Offers experience-based insights on building relationships of trust and respect with hard-to-reach youth. Describes a program, designed for 12- to 14-year olds on juvenile probation, which emphasizes love and respect. Argues for the futility of fixating on problem behaviors and the importance of providing youth a challenging and fun environment.…

Discusses issues in implementing and evaluating an interdisciplinary curriculum. An integrated approach is time-intensive and difficult to evaluate, and requires changing teacher practices and beliefs. (Contains seven references.) (LMI)

Review of claims for the effectiveness of the gentle teaching philosophy with people having severe problem behaviors and mental retardation finds that the methods were unsuccessful with seven of nine individuals. Although more research is needed, the review suggests that gentle teaching cannot be considered an ethically defensible treatment…

Three typical preschoolers were trained as peer tutors for three young children with autism. Tutors used incidental teaching to obtain verbal labels of preferred toys by children with autism. Adult supervision and assistance were faded systematically with resulting maintenance of increased reciprocal interactions. (Author/JDD)

This paper compares first-grade education projects in rural India and Pakistan that have attempted to shift from rote learning of texts to an active, experiential, child-centered approach to literacy learning. Examples of successful approaches and techniques, as well as implications for literacy programs in general, are discussed. (MDM)

"False beginners" are students who are ethnically Chinese but are not native speakers of Chinese, and their mixture in language classes with true beginners is problematic. Merits of an individualized teaching program in elementary Chinese for false beginners offered at Ohio State University is described. (JP)

PEECH (Programing for Early Education of Children with Handicaps) is a center-based program combining child-initiated and teacher-directed activities for children with mild to moderate disabilities, ages 3-5. Results of an evaluative study at the demonstration site and replication sites revealed participants' improvement in receptive and…

Describes how a journalism adviser with 17 years of teaching experience with students from middle- to upper-middle-class neighborhoods turned around a journalism program in a predominantly Hispanic high school. (RS)

Highlights instructional practices in four California newcomer schools designed to address newly arrived immigrant students' instructional needs. Observations of the schools indicated effective instructional practices for that student population were not being used in most of the newcomer classrooms, despite a strong commitment to support and…

A review of 17 studies on computer assisted instruction (CAI) in reading interventions for students with learning disabilities found most CAI programs employed drill and practice procedures, followed by strategy instruction, then simulation. The focus was split between word recognition and reading comprehension, followed by language/vocabulary,…

Describes a course that was designed to provide instruction in the methods and procedures that can be utilized to enhance student comprehension of textbooks and other printed materials that are encountered in a content area. Discusses instructor concerns, the support system, planning, course assignments, students, instructor workload, and course…

This commentary reviews previous articles that discuss major educational approaches for young children with autism, including applied behavior analysis, pivotal response training, and the developmental, individual-difference, relationship-based model. It emphasizes the need for research on which children do better with which particular…

Distance education is a well-established medium for training specialist teachers of children with visual impairments at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. This article describes the background and organization of the program, analyzes its outcomes, and considers the challenges the program will face in the future. (Contains four…

Graduate programs in education face the challenge of preparing teachers and specialists in education to work with English Language Learners (ELLs). Programs must be culturally responsive, while at the same time respecting state and federal standards for scientifically based practice according to best evidence. The focus of the present study is a…

Over several decades the major thrust in the school sector of countries across the world has been the search for ways in which teachers can be convinced that ICT should be an integral part of their teaching strategy. Various approaches have been tried including the dissemination of good practice and the investment in infrastructure and equipment.…