Provides a series of guiding principles for schools and other groups for evaluating and designing character education curricula. These include a meaningful and challenging academic curriculum that respects all learners and helps them to succeed, moral leadership from both staff and students, and development of a caring community. (MJP)

Tracked one prekindergarten teacher's experience to determine whether a relationship exists between student outcomes and a teacher's ability to use sign language. Found enriching preschool curriculum with sign language improves hearing African American children's receptive English vocabulary and confirms research that simultaneously presenting…

Analyzes how Canadian immersion education has developed from its origins to the present in terms of a cycle guided by the interplay between theory and classroom practice of second- language acquisition. Johnson responds by questioning the extent to which bilingual education theory and practices are universal or context specific. (38 references)…

Drawing on 11 years' experience with a problem-based learning master's in business education program, educators at Ohio University identify critical issues in implementation of the approach, including definition of goals, elements of the curriculum development process, problem design and method of extracting learning, the teacher's role, skills…

Advocates the need for reading instruction to be a required class for all middle grade students in Indiana. Topics include decline of library usage, school organizational change, schedule changes and the shift to "language arts," time on task, questions for interviewing prospective reading teachers, a reading curriculum, useful…

Articulates some of the primary benefits derived from using specific cases to teach macroeconomics. Cases contain information, not only diverse and interesting, but relevant to the business environment where many graduates will be working. Specifically, they convey information about qualitative trade-offs and complex environments. (MJP)

Recommends integrating global education objectives in a low-key manner through the questions and examples that the teacher interjects into classroom discussions. Articulates four foci that can serve as entry points for global education in many discussions. These include moral issues, systems approach, and reflexive inquiry. (MJP)

Examines the efforts, in four European countries, to increase the professionalization of teacher training. France recently elevated the status of teachers to civil servants and strengthened certification procedures. Germany retains a high degree of academic excellence and professional training. England and Wales have increased local autonomy and…

Examines how democratization of schooling is being shaped in Latin America and how dangerous delusions and exclusions affect the treatment of gender in this process. Focuses on initiatives and development policies of international aid agencies, their research projects, and international conferences. Suggests that democratization requires a larger…

A study compared student learning in two sections of an introductory college biology course for nonmajors. Groups were taught in the traditional teacher-centered, lecture/laboratory format (n=86 students) and in a student-centered constructivist format (n=98). The latter group performed significantly better on the same tests, maintained a better…

Contends that traditional moral education's lack of critical perspective has resulted in its unwitting perpetuation of the status quo. Proposes adopting a critical postmodern approach addressing the fundamental interrelationship between language and power. Recommends sharing knowledge, power, and ideas between teachers and students. (MJP)

This article describes a train-the-trainers course that provided training in sound instructional strategies to 10 assistive technology specialists who work with people who are visually impaired. Topics included conducting assessments, writing training proposals, developing the curriculum, planning lessons, and analyzing learning styles. All…

Provides seven library media activities that are designed for use with specific curriculum units in art, health, reading and language arts, science, and social studies. Library media skills, objectives, grade levels, instructional roles, procedures, evaluations, and follow-up are described for each activity. (LRW)

Describes an experimental undergraduate seminar on the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The course takes a multidisciplinary approach, using case studies to draw together theoretical principles from library and information science, the philosophy and sociology of science, critical thinking and problem solving, and the…

Describes a two-year university/public school grant-funded collaborative research project designed to help teachers learn to use multimedia and telecommunications in the classroom and to develop culturally relevant curricula for students in a primarily Hispanic, lower income community. Goals were developed in four areas: collaborative design;…