A four-week summer project for 100 rural tenth graders in the University of Alabama's Biomedical Sciences Preparation Program (BioPrep) enabled students to acquire and apply social sciences research skills. The students investigated drinking water quality in three rural Alabama counties by interviewing local officials, health workers, and…

A study compared the effects of a field-based methods course on industrial education (IE) preservice teachers with the effects of a campus-based IE methods course on similar students. Two convenience sample groups were used: eight students enrolled in the IE methods course taught on campus and seven students enrolled in the field-based IE methods…

A Native American literature professor's account of college students' cross-cultural field experience on two Indian reservations near the Grand Canyon shows how the experience enhanced student understanding of the Native American belief in the people and land as one, storytelling and a sense of the sacred, and the history and impact of…

While field placement in human services programs is an extremely important practical phase of training, it has generally not been standardized, and thus can be difficult to assess. A model program and assessment format developed by Hudson County Community College (HCCC), in Jersey City, New Jersey, however, provides a possible framework for…

This document describes a project that developed this K-12 generic Work Experience Handbook to help Wisconsin high schools implement work experience programs. The first 13 pages describe the purpose and objectives of the project and the need for the handbook; the methods used to develop it, including the use of steering and work committees and…

The views of faculty members from postsecondary institutions in California, Utah, and Nevada regarding the impact of field-based courses in the humanities and social sciences were surveyed. The 68 respondents were interviewed regarding the perceived impact of the course on the instructor, the institution, the community, and students. The faculty…

The assessment of secondary school students' learning which results from experienced-based public school programs is associated with three types of problems: (1) psychological--educational practitioners may fear the evaluation process; (2) conceptual--including unclear requirements for student outcomes, lack of appropriate strategies for achieving…

The objective of this one-year program is to help students develop competencies to exert influence in public affairs. Seven competencies, such as communication and social skills, are considered fundamental to an education in citizenship and civic responsibility. The program could be initiated at either the 11th or 12th grade, and includes the…

A junior high school geography class in La Palma, California, offers extensive field trip experiences to teach students methods of historical-geographical research. Resulting from a course that develops research methods in social studies, a club was formed that provides overnight excursions in various field activities. The club is open to 9th and…

Applications of academic values in productive service activities are exemplified by public service internships in Georgia and policy research in Texas. Described are Jimmy Carter's Georgia Intern Program and the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. (Editor/LBH)

It is expected that the demand for gerontological social workers will increase as the elderly population continues to grow. However, many practitioners enter the aging field with little or no formal training. Successful gerontological social work practice requires workers to be knowledgeable and technically competent. Fieldwork plays a critical…

The essence of cross-cultural learning and how it can be effectively incorporated into an academic program are explored. A design for cross-cultural learning is proposed that can be applied anywhere in the educational process from high school through professional training. It is based on the experiences of the authors in experimental programs in…

This handbook provides Rural Clinical Nurse Placement Program (RCNP) preceptors with a program overview and practical suggestions to apply during student placement. An introductory section describes how the program addresses the maldistribution of nurses by raising awareness about the rural experience, adding a needed perspective to the urban bias…

The purpose of this longitudinal qualitative inquiry was to describe the socially constructed, negotiated, and contextual nature of an early field placement in an urban elementary school. The objectives were to document subtle changes over time in preservice teachers' reading/language arts subject matter knowledge and teaching beliefs and…

This report reviews activities of a research project having the following objectives: identify selected personal characteristics of Iowa vocational agriculture students; determine how important students thought their vocational agriculture supervised occupation experience (SOE) was in developing occupational abilities; and determine how important…