This interview with Oleg Davydenko, a geneticist in Belarus who also runs a club for adolescents interested in genetics, addresses his work, the origins of the club, self-selection by students, characteristics of the best student members, the club's financial support, his own development as a youth, and the role of contests like the Olympiads. (DB)

Recently, higher education policy and practice has become dominated by materialism, individualism, and competitiveness, at the expense of attention to the affective aspect of student development and, in a broader perspective, to the emotional and spiritual divisions that threaten humanity. Higher education can and should be more constructive. (MSE)

Many ethnic-majority college students have strong emotional reactions to ethnic-American literature and the conflict of social myth with social reality. Teachers can guide students through the seven stages leading from disillusionment to understanding (shock, denial, anger, rejection, examination, understanding, and acceptance) in part by…

Defends the value of boys' schools, noting lack of objective data to support a negative appraisal of them. There is an inherent maleness that cannot be alienated from boys and men without a fundamental loss of their humanity. Schools must take the responsibility for conveying how to become a man. (SM)

Finds that fourth graders were more likely than fifth and sixth graders to understand story characters in terms of immediate situation rather than overall story context and in terms of individual perspectives rather than social relationships. Finds that adults differ from fifth and sixth graders in the same way. (SR)

Constructive developmental theory is offered as a useful framework from which to encourage greater college student ownership of the educational planning process and to inform the direction and content of advising. Methods of assessing and enhancing development are suggested, and two cases that depict advising from this perspective are presented.…

Argues the need for schools to provide learning environments, educational practices, and encouragement to enhance academic achievement in each student within the system. New teacher roles are examined, and some examples are provided of successful efforts in schools that effectively concentrate on the individual student's academic success. (GLR)

The literature seminar format meets the needs of gifted students for intellectual challenges, complex curricular experiences, creative research and writing activities, and stimulating interactions. Three seminars conducted in the English curriculum at a special school for gifted students are described: "Dickens and the Industrial…

As part of the first phase of a longitudinal study, interviews were conducted with nine high school seniors who had demonstrated high creative productivity while participating in an elementary Talented and Gifted program. Commonly experienced were a desire for creative outlets in high school, difficult junior high years, and constancy of…

This retrospective look at 14 years of working with gifted adolescents elaborates on 4 prominent and prevalent issues: those who are often socially isolated from their peers; fear for their future and the world's future at a higher level than would be expected for their age; get bored in typical academic settings; and seek "existential relief"…

A former intern at Merrowvista Education Center reflects on her experiences learning to facilitate adventure programs, and discusses the value of interning at a residential center, changes in her attitudes as her skills developed, and the importance of reflection for staff as well as participants. (SV)

Reports a study that examined the characteristics that enable graduate sport management programs to achieve their objectives. Surveys of sport management educators found they agreed on 11 characteristics that indicated a sport management program's effectiveness. Respondents believed an effective program should produce sport managers, not…

Argues that Mina Shaughnessy's view of language as a politically innocent vehicle of meaning overlooks basic writers' need to confront the dissonance they experience between academic and other discourses. Suggests educators need to abandon the limitations of the essentialist view of language informing their pedagogy. (KEH)

Traces the relationship between human development and education through various philosophies. Explores differences in early forms of understanding, the goals of education, and the kinds of knowledge that specific fields require. Encourages a form of apprenticeship to provide students with a model for bridging the gap between scholastic and…

This article describes several books published by Free Spirit Publishing which help gifted students to understand their giftedness. The books deal with such issues as parental pressure, teasing of peers, perfectionism, stress, underachievement, personal autonomy, self-esteem, lying, and strategies for success in school. (JDD)