In a two-year program, general educators and gifted education specialists at 10 elementary schools collaborated to provide differentiated educational experiences to gifted learners. Results indicate the Catalyst Program was an effective delivery system for providing differentiated education to gifted learners and had positive spill-over effects…

Developed a "Fostering a Love of Nature Index" to provide "best practice" guidelines for planning, implementing, and evaluating environmental education programs for young children. Research used in developing this index was drawn from both the early-childhood education literature and the environmental education literature.…

Discusses the four aspects of Max Weber's argument against including advocacy in the political science classroom. Believes that Weber's critique is a useful starting point for considering the issue in relation to contemporary education. Describes two models, critical thinking and civic education, that present advocacy in the political science…

This introduction to a series of articles on the scaffolding metaphor in learning disabilities research introduces each article and raises two main concerns: the lack of careful delineation of how scaffolding becomes operational in research studies and constraints in the use of scaffolding arising from communication problems. (DB)

This critical analysis of the scaffolding metaphor for the field of learning disabilities first reviews the origins and early applications of the metaphor and criticisms of the metaphor raised by others. It proposes an enriched version of the metaphor which emphasizes the communicational dynamics and conceptual reorganization involved in…

A 1997 survey of students at the Open University of Hong Kong showed that distance learners strongly depend on face-to-face (F2F) tutorial support for their learning. A new pedagogical model is proposed which builds on existing lecture-cum-tutorial delivery. This system of lecturing followed by templated tutorials inspires student-student and…

Presents an overview of the Australian Science Teachers' Association/Monash Standards Project which aims to support the development of a national voluntary system to provide professional certification to teachers of science whose practice has attained high standards set by the profession. Discusses the place of this work within the wider context…

Presents an instructional model, using Kleist's story "Das Erdbeben in Chili" and Christa Wolf's novel Kei Ort. Nirgends" as a basis. The model clearly distinguishes itself from quantitative models and mediates solid literary knowledge through an inductive approach. Learning takes place in a multidimensional space that makes possible multiple…

Presents an approach for linking organizational goals with media selected to deliver training. Outlines three levels of organizational assessment: systemic, performance, and training. Describes the media analysis process that considers instructional and cost- and project-constraint factors for arriving at the most appropriate delivery media. (AEF)

Asserts that successful teaming requires training, practice, and support structures and that it often comes unaccompanied by training or instructions. Presents a conceptual model of the factors that affect team performance, and describes the three categories of the framework, their usefulness, and examples of pertinent studies within each…

This study analyzes four gifted education models and six middle school models to identify specific areas of commonality and/or conflict. Common and compatible areas are identified. Results of the study offer very positive implications for appropriately meeting the needs of all students, including gifted children, within the middle school context.…

Observes literacy instruction in five first-grade classrooms. Finds classrooms headed by most-effective-for-locale teachers were characterized by excellent classroom management based on positive reinforcement and cooperation; balanced teaching of skills, literature, and writing; scaffolding and matching of task demands to student competence;…

Difficulty managing behavior in the classroom is frequently cited as a source of frustration for teachers and a common reason why new teachers leave the profession (Ingersoll 2001, 2003). Concerted attention to issues of classroom management is important to the health of education; attention to these issues at the middle and secondary education…

A teaching model for distance learning (DL) requires a system (a technology) and process (a way of linking resources) that makes distance learning no different than learning in the traditional classroom. The process must support a design that provides for learning, ensures maximum transfer, and is student-centered. The process must provide a…

Even though much has been written about cooperative learning in recent years, busy high school teachers contending with heavy curricular and teaching demands might not know much about the instructional method. Equipped with only a partial understanding of cooperative learning, some teachers may view it as a series of forced artificial constructs…