Jane Tompkins, a Duke University (North Carolina) English professor, is working to transform the conventional approach to college teaching from combative to communal, focusing on students' personal development as well as their intellect and deemphasizing faculty career development. Critics feel her approach is extreme and unreasonable; supporters…

Discusses the principles of problem-based learning and their application to graduate-level counselor education. Claims that programs can be conceptualized around three phases: (1) essential theory and skills acquisition; (2) problem-based learning using critical thinking and reasoning skills; and (3) internship and application. This approach helps…

Within diverse outdoor educational activities, a core experience of connection with the earth balances self, others, and nature with elements of ritual. Most effective when experiential, integrated, and technologically simple, the core experience's educative power lies in awakening awareness of interconnectedness between human and nonhuman life.…

The increasing emphasis on accountability in early care and education has created an opportunity for programs to revisit their child assessment practices. This article presents a model for using authentic assessment practices to document children's progress toward a set of program standards, specifically the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, as…

A charter school has focused on technology and arts in order to help urban students develop a strong intellectual, moral, environmentally conscious and artistic foundation. The different policies and programs used by the Arts and Technology Academy Public Charter School (ATA), Washington, D.C., to educate students are discussed.

Over the years, family and consumer sciences (FCS) classrooms have provided education for all students--from the gifted and talented to the mentally challenged. The typical classroom environment is warm, inviting, and realistic. Students work together to apply knowledge to real life experiences. The importance of reading, writing, math, and…

In so far as education has acknowledged creativity at all, it has commonly focused on "allowing" rather than "developing" creativity, on arts-based "expression" rather than broader or deeper kinds of creativity; and on the role of techniques rather than dispositions. This paper seeks to redress the balance by arguing…

This article describes the action taken by a school regarding the numerous complaints and criticisms about students trespassing on lawns, picking flowers and fruits, and destroying trees. The school decided to take the opportunity to launch an environmental education campaign to teach students to protect flowers, plants, and the environment.…

The aim of this article is to orient those interested in adult community college student research to a wide array of discourses and theoretical tools that can help us understand the underlying complexity of the problems faced by this often-marginalized group. Reviewed are categories of theory about student involvement and engagement, student…

The quality framework summarises and elaborates on the provisions in the Education Act and its regulations, including the National Curriculum, and must be considered in light of the legislation and regulations. The quality framework helps to clarify the responsibilities the school owners (the local and county administration authorities in…

The authors describe how the effective use of groups can promote academic achievement for adolescent African American males. Literature regarding adolescents' and African Americans' experience with groups is reviewed. The authors provide information on academic disidentification and achievement gaps, both critical to understanding the problem of…

First-year programs and freshman learning communities (FLCs) have become an institutionalized feature of the higher-education landscape. Although a vast amount of literature asserts the positive consequences of these programs, less attention has been devoted to the unintended, and occasionally negative, consequences of FLCs. The author identifies…

This article discusses three focal areas in promoting positive youth development (PYD) in schools: positive people, positive places, and positive opportunities. Given school personnel workload and federal policies that emphasize academic achievement, it remains a goal to focus on holistic adolescent outcomes and school outcomes that increase both…

Assessment of students' progress and learning is "sine qua non" to effective curricula and instruction. Assessing what students know and can do as well as analyzing their attitudes, behaviors, and interests have become an integral part of planning curricula which are responsive to and supportive of students' educational needs and…

Focusing on strategies for increasing student success in the community college, this monograph profiles winners of the National Council of Instructional Administrators (NCIA) exemplary program competition for 1994. First, background information on the competition is provided, indicating that it considers programs in three categories:…