Public Agenda's Choicework Discussion Starters support dialogue and deliberation on a wide variety of issues. They have been used in thousands of community conversations, discussion groups and classrooms and by journalists, researchers, policymakers, community leaders, and individuals looking to better understand and discuss solutions to a variety…

Ideal for faculty and administrators looking to blend business education and the liberal arts, this toolkit combines exemplary syllabi from 26 leading institutions with step-by-step strategies to advocate successfully for curricular innovation. Conceived with comprehensiveness in mind, these resources cover both inspiration and implementation for…

Once planners at the local level have specified the educational objectives of their program, they should determine how those objectives can be reached. The possibility of selecting an adequate strategy is improved if several alternative strategies are generated and analyzed before a decision is made. Suggestions for generating alternative…

Describes the idea of teaching as active learning and defines direction in mathematics teaching as action and perception. Presents an example of a mathematics classroom activity in which students are centered. (KHR)

Suggests that sometimes making assignments "vague" places the burden of decision making and problem solving on students, requires that students invent and pursue their own questions, and demands that they practice independent thinking. (MS)

Describes the first component of a seven-part, long-range planning model for achieving school system goals. In Binghamton, New York, the process successfully involved representatives from all components of the school and community in a consensus decision-making process. (MD)

Critical thinking skills figure prominently among the goals for education proposed by educational researchers, parents, and employers. This digest discusses the skills related to critical thinking and three specific strategies for teaching these skills. The first, Building Categories, is an inductive reasoning tool that helps students categorize…

This step-by-step manual presents a problem-solving technique for developing or improving educational programs. Used in Michigan by more than 40 school districts, the process is intended for use by school district curriculum development committees, curriculum selection committees, or other groups--especially those with individuals who have…

This guidebook, the final in a series of three, serves as a work action plan to help educators and educational administrators in implementing and evaluating new programs and instructional materials. Checklists of the various kinds of materials necessary for the implementation of an educational program are provided, along with hints about the most…

Transactional evaluation is a valuable communication tool for drawing out and resolving beneath-the-surface elements that hinder educational goals. (Author)

Applied anthropology seeks to integrate anthropological values and knowledge with a rational approach to policy decision-making. This paper discusses some of the barriers faced by those who care about anthropology and are concerned with making a viable space for the discipline in the college curriculum. Anthropology teachers need to further refine…

This planning guide, written for those developing new education programs and those attempting to improve existing educational services, uses a family planning education program to illustrate the planning process in a practical, step-by-step approach. Each of the five chapters - How to Plan and Evaluate Your Program, Client Education, Community…

The constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania includes a provision mandating a quality education for each child in the Commonwealth. This is the first of six units designed for administrators and teachers to serve the Environmental Goal, one of Pennsylvania's Twelve Goals of Quality Education. The goal states that quality education should…

This book describes how the principles of quality can be applied to education. Based on the work of W. Edwards Deming and Joseph M. Juran, the book outlines a systematic and practical approach to implementing quality in educational settings. It also describes how to encourage staff participation in quality initiatives. Total-quality schools are…

As states transfer more responsibility for education decisions to local school systems, effective leadership at the local level is essential. This report presents the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB) model for leadership development, as practiced by the SREB Leadership Academy. Since 1991, teams from 12 school systems in the southern…