Recent trends in education have emphasized the importance of customizing education for learners (Collins and Halverson, 2009). The current paper aims to explore the effects of one factor that can play an important role in customizing education: curiosity (Luce and Hsi, 2015). We explore how students express curiosity within design learning…

Contradictory evidence has been reported on the effects of discovery learning approach and the role of instructional explanations. By manipulating the presence of instruction (verbal explanation) and transparency of problem structures, we investigated how effects of instructional explanations differed depending on the transparency of problem…

With the demand for a demonstration of continuous progress as an accountability gauge in public schools, teachers are compelled to examine assessment data for each of their pupils. This data analysis, in turn, should help teachers gauge their instructional practices and differentiate instruction so that all can reach proficient levels of…

A course in the Calculus sequence is arguably the most difficult course in which inquiry-based learning (IBL) can be achieved with any degree of success within the curriculum in part due to: (1) the plethora of majors taking Calculus to which the sequence relates to their majors in what is considered an "applied" manner; and (2) the…

The experience of Central Pennsylvania's Keystone Central School District (KCSD) illustrated how microcomputers can help solve some of the characteristic problems of rural schools. KCSD's Renovo Elementary School has 3 stand-alone microcomputers and the district's Buckeye High School has 12 networked microcomputers. One major benefit of the…

In 1991 Pennsylvania began implementation of a direct writing assessment at the sixth-grade and ninth-grade levels. A total of 18,758 sixth graders and 16,575 ninth graders wrote a response to 1 of 9 prompts reflecting 3 modes of writing. A six-point holistic scale was used to score the papers, with two readers scoring each paper. A third reader,…

Described is the Special Education Resources Location Analysis and Retrieval System (SER-LARS), a curriculum management system for several areas of exceptionality developed by the National Learning Resource Center of Pennsylvania; and briefly viewed are other curriculum management system efforts in Pennsylvania. Problems of building objectives…

Although Pennsylvania has long made programming for all handicapped children mandatory, the passage of P.L. 94-142 has necessitated some changes even in this state. The major hurdle in the implementation of such a law is confusion and misinterpretation. Educators fear that the handicapped may be dumped into regular classes in an arbitrary manner.…

The 3-day Institute investigated the adequacy of social agencies and institutions which provide services and assistance to migrant families during their stay in Pennsylvania. Institute activities included presentations by three principal speakers, followed by panel discussions and "action workshops". The workshops provided an opportunity…

Instruments to measure decision-making skills of grade 5, 8, and 11 students were developed as a part of Pennsylvania's statewide assessment program. A decision-making model was formulated based upon John Dewey's five major steps of the critical thinking process: (1) identify the problem; (2) establish the facts; (3) formulate the hypothesis; (4)…

A study examined rural school administrators' perceptions of their jobs and how academic achievement and school climate were affected at rural schools that shared principals, compared to rural schools that had their own principal. Sixteen rural school administrators from across the nation were interviewed about their perceptions of their jobs, and…

Issues of concern to higher education in Pennsylvania and possible roles for the state government are addressed by a state senator. The difficulty of providing postsecondary education in view of reduced funds is noted. It is suggested that the expectation that adult students will help solve the problem of fewer traditional aged college students…

This paper examines the conceptualization and design of the Pennsylvania Audiographics Distance Education Project's (PADEP) Life Skills and Drug Education Course, and discusses the successes and difficulties of the project based on results from formative evaluation. Educators from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, developed new courses that could be…

This study examines the effect in Pennsylvania of the increasing use of consultants in public-sector collective bargaining on the bargaining process itself. Following a detailed review of research on both the positive and negative aspects of consultant use in collective bargaining, this paper describes the study's major hypotheses, its school…

A study examined the educational and vocational barriers and opportunities reported by 788 disabled adult clients of the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation who matriculated in postsecondary education in Pennsylvania between 1980 and 1986. Thirty-six percent (244) of the surveys were returned. Half of the disabled adults matriculating…