To help adults develop an awareness of midlife issues, to encourage personal acceptance of the transition, and to introduce appropriate coping skills, a speech communication course was designed that relied on river trip activities to develop insights about this passage. The vehicle for the seminar was a four-day raft trip down the Green River,…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT A meta-analysis of 80 third-party evaluations (all that were conducted) of Experience-Based Career Education programs shows that in the large majority of programs: (1) EBCE students made large gains not only in career skills and life attitudes but also in academic skills; (2) EBCE students gained…

An exploration was made on how concepts and procedures relating to professional assessment and development can be integrated into preservice teacher education. A proposal for achieving the development goal of enhancement of each person's capacity for self-directed study and professional growth includes: (1) establishing support teams for teacher…

This newsletter contains 14 items on cooperative learning and outdoor education, with a particular focus on environmental education and ecology. "Cooperative Teaching/Learning Strategies and Objectives in Outdoor/Environmental Education" by Clifford E. Knapp is about cooperative teaching and learning strategies in outdoor education and…

This manual contains a collection of approaches and activities for nature specialists at residential or day camps. It is organized so that the novice may use it to maximize the effectiveness of a camp program. The book is full of descriptions of various field experiments in which children can participate. Comments in section 1, "Getting Started,"…

This materials packet contains information on teaching about the electoral process and the elections of 1988, and on participation in a mock election for students whose schools would take part in the 1988 North Carolina Mock Election. Suggestions for teachers' preparations are given, including a classroom skit and a mock candidates' election…

Written by students for students, the purpose of the book, one of four components of the Model UN Survival kit, is to help prepare secondary and college student delegates for participation in Model United Nations (UN) Conferences. Model UN programs help students discover the difficulties of world political processes and understand other nations…

The reviews of articles contained in this issue have been grouped into those dealing with research related to cognitive development and to instruction. In addition, seven science education researchers have provided responses to critiques of their published research. Included are: (1) an analysis of an article designed to persuade researchers to…

This paper examines how teachers develop and modify professional knowledge in response to experience and to new research knowledge. A discussion is presented on the interaction of propositional knowledge (the basic medium of classroom and research knowledge) and practical knowledge (the observable competence apparent in successful professional…

Most children become excited about science because they can do something and because they can watch the results. These are some of the answers most elementary school students tell you when they are asked about science class. It has been substantiated by decades of research that experiential experiences are exciting and remembered, visual and…

This practicum was designed to increase and expand the use of an environmental education center available in the Bladen Lakes State Forest in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. The immediate goal was to provide teachers with a new awareness of the offerings and availability of the site to increase the likelihood of participation with students. The…

This staff development program was directed toward the implementation of a new, hands-on elementary science program. The primary focus was three-fold: (1) to train teachers to implement a new program; (2) to increase the time devoted to science instruction; and (3) to provide teachers with additional science content background. This approach…

Acknowledging a recent increased interest in research about self-directed learning, this report analyzes and discusses two different forms of education: self-directed learning and distance education. Here, self-directed learning is identical with autodidactic learning, a form of education that cannot be included in organized adult education; the…

A functional paradigm was used as a means of interpreting why teachers and classrooms function as they do. An assessment of the nature and sources of the functional paradigms of high school biology teachers was the major consideration of this study. A population of 28 experienced high school biology teachers recognized for exemplary teaching…

Some researchers have argued that it is important to match teaching styles with students' learning styles, although a relatively small amount of research has been done on learning styles in science. This study focused on the differences between male and female secondary school chemistry students in an effort to determine the relationship of gender…