Standards can be used as tools for standardization or customization. To accelerate learning for all students, standards must reject the dominant standardization (sorting) approach to education. Standards should represent attainment levels, be divorced from timetables and age levels, apply also to nonacademic areas, allow choice within limits, and…

Presents three activities for teaching spelling to students in grades 2-6 using individualized weekly spelling lists made up of developmentally appropriate words. (SM)

Considers the use of self-paced tutorials on the Internet to teach library users how to search the Internet. Discusses the present lack of an adequate tutorial, recommends the use of animated graphics, and suggests the need for good tutorials on the Internet that foster systematic learning. (LRW)

Coaching in early childhood is an interactive process to promote a parent's or other care provider's ability to support a child's participation in everyday experiences and interactions with family members and peers across settings. This article provides guidelines for early childhood professionals serving young children with disabilities and their…

Discusses how to use technology to enhance literacy skills. Highlights include defining literacy, including information literacy; research to support reading and writing instruction; literacy software; thinking skills; organizational strategies for writing and reading; how technology can individualize literacy instruction; and a new genre of…

Informal individual assessment gives teachers a broader and more robust means of determining whether a primary grade student has a firm grasp on fundamental concepts. Factors, such as students' experience, personality, interests, and learning styles shape their insights and development. Offers suggestions for teachers. (MLF)

A survey of 176 correctional educators serving incarcerated juveniles with and without disabilities indicated that most provide opportunities for students to earn their General Educational Development (GED) certificates and develop vocational skills. Individualized instruction was the predominant approach for both groups of students. (Contains 39…

Explores central features of implementing the Dalton Plan, a system of individualized instruction, in English schools. Provides historical information on Helen Parkhurst, the creator of the Dalton Plan. Explores the validity of claims that the Dalton Plan provided short-term educational and long-term social effects. (CMK)

Discusses the knowledge-on-demand (KOD) paradigm as it emerges from the needs of a knowledge-based society. Presents basic requirements for on-demand learning; discusses front-end users, such as learners, and back-end users, such as publishers and service providers; defines typical user tasks; and outlines work towards a technical solution to…

A group of eight gifted junior high students was presented programed units of psychology instruction based on Fred Keller's model of personalized instruction. Compared to a control group which received traditional lecture-format instruction, subjects completed the material in less time and scored significantly higher on the final test. (Author/JDD)

Replies of 35 physicians practicing in rural Ontario detailed their learning needs for the Personal Continuing Education Plan. Desired structured learning topics emphasized updates on acute aspects of diseases in course format. Preferences for self-learning were for reprints rather than abstracts; 23 percent desired computer-assisted instruction.…

This article examines task sheets and their use in the physical education curriculum. Task sheets allow students to progress at their own rate. They can be used to teach and evaluate closed skills and to encourage problem solving and discovery. Two examples of task sheets are included. (IAH)

The "Take A Trip" system is a computerized system used to: (1) design, store, and share lessons which encourage higher order thinking; (2) construct individual/small group plans; and (3) produce instructional materials. The system provides sample course files, help files on curriculum design, and a personalized learning plan template.…

Long-term instructional plans written by 22 resource room teachers for 61 mildly handicapped elementary students indicated that students spend about half their resource room time reading aloud to the teacher (one-to-one) and about one-third of the time working independently. Little instruction unique to individual students is offered. Implications…

A photographic essay illustrates a composite school day for two teachers from Alabama and the gifted/talented students to whom they provide special academic tutoring during the weeks that the children rehearse and perform in productions in New York City. (JDD)