This guidebook is designed to help generate successful professional learning communities (PLCs) by providing a set of steps one may wish to consider when developing, recruiting for, and facilitating PLCs. Some aspects may not be relevant to a PLC (each PLC is unique), but this guidebook provides the structure to get started. In following the steps…

Now in its second edition, "Nature and Young Children" promotes the holistic development of children by connecting them with nature. It offers advice and guidance on how to set up indoor and outdoor nature play spaces as well as encouraging environmentally responsible attitudes, values and behaviour in your early childhood setting. Covering topics…

Suggests that music instruction include teaching ethics and values. Argues that performing ensembles are a powerful tool for imparting values such as integrity, self-esteem, cooperation, and tolerance. Includes charts for evaluating student behavior without including ethics and values as part of an academic grade. (DK)

This document is a reference for teachers to use in incorporating values education into all subject areas through the activities listed in the book. The book contains 16 chapters, of which about half provide guidelines, discussion and activities related to values in general, and half suggest activities specific to individual areas of study. In the…

Describes a lesson plan that utilizes stories and quotes to facilitate a discussion concerning behavior and character. Students chose material that illustrates certain character traits (fairness and justice, respect). A worksheet assignment contains relevant and stimulating questions. (MJP)

Describes a college-level course that uses classic texts, such as Plato's "The Republic" and Thomas More's "Utopia," to consider concepts related to the "good society." Expands this initial approach to include consideration of a postmodernist perspective. This perspective encourages consideration of texts and ideas…

A policy statement on value-centered education is offered by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU). Examples of different types of value-centered education are also identified. It is advocated that colleges provide more effective leadership in the areas of experience that prepare students to make future choices:…

Describes the development and content of teacher guides from The Giraffe Project, a social values and community service program. States that the teacher guides are available for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-9, and 10-12. Maintains that the materials would be appropriate for schools integrating a service component into the curriculum. (CFR)

The collection of vignettes in this book provide science teachers with a multitude of source materials and useful alternatives for incorporation into their curricula and teaching. Teachers may select topics as brief issues for casual reflection or as a means for promoting deeper investigation and analysis. Most of the vignettes can be extended and…

Recommends using literature, Supreme Court cases, and moral dilemmas in a debate format as means of instruction for character education. Includes a rationale and examples for each approach. Explains several guiding values (respect for persons, justice, telling the truth) and their relevance to character education. (MJP)

Emphasizes the power of storytelling, particularly heroic stories of virtue, in moral education. Provides a careful delineation of the differences between modern moral "fables" (a man contemplates stealing drugs for his dying wife) and classical stories involving heroes such as Ulysses and Galahad. (MJP)

This report outlines a K-12 social justice curriculum combining interdisciplinary instruction, guided and broadly-based research, and teamwork with teachers and students. Students also have opportunities to develop contacts with the media and other agencies at many levels outside the school, to research and support personal viewpoints, to study…

This article describes an interdisciplinary classroom project in which ninth graders simulate a "World Council on Genetic Technology." Students in small groups take on the persona and interests of individuals from specific countries in the group effort to develop a covenant for regulating the use of biotechnology. The benefits of having gifted…

Argues that Western civilization's use of formalism in art criticism is hierarchical and eurocentric. Suggests a more anthropological approach in which production of art is considered in the context of its native culture. Recommends emphasizing the human meaning in art over consideration of form or design. (MJP)

A model for designing classroom simulations is proposed as a way to integrate values and social studies in the classroom. (Author/KM)