self-contained problem that can be integrated at any point in a corresponding history unit. The book represents both analytical and narrative history. Unit One…

This book contains lessons that teach students about rights and responsibilities through activities designed to develop character and community. Students are encouraged to learn about the concepts of human rights and responsibilities, and being environmentally responsible citizens. The book employs a variety of learning strategies, allowing for…

A wide variety of techniques and classroom activities, contributed by teachers, for content-based instruction (CBI) in English as a second language (ESL) are presented. CBI is defined to include theme-based second language courses, sheltered content-area courses, and paired or adjunct arrangements in which language and content courses are taught…

New discoveries about the brain and how it functions and significant findings from process/product research have major implications for the teaching profession. Connecting these discoveries and findings with classroom methods was the focus of the second annual Making Connections symposium. These proceedings from the symposium provide four…

This curriculum has been designed to provide high school students with an increased awareness of the importance of responsibility in their own lives and its place in contemporary society, and to encourage their capacity and inclination to deal with issues of responsibility wisely and effectively. Students are asked to examine and make decisions…

This document summarizes discussions held at a conference of the National Institute on the Assessment of Experiential Learning, which is concerned with prior learning assessment (PLA), a process developed for awarding college-level credit for out-of-class experiences. The conference consisted of two tracks, beginning and advanced; this format…

This practicum was designed to incorporate critical thinking skills instruction and practice into a fourth-grade curriculum to increase fourth-grade students' ability to recognize and apply critical thinking strategies to appropriate situations. This program concentrated on the increasing of six critical thinking skills: classification, sequence…

This guide was designed for teachers to help students recognize and develop their responsibilities to society. The concepts focused on include: respect for citizenship, respect for people of other cultures, respect for people of all ages, respect for people who have a handicap, respect for work, respect for being a wise consumer, and respect for…

Because it has been overworked, underanalyzed, and undefined, critical thinking has come to mean anything or nothing. The best work on critical thinking imagines it as an act of composing and revising. Definitions of critical thinking have undergone a historical evolution--from general problem-solving "skills" to a complex of…