Offers some examples of integrating character education into curriculum and instruction through service learning and provides a rationale for incorporating service learning throughout the grades. Briefly summarizes educational research supporting service learning and identifies five critical elements of service learning projects. Provides a list…

Details a series of service learning projects conducted by a California middle school social studies class. Creative, inexpensive, and substantive, the projects included writing to Manuel Noreiga in prison, creating a feed-the-homeless garden, and translating city documents into other languages. (MJP)

Reviews psychological and educational research on prejudice and intergroup relations to produce suggestions and guidelines for improving the combined educational goals of service learning and multicultural education. Recommends starting early, emphasizing critical thinking, connecting activities to appropriate stages of cognitive development, and…

Provides a brief history of character education and categorizes current efforts. Recommends combining civic participation programs with character education in an attempt to provide consistency, depth, and support. Notes that civic participation programs teach a recognized set of values, use interactive teaching strategies, and promote critical…

Maintains that community service-learning, the integration of service with academic skills and content, can positively enhance students' future involvement in the social and political life of their communities. Discusses the historical roots of service in social studies education and analyzes the empirical evidence on student outcomes. (MJP)

Interesting and stimulating instruction in high school social studies may be achieved by using the community and its institutions as a laboratory for learning and by creating an on-going community resource inservice program. Effective ways to incorporate community resources in the curriculum include creating special sections on developing writing…

This paper examines the definition and practice of intergenerational learning programs, and attempts to determine the characteristics of successful and meaningful programs of this type. The first section defines intergenerational learning and states its purpose: to bring young and old together for the purpose of learning from one another, under…

Six independent study projects are offered to students in an introductory psychology course at the University of Houston. The projects include a term paper, book critique, independent research project, audio and/or visual demonstration, research assistance to a faculty member, and a community service option. The most popular of these projects is…

A bilingual vocational training program was instituted to provide fifty-six Spanish- and Chinese-speaking students with a chance to acquire English language skills and training as medical clerks simultaneously. Community benefits expected and evident need in the area for bilingual medical-clerical employees led to the choice of this field. The…

A study compared the occupational preferences of middle-school girls and boys and examined whether service learning influences students' career interests. The sample included 717 middle school students at pretesting and 583 students at posttesting. Boys comprised 49 percent of the sample and girls 51 percent. Students attended five different…

A study examined how research concerning an educational innovation such as service learning can be enhanced by the involvement of practitioners. The context was the Service Learning Impact Study, a multifaceted 3-year study of the impact of the Helper Model of service learning on a target population of 1,400 middle school students for whom service…

The report presents an objective third-party assessment of the WALKABOUT program. Now in its third year in Northern Westchester County, New York, this program offers an optional learning environment for Grade 12 students in which the skills and self confidence needed to be effective adults are nurtured. In order to attain WALKABOUT program goals,…

The Walkabout program is an optional senior-year educational experience in which New York high school students can acquire the basic skills and confidence to take charge of their lives and contribute to the world. The year-long program is divided into 5 "challenge environments": wilderness (5 weeks); applied academics (18 weeks of health…

Gateway High School is an alternative to the present, conventional, classroom-type instructional situation encountered in most U. S. schools. Modeled on the Parkway School in Philadelphia and the Metro School in Chicago, the project is an appeal to the disenchanted learner. To abolish the dichotomy between education and life the program obtained…

This brochure, one in a series of four, is designed to assist school, community, and university personnel as they develop and refine programs to encourage girls in mathematics, science, and engineering. The information is divided into seven sections. The first section discusses four reasons why programs that encourage girls to enroll in…