In this article, the author describes "Dr. Gesundheit and the Mysteries of Snake Valley," a mini-unit that he designed so that his middle-level students could learn to interpret archaeological diagrams, work cooperatively to discover relationships among their observations, and draw well-founded conclusions. The unit requires approximately four…

School library media specialists have four primary responsibilities: teacher, instructional partner, information specialist, and program administrator. As instructional partners, school library media specialists collaborate in designing instruction and learning activities that "reflect the best in current research and practice." Researchers at the…

In this article, the author discusses her views on philosophies and theories by Lev Semenovich Vygotsky and Howard Gardner. Here, she argues that Vygotsky's ideas should be viewed through the prism of Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, and that the combination of these concepts can shed new light on education--on teaching and learning.…

This competency-based secondary learning guide on applying consumer and homemaking skills to jobs and careers is part of a series that are adaptations of guides developed for adult consumer and homemaking education programs. The guides provide students with experiences that help them learn to do the following: make decisions; use creative…

This module on effective employment practices is one of a series of modules designed to help teach students to become more self-sufficient in their personal and professional lives. This module provides teacher and student materials that are planned to help students plan careers and find and keep a job. Five units cover the following topics: (1)…

This guide, which was written as an initial step in the development of a systemwide articulated curriculum sequence for all vocational programs within the Metropolitan Nashville Public School System, outlines the suggested scope and sequence of a 3-year program in child care and guidance. The guide consists of a course description; general course…

This curriculum guide consists of materials for use in teaching a course in business English for high school students. Addressed in the individual units of the guide are the following topics: the fundamentals of communication, listening skills, oral communications, telephone communications, information resources, reading and vocabulary, the…

Part of the new Knowledge Essentials series, "First Grade Success" shows parents how to enrich their children's classroom learning and take an active role in their first graders' education by exploring: (1) What their first graders are learning at school and the educational standards to expect in math, language arts, science, and social studies;…

To promote student success, both in school and beyond, teachers must not only address academic skill development but also help their students become self-determined individuals. The importance of self-determination is implicit in special education legislation. Findings from postschool outcome studies also support the inclusion of…

In this article, the author describes how he created an approach that he terms "Mathematics as a Second Language" (MSL) for teaching ELL students mathematics. The main components of MSL are vocabulary activities, journals, group work, and projects. He used MSL to teach prealgebra to ELL students, as well as to native English speakers, for two…

This article explores the attribution of linguistic resources to multilingual students in a primary school in the Netherlands. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a regular, multicultural classroom, it describes patterns of attribution emerging from observations of classroom activities and interviews with the teacher. Its focus is on the…

There is considerable concern that the majority of adolescents do not develop the competence in writing they need to be successful in school, the workplace, or their personal lives. A common explanation for why youngsters do not write well is that schools do not do a good job of teaching this complex skill. In an effort to identify effective…

This paper comments on strengths and weaknesses of the papers on communities of practice in this special issue of "Technology, Pedagogy and Education." First it discusses the character of communities of practice and the question of whether schools are environments that are conducive to the development of teacher communities of practice. It then…

Inner-city high school teacher Amy Rosoff stresses the importance of play for survival. She offers examples of activities requiring imaginative play from students in classes at all levels from ESL [English as a Second Language] to AP [Advanced Placement]. (Contains 1 figure.)

This paper describes a classroom activity to demonstrate to undergraduate psychology students studying learning principles the principle of negative reinforcement. The students (n=25) were either enrolled in an introductory psychology course at a business college or the students (n=21) were enrolled in an educational psychology course at a state…