Describes evaluation activities after a seven-week unit on botany and natural communities in a fifth-grade class. The six tasks designed for multiple learning styles include writing a topical essay, drawing and labeling plant parts, clinical interviews, group discussion, concept mapping, and evaluating questions. (PR)

A survey of 162 adult members of the general public evaluated their attitudes toward people with disabilities. Among results was that the number of movies viewed about people with disabilities was positively associated with number of discussions and with positive attitudes toward people with disabilities. Gender was also significantly related to…

This paper calls for development of powerful instructional strategies that will enable teachers to educate students with wide-ranging abilities and backgrounds in integrated settings. Three peer-mediated instructional procedures that have been used with at-risk students are described: classwide peer tutoring, classwide student tutoring teams, and…

The 15-year history of research and application in cooperative learning in primary and middle schools in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel is described. A specific application is discussed of some cooperative learning structures in a postsecondary foreign language classroom. (12 references) (Author/LB)

Describes how a teacher used a reading strategy called "Intuitive Reading" to dramatically improve the reading skills of four learning-disabled high school students. (PRA)

Discussion of elements in the learning process focuses on an analytical framework to assist in the selection of educational technology that will support the learning process. Highlights include a comparison of print, video, computer-based tutorial, and teacher-student discussion and the use of multimedia in the Open University (United Kingdom).…

Describes a social studies teacher's efforts to help junior high students deal with perceived problems of sexual harassment in the classroom. With a social worker's assistance, students learned to recognize personal and gender power issues and to distinguish between flirtatious behavior and genuine harassment (MLH)

Describes an effective literature circle program from Australia that widens secondary school students' horizons. Suggests that they bond together as a community of readers as they develop new reading strategies and a positive attitude about reading. (SR)

Describes literature discussion groups and the role of talk in them. Examines the stories of three teachers who ran into roadblocks in literature discussion groups and turned their roadblocks into questions and inquiries. Discusses the important insights they discovered about talk, literacy, students, and themselves as they inquired. (SR)

Explores power relationships between teacher and participants in an inservice course as the tutor attempts to shift responsibility away from a teacher and toward the learners. Sees episodes of silence during the reflective discussions as particularly significant in the dynamic and changing awareness. Uses fictional writing to express feelings,…

Describes questioning methods trainers can use to uncover training needs (interviews, surveys, test questions, program evaluations). Illustrates the use of questions at the beginning, middle, and end of training sessions. (SK)

Discusses a system of training inservice mathematics teachers based on the psychoanalytic theories of the Balint group. Illustrates this approach through the analysis of material taken from a recorded session concerning one particular teacher. (MDH)

Although traditional surveys are a valuable tool for college institutional researchers and others gathering data to support quality improvement programs, focus groups offer another technique for understanding university community members' needs and opinions by probing areas of special interest. University of Miami (Florida) experience illustrates…

Describes a college-level, mixed-gender date rape workshop provided to over 1,400 students. The workshop included student discussion. Evaluations indicated students were positive about the experience. Very few felt uncomfortable discussing date rape in mixed groups, and nearly all agreed that date rape was a topic worthy of discussion. (SM)

Seeks to determine which aspects of managerial communication and decision-making are amenable to technological support. Finds groups using computer-mediated, electronic communication generated more unique and high-quality ideas (over a fixed time period) than groups using verbal communication. (NH)