Communities of practice (COPs) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through interacting with one another (Wenger 1998). Communities of practice have enormous potential to support and sustain quality care and education within a community and, in fact, are doing so. Businesses and…

In recent years, several writing centers have been set up in colleges and universities of Taiwan. Almost at the same time, many self-access learning centers are being designed and built on campuses all over the island. Whether these two institutes function jointly or independently, dissatisfaction arises. In order to run the self-access learning…

The guide is designed to help states and localities create or strengthen their own youth councils. It is a synthesis of theory and practice that provides a general framework for thinking about youth councils, explaining the principles for youth action and the importance of youth engagement. It also incorporates advice and lessons from people in…

A university education professor invited an urban middle school principal to "give me 50 of your most academically challenged students who need additional support to be educationally successful." What followed is an ongoing lesson in how achieving educational success is a family and community affair. One community-based middle school's attempt…

This case report describes a rural Alaska high school teacher's efforts to motivate nine Yup'ik Indian seniors to plan for their futures after high school. The case was written as a training tool to help teaching students to: (1) spot issues and frame problems in complex teaching situations; (2) interpret a situation from different perspectives;…

This handbook is designed to illustrate how educational and community personnel in six school districts used a specific planning model to initiate comprehensive career guidance program planning and implementation. It contains a discussion of the Programmatic Approach to Guidance Excellence (PAGE 2) planning model and materials (an instructional…

This module helps the facilitator in training other educators in the effective use of a wealth of field test data gathered through case studies of all nine sites at which the Rural America Series has been rigorously field tested over a 15-month period. The module is particularly valuable in assisting program planners to anticipate and avoid errors…

Best practices in trade union-sponsored adult guidance programs were identified through five case studies in the United Kingdom and one in Denmark. The case studies from the United Kingdom focused on the following: a partnership between local trade unions and a city center education guidance service supported by a local college of further and…

This module, one in a series of competency-based administrator instructional packages, focuses on a specific competency that vocational education administrators need to be successful in the area of student services. The purpose of the module is to help the administrator develop skill in defining the broad conceptualization of student services,…