A rural Canadian secondary school developed a cross-age peer-assisted summer program to improve academic achievement and career awareness. Although there was no significant improvement in math grades for female participants, 91 percent of students claimed the program helped them in their present courses. Other outcomes included improved academic…

This article describes a teacher-researcher collaboration, "Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for Kindergartens," or K-PALS, which was the reading readiness program produced by the partnership. The development of K-PALS is discussed, along with research showing that it promotes young children's reading development and fits easily into classrooms.…

Presents the theories of Vygotsky and Bandura that provide the foundation for research on cross-age learning in multiple-age groupings. Discusses the cognitive, social, and emotional benefits children derive from mixed-age groupings. Outlines social learning contexts, such as learning centers and projects, and structural contexts, such as multiage…

Describes a music major program that was created at a high school to help students prepare for a future career in music, provide documentation of their four years of study in music for the college application process, and continue to study music after high school. (CMK)

Teachers have sought appropriate strategies to ensure that students with disabilities receive the support they need within the general education classroom (Klingner, Vaughn, Hughes, Schumm, & Elbaum, 1998). Paving the road to inclusion with successful academic experiences for students with mild disabilities has been especially challenging in the…

The purpose of this paper is to describe the model of a mathematics and science staff development cooperative and focus on the evaluation of the mathematics component. The Mathematics and Science Education Cooperative (MSEC) was a comprehensive, long-range staff development program to improve the teaching and learning of mathematics and science at…

Each month, "Curriculum Review" offers teachers mutual support, the sharing of ideas, and words of encouragement to help them face challenges in the classroom. The February 2004 issue of "Curriculum Review" contains the following articles: (1) "We Hear from Readers"; (2) "What They're Saying"; (3) "Technology Update"; (4) "Sometimes the Payoff for…

Good mentoring is not an easy process. From the research literature on mentoring, people know that there are critical factors that affect the mentoring relationship and process: the selection of mentors, whether or not mentors and proteges are assigned, how formal or informal the relationship is, how mentors might or might not be rewarded for…

The present study examines the effect of participation of first-year university students in a full-year peer mentoring program as well as individual differences in motivation in relation to outcome measures of retention and achievement. A sample of 983 first year students completed the Academic Motivation Inventory (Tremblay, 1998) and agreed to…

This research investigates the perceptions of first-year Bachelor of Teaching students (primary and secondary) and Diploma of Education students (secondary) about their peer teaching experience in a postgraduate subject called Curriculum and Assessment. Peer teaching is a learner-centred approach to teaching and learning that is intended to…

Reading specialists in several San Diego schools assist both in providing tutoring to students and coach peers, a dual role that has helped to create and sustain schoolwide improvements in literacy. In just a few years, these high-poverty schools have doubled the number of 2nd graders reading at grade level.

Teaching thinking skills has been characterised by the teacher-directed "embedded", "infusion" and "bolt-on" approaches, for which outcomes have been mixed. Peer tutoring in thinking skills offers a fourth way of wide applicability. This study evaluated such a method (Paired Thinking) in a high school setting. A…

Conversation skills are critical to learning and the development of social relationships. Some students with severe disabilities have a difficult time conversing with their nondisabled classmates because of their unintelligible verbalizations or an inability to correct or repair a message that may have been misunderstood by their conversational…

Now progressing into its fourth year, Learning Clicks is an interactive, dynamic, and informative program to help students in Grades 9-12 learn about the importance, long-term benefits, and opportunities of post-secondary education. This program also serves as a portal to provide students with the necessary information to assist in planning and…

The growing diversity in today's classrooms demands that family and consumer sciences (FCS) teachers be knowledgeable, responsive, and well-prepared to work with a multicultural, multilingual student population. To meet the needs of students from all backgrounds, FCS teachers must use a broad array of research-based strategies that support diverse…