This booklet provides the program and abstracts of presentations given at the Fourth Canadian-American Conference on the First-Year Experience. It includes a list of the goals of the conference, sponsoring institutions, staff, and general information about the conference. The booklet then provides brief descriptions of the 51 sessions held over…

This monograph addresses the role of gifted education in total school improvement by describing three service delivery components (the Total Talent Portfolio, Curriculum Modification Techniques, and Enrichment Learning and Teaching) and several organizational components of the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM). The report describes how the SEM can…

This collection of 34 essays provides an overview of the debates and reforms under discussion in regard to undergraduate curriculum. Part 1 focuses on the purposes and objectives of undergraduate education, reviewing pivotal historical developments, changes in the curriculum due to social and historical forces, and traditional and innovative…

This paper presents a social reconstructionist model of supervision. The model connects schools and society, and considers the vital role teachers, students, staff, and others play in developing, designing, and implementing reforms in school and society. The model is based on the philosophy of social reconstructionism, which views schools as…

The Center for Technology in Education (CTE), a partnership between Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland state department of education, developed a model for teaching autistic students that integrates technology-based instructional and behavioral supports into existing curriculum. The goal is to promote student gains in communication, social…

This study tested the amount of value added to critical and communication skills by the university experience using a strategy that compared the skills of entering and graduating students at York University (Ontario). The study involved, first, identifying skills that might be improved over the course of a university education; second, developing…

This book is intended to teach students who study abroad how to record and study their cross-cultural observations, so that culture shock may move beyond the initial orientation program to become an integrated part of the study abroad curriculum. Its thesis is that writing is a tool for learning and self-discovery, that writing about everyday…

This final report describes activities of Project PARTnership, a 3-year demonstration program to develop the self-determination and self-advocacy skills of young people with disabilities through increased participation in the arts. Key program elements included: (1) development of a new course and adaptation of existing curricula to increase…

Student effort, the campus environment, and student age and full- or part-time status have significant effects on outcomes for university students. This study employed the same three sets of independent variables to predict gains in general education and in personal and social development for community college students. The study analyzed data…

A longitudinal study described the language and literacy abilities of urban at-risk children at several points over a 3-year period; provided the children with small-group literature-based reading/language arts instruction; and compared these children's progress in literacy achievement to other similar groups. Participants in the study were…

Extension educators teach the same information to disadvantaged youth and their families as to any other audience, and those being helped are just as willing to learn. The difference is that families with limited resources have many barriers that slow the process of change to self-sufficiency. As extension educators plan and implement programs,…

The 10 editions of the newsletter provide a forum for the sharing of research findings, observations, instructional strategies, and opinions on subjects pertaining to college level teaching and college faculty. Multiple subjects are discussed in each issue and are often based on recent books. Among the topics covered and the issues in which they…

This final report describes a study which examined how new college students become aware of and involved in the academic and non-academic "learning communities" of the campus; specifically the report examined the social, academic and administrative mechanisms and processes through which students become involved in academic and social…

Little is known about how students become involved in the various dimensions of student change and development as they make the transition from work or high school to college. This paper describes the results of a series of focus-group interviews with 132 diverse, new students entering either a community college; a liberal arts college; an urban,…

This guide presents policies and procedures of the Student Support Services Program at Wichita State University (Kansas) that are designed to serve the special needs of limited-income and first-generation college students. Part 1, an overview of policy, includes the program's mission statement, a statement of principles, general guidelines…