The organization of institutions of higher education has been seen as operating with ambiguous purposes in vertically oriented structures that are only loosely connected. The rationale for this ambiguity is twofold: (1) to allow for creative thinking, and (2) to respect--and even encourage--the autonomy of different disciplines. But ambiguity of…

At first glance, architectural design principles would seem to hold little in common with organizing a curriculum or a college student experience. What does designing physical space have to do with creating in-class and out-of-class learning opportunities? The authors believe the answer is "Quite a bit" if you spend any time with universal…

The scope of this article is to discuss the impact of underrepresentation of girls in separate, self-contained special education classes for preschool children in a large school district in the southeastern United States. On a regular basis, preschool girls identified with special needs are being placed in self-contained classes where there they…

The authors introduce the RALLY (Responsive Advocacy for Life and Learning in Youth) approach. RALLY is a school- and afterschool-based approach addressing academic success, youth development, and mental health for youth. Based on developmental and relational principles, RALLY's main goals are to promote students' resiliency, development, and…

The first reading assignment one educator gives his first-year composition students helps answer their questions about what college work will be like. For this reason, he gives them Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves to Death" to read, a book which shows that the late 20th century is undergoing a vast epistemological shift, moving from…

Many people are anxious about values, morality, and religion in the schools. Business, political, religious, and educational leaders are concerned; confusion is widespread. This document aims at assisting interested parties to understand better the source of some of the difficulties faced by parents, school board members, teachers, legislators,…

Supervision provides student development professionals with an important forum for examining and discussing ethical issues which arise in practice. However, high-quality counseling supervision may not always be available to practitioners when they need it most. Peer supervision is a method of counseling supervision which can be a viable…

This collection is the result of a program in self expression in which 30 fifth-grade students contemplated to music every other day throughout the school year--each child completed approximately 120 thinking or contemplation periods. The procedure used in the program operated in the following way: (1) 5 to 15 minutes of music played while the…

Students often arrive at universities ill-prepared for the reflective practice needed to derive maximum benefits from a Freshman Seminar. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, portfolio projects are semester-long assignments in which the portfolio serves as a capstone activity to help freshmen more thoroughly analyze their first year…

Educators and policymakers are beginning to realize that students aged 10 through 14 are not well served by the "miniature high school" atmosphere of the typical junior high school, where the primary emphasis is placed on academic achievement in departmentalized course offerings. A program that is student-centered and that better…

The research of William Perry, the Harvard psychologist who documented cognitive growth in undergraduates, is summarized. Perry's theory is compared to Piaget's theory, and the view that Perry is an extension of Piaget is discussed. Also noted is the shift in locus of control and other measures that occur as students progress through Perry's…

This document describes the Heritage Developmental Community (HDC), a program implemented by Brigham Young University's Housing Department and Counseling and Development Center to facilitate and accelerate student development and to create an ecosystem within a university residential setting wherein all parts relate and interact to reach…

The guidance and counseling profession is evolving from an emphasis on a loose collection of services to recognition as a comprehensive program with its own curriculum emphasis on student outcomes and competencies. This handbook was written to assist counselors in New Hampshire's public schools as they move from an ancillary service mode into a…

This report presents information to make more visible the advantages of small colleges and to make explicit why small colleges choose to remain small. Nine topics of discussion are as follows: focus on the education of the undergraduate student; providing high quality education to all kinds of students; providing a liberal arts education for a…

University students with learning disabilities (LDs) have faced a wide range of barriers which have often eroded their self-confidence and complicated their career planning process. The fact that many of these students can succeed in the university and the world of work would suggest that university LD students have a "nonsubmersible" quality that…