Suggests the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) as an alternative secondary program for gifted youth. After tracing the history of the IB program, comparing the IB program to other programs, and outlining the curriculum and requirements, the article shows how the IB meets the needs of gifted students. (Author/CR)

Presents a model that can assess the relative quality of distance education courses by moving the emphasis from student-level data to course-based data. Reports data comparing online and traditional higher education courses covering nine disciplines and explores the usefulness of this framework for identifying discipline-related differences in…

Discusses and describes incrementally organized instructional strategies for teaching students of French how to hypothesize. The method uses the naturally occurring phenomenon in "La Vie Conjugale," a French short story by Michelle Maurois. Instructional activities designed to help students master this function are described. (MSE)

Retrograde writing, the technique of telling events in a narrative passage in reverse order while maintaining a coherent progression of thought, is a stylistic exercise that can make foreign language writing instruction more interesting and effective. (MSE)

One teacher uses Robert Sabatier's novels in combination with Laurence Wylie's account of life in a French village to help students gain an awareness of French cultural values and mentality that surpasses an inventory of cultural traits, and to help the students reconsider their own cultural biases. (MSE)

Examines the differences between explicit and implicit methods of teaching grammar in a university's advanced French conversation classes. Students taught explicitly performed better overall (in writing and orally) than students who were exposed to an implicit presentation of the same grammar content. (CB)

A study of factors affecting high school students' language study persistence indicated that students continuing foreign language study were motivated by practical, utilitarian reasons, while students discontinuing language study cited course difficulty and preferences for other courses as reasons for withdrawal. (Author/CB)

Evaluates 1991 report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate (HMI) on advanced level work in business education and economics for levels 16-19 in United Kingdom. Discusses areas of improvement and specific examples of good practice identified by HMI. Reports HMI's desire for better, more formalized departmental organization and the need for more in-service…

Presented are two teaching methods: an algorithm for determining area; and identifying cubic polynomials with three integral zeros, integral maximum and minimum points, and integral inflection points at the advanced placement calculus level. Examples for each are given. (CW)

Describes an advanced conversational Spanish language course based on community experiences, multicultural education, and collaborative research taught at the University of Santa Clara in California. The class combined authentic materials with real-life experiences. (Author/VWL)

Using a framework based on conversation analysis (Auer, 1984, 1995, 1998), this article presents an analysis of learner code-switching between L1 and L2 in an advanced foreign language (FL) classroom. It was found that students code-switch not only as a fallback method when their knowledge of the L2 fails them, or for other participant-related…

Recent international education reports have highlighted some of the progress (as well as remaining disparity) in gendered education enrollment rates. But, the problem of gender segregation is still a very real issue even in some nations where girls are enrolled at levels on par with boys. Separate classes, curricula, and in many countries separate…

This article examines the social nature of teachers' conceptions by showing how teachers frame the "mismatch" of students' perceived abilities and the intended school curriculum through conversational category systems. This study compares the conversations of 2 groups of high school mathematics teachers addressing the Mismatch Problem…

This article features the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies (Ford PAS) program that helps students gain knowledge about real-life business issues. Ford PAS is an educational program that combines college-prep academics with the critical 21st century skills students will need to succeed in college and in the workplace. The Ford PAS program uses…

Objective: This study examines the role of an introductory course in cognitive therapy and the relative importance of trainees' characteristics in the selection process for an advanced course in cognitive therapy. Method: The authors assessed the files of all trainees who completed one academic year introductory course in cognitive therapy over…