A project in which teams of preservice teachers were grouped with teams of seventh grade students and worked cooperatively on a set of assignments is described. The plan, project, implementation, results, and summary are presented. (KR)

The development of scientific explorations in schools and a framework for their assessment within the context of Britain's Graded Assessment in Science Project (GASP) scheme is described. The criteria for assessing the planning, implementing, concluding, and evaluating of explorations are provided. (KR)

Twenty science experiments are presented. Topics include recombinant DNA, physiology, nucleophiles, reactivity series, molar volume of gases, spreadsheets in chemistry, hydrogen bonding, composite materials, radioactive decay, magnetism, speed, charged particles, compression waves, heat transfer, Ursa Major, balloons, current, and expansion of…

Describes a method for promoting student interest and involvement in an undergraduate marriage and family course. Supplements lectures with problem-solving sessions for small groups. Uses session outcomes to encourage critical evaluation by the class. Combines the traditional scholarly approach with an interactive personal involvement. (NL)

Needs identified by special education teachers and school administrators (n=76) in nine school districts concerning implementation of life-centered career education (LCCE) included increasing administrative commitment to LCCE, involving teachers in developing and delivering LCCE instruction, and increasing intraschool and interagency coordination…

A curriculum involving reduced lecture time, small-group tutorials, a commitment to problem-based learning (PBL), and a strong reliance on self-directed study, was implemented at Harvard Medical School in 1985. This study focuses on the attitudes of 14 faculty tutors who had never tutored in a PBL curriculum. (MLW)

High school mathematics project in which students interviewed guest speakers about the mathematics used in their jobs. Students wrote five real world problems based on the mathematics used by the person interviewed. The class worked through the problems and found that estimation was often a helpful strategy. (PDD)

Discusses two methods for developing and assessing fluid abilities. In the first method, students are asked to solve increasingly unfamiliar problems in a domain; and in the second, students are required to organize knowledge in new ways or view it from different perspectives. (SLD)

Examined cognitive processing and performance of 12 average seventh-grade students during cooperative problem solving. Factors that impeded performance included lack of an experiential framework, imposition of unrequired restrictions, lack of individual monitoring of cognitive activity, and unproductive beliefs. Factors that enhanced performance…

Describes the selection and implementation of an authentic assessment model for evaluating students' science laboratory knowledge and skills. Provides sample problems and a scoring form for the performance-based science laboratory test. (MDH)

Reports a case study in which a first-grade teacher's instructional decisions were affected by the pedagogical content knowledge concerning problem solving received during a four-week summer workshop on teacher's beliefs about teaching in conjunction with the teacher's beliefs that students can solve any problem they are given. (MDH)

Six experiments with 42 kindergartners, 190 first graders, and 15 second graders in Germany investigated why arithmetic word problems with an unknown reference set are more difficult for children than are problems with an unknown compare set. Lack of access to flexible language use makes these problems so difficult. (SLD)

Presents an analysis of the learning outcomes pertaining to one unit of the undergraduate television distance-education course, Information Technology, in the computer science program at University Laval (Quebec, Canada). Investigates the relative effects of television distance education versus tradition classroom teaching on learning…

Discussion of peer-based collaborative learning focuses on two related studies: a micro-structure comparative analysis of students' psycho-social behaviors in computer-based collaborative learning experiments conducted in face-to-face and distributed learning environments; and an examination of cognitive effects of peer-based collaborative…

By helping faculty collaborate to enrich their teaching abilities and by supporting them when faculty/student relationships occasionally fail, the department chair models leadership skills that faculty themselves can use. The skills of leadership correspond very closely to good teaching skills, and can be combined with the skills of principled…