The role of contemplative practice in adult education has a long history if one includes traditional monastic education in Asia and the West. Its use in American higher education is, however, more recent and more limited. Nonetheless, on the basis of evidence from surveys and conferences, a significant community of teachers exists at all levels of…

For many students, grammar represents a baffling set of capricious rules wielded by "sadistic" English teachers for the sole purpose of making their lives miserable. To combat this misconception and to dispel the mystery and empower students with the ability to use the conventions of standard written English, a series of student…

The pressure to get students to write effectively and to think critically, and the role that literature plays in this task, is a recurring issue in the history of English instruction. In part, this debate stems from contradictory philosophies of the goals of an introductory writing class held by both writing program administrators and composition…

The English Department and the composition class are mired in the trappings of Romanticism. Romanticism ingratiates itself, mostly in infatuation with the writing process, but with some other fetishes as well. The "whitecentric" character of that Romanticism imbues instruction; it is not just innocuous and "old hat," but really damaging. Students…

Intended for teachers, reading specialists, administrators, students in teacher education programs, and parents, this book contains descriptions of strategies for fostering emergent literacy and steps for carrying them out. An underlying theme is the merging of the art and the science of teaching. Chapters in the book begin with questions to focus…

These five issues of the serial "Communicator" published during 1993 discuss various aspects of gifted education, focusing, respectively, on mathematics and science, middle school gifted, parenting the gifted, talent development, and high school gifted. Articles include: "Our Most Important Investment for the Future: The Education of Our Youth"…

Family stories, told and retold, become important vehicles in shaping the lives of family members. Knowing and understanding family narratives can aid students in understanding their families' histories, communication patterns, and meanings. The stories are a cohesive element for holding the family together, and may also capture the essence of the…

The philosophy of the cluster system operating at Oakton Community College (OCC) is described in this paper along with changes that have occurred in the system over the past few years. Part I describes the social, political, and educational environment in which the philosophy of the cluster system was forged. Additionally, this section identifies…

Efforts in higher education to use students as teachers (peer teaching), thus providing them with the benefits traditionally enjoyed by professors are described. Four sections focus on the following: (1) peer teaching and the psychological basis for its benefits (cognitive level, affective level, and peer learning); (2) types of peer teaching used…

An innovative teaching method used in a theories of personality class at Eastern New Mexico University is described. The objectives of this method were to foster growth in creativity among students by involving them in creative activities or experiential sessions and to test for improvement in student creativity scores. The following procedure was…

AN AID TO THE CLASSROOM TEACHER IN THE TEACHING OF HUMAN RELATIONS IS PRESENTED. SOCIODRAMA, OR ROLE-PLAYING, IS PRIMARILY USEFUL IN SOLVING PROBLEMS INVOLVING RELATIONSHIPS AMONG TWO OR MORE PERSONS. IT THEREFORE PROVIDES A VALUABLE LEARNING EXPERIENCE IN SCHOOLS WHICH ARE CONCERNED WITH THE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF BOYS AND GIRLS, WITH MORAL AND…

INVOLVING NINE SCHOOL SYSTEMS, THE PROJECT WAS TO PROVIDE STUDENTS WITH EXPERIENCES THAT REFLECTED A VALID INTERPRETATION OF GOOD MATHEMATICAL THINKING, TO MAKE EXTENSIVE DATA COLLECTIONS TO DOCUMENT THE NATURE OF THE EXPERIENCES, TO ACHIEVE THE MOST EFFECTIVE POSSIBLE QUALITY CONTROL IN ASSURING THE RELEVANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS OF THE EXPERIENCES,…

In this paper, an integrated view is presented of the direction that education must take if it is to become the creative, effective, joyful enterprise that many educators long for. Educational institutions are not humane because they fail to deal with the human condition in all its variety and meaning. They continue to affirm the intellectual part…

To actively and pleasurably involve children in a wide variety of literature, a teacher can follow a "World's Fair model" to broaden each child's language ability while guiding him through the genres. The child, encouraged to develop an "allocentric" mode of perception, extends himself as he might at a fair to take in new objects and information…

According to Wellesley A. Foshay, in order to achieve a humane curriculum subject matter and each experience must be responsive to the human condition in the context of all pedagogical intentions of the teacher. Six classes of experience--intellectual, emotional, social, physical, aesthetic, and spiritual--make up the human existence. Teachers may…