Reviews the debate during this century over the optimal size for an individual school in terms of efficiency and student outcomes. Current consensus correlates small schools with school effectiveness, community and school identity, and individual fulfillment and participation, and large schools with school inefficiency, institutional bureaucracy,…

Discusses recent research in cognitive psychology that identifies how students are likely to respond when controversial issues are included in course content. Points out that controversial material may lead to misunderstandings and forgetting. Provides teaching ideas to enhance student learning and remembering, to deal with emotions, and to foster…

Peer helping provides critical opportunities for practice and reflection as a means of supporting psychosocial development. School counselor skill and knowledge play an important role in the process of peer program development and success. Provides steps for developing a successful program and a sample developmental training model. (JBJ)

This article examines trends in the education of adults with learning disabilities, focusing on dropout prevention, postdropout education, disability self-awareness, transition, Adult Basic Education, higher education, vocational education, employment, and psychosocial issues. Organizational sources of further information and a table listing…

Returns to the etymological root of technology to advocate broad interpretations of design technology features of the United Kingdom's, National Curriculum. Urges avoiding narrow applications of technical education. Favors nourishing right hemisphere talents to encourage student inventiveness. Stresses the importance of language and learning…

Presents the 1998 position statement regarding early literacy development formulated by the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Outlines issues and reviews research. Offers a set of principles and recommendations for teaching practices and public policy. Includes a continuum of…

This paper offers reflections on the role of the agricultural university in developing nations by analyzing in turn the factors that contribute to stagnation of these universities. It first takes up the policy conditions that govern the broad outlines of the agricultural university mandate such as the university's relationship with the ministry of…

In response to a gap in the literature on student development with respect to the role of the family, and anecdotal evidence that the family's influence on the college student's development is profound, a review of the relevant literature on higher education, social psychology, psychiatry, sociology of the family, and family therapy was…

The term "value added" refers to the assessment of the amount of learning that takes place during the college years. Two experiments, Value Added I and Value Added II, attempted to measure college students' attainment of eight liberal education objectives: (1) writing ability; (2) analytical ability; (3) sensitivity to ethics, morals,…

Six generalizations are offered regarding the collective requirements and expectations that colleges and universities impose on, or expect of, their students. (1) Colleges and universities in varying degrees expect and require students to demonstrate "basic academic skills" in reading, writing, and mathematics. Students must also learn…

Discusses structural reforms needed to improve the present public education system and presents a strategy for effecting the needed changes. Highlights include changing educational needs in an information-oriented society; the teacher's role; learning laboratories; developmental levels; students' roles; district organization and administration;…

Reviews arguments surrounding the inclusion of computer literacy as part of core requirements for all undergraduates, considering the effect of the current postsecondary educational reform movement. Describes seven models for linking general education and computer science, and highlights American University's approach, which integrates computing…

In interpreting the intellectual and cultural contexts of gifted education, this book considers how and why U.S. schooling fails to care for intellect and to develop the talents of all children. Rather than acting as stewards charged with nurturing intellectual development, schools concertedly devalue intellect, and this shortcoming is most…

The paper provides an overview of research on Asian and Pacific American (APA) undergraduates at U.S. institutions, focusing on the origins, assumptions, and fallacies of the "model minority" image. In addition, it offers highlights from a recent campus survey that suggests that APA students perceive their university experience…

In an examination of the meaning and measurement of quality in the undergraduate experience, quality is compared with the conceptually similar but distinct concepts of adequacy and excellence. Most of the conceptual frameworks available for assessing quality are essentially unidimensional assessment strategies that rely almost exclusively on…