Describes a beginning conducting course at the University of Kansas that utilizes self-instruction through the use of video programing. The course includes 12 videotaped modules presented weekly, providing students with a visual model to review their performance. Finds that students gain basic competency in terminology, transposition, and…

In the state of Victoria, Australia, a rigorous program to eradicate failure in early literacy is based on expectations of success for all students, detailed records of student needs and progress, extensive teacher training and ongoing support, individualized instruction and active intervention for students who are not making progress, and links…

Describes characteristics of mathematically gifted students and how teachers can identify, instruct, and assess such students through observation, conversation, classroom activities, and individual testing, using true mathematical problems geared for the specific student. Cross-curriculum indicators of talent, classroom structure, and…

Relates the origin of the Russian regional education program entitled the "Program for the Development of the System of Education of Novgorod Oblast 1996-2000" outlining the stages, content, and principles of the program's creation. Focuses on municipal educational institutions and individualization of instruction. (CMK)

This study compared Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for 108 elementary grade students with mild disabilities in either resource or inclusive settings. IEPs for resource students had more service minutes, more long-range goals, used more information sources, indicated better correspondence between IEP components and student ability level,…

Presents a paradigm for restructuring elementary education administration. Discusses the need for a goal-oriented system, a skills-oriented curriculum, activities and concepts that accommodate child development, flexible scheduling and staffing, and changing learning activities. Suggests that a computerized model of the learning process could be…

This article identifies problems in traditional spelling instruction for students with written language difficulties, notes remedial approaches, and considers adaptive approaches including the use of electronic spellcheckers. The use of personal student spelling dictionaries is recommended for both whole language and strategy language arts…

There is no contradiction between effective standards-based instruction and differentiation. Curriculum tells teachers what to teach; differentiation tells how. Teachers can challenge all learners by providing standards-based materials and tasks calling for varied difficulty levels, scaffolding, instructional styles, and learning times. (MLH)

Based on 5 years' experience, the Project Challenge coordinator for the Pittsford (New York) Central School District explains how to implement differentiated instruction. Teachers should find a buddy, align objectives, find out what students know, plan flexible grouping, encourage student responsibility, and provide choices. (MLH)

Individualized activity schedules were successfully used with a 4- year-old child with autism who attended an integrated public pre-school classroom. Graduated physical guidance and a system of most-to-least prompts were used during skill acquisition stages with teacher proximity and level of prompts being eventually faded. (Contains nine…

Seven young children with autism and eight with pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified were randomly assigned to intensive treatment or parent training. At follow-up, the intensive treatment groups outperformed the parent training group on measures of intelligence, visual-spatial skills, language, and academics, though not on…

Presents some easy ways to individualize instruction in the classroom. Examines the use of dialogue journals as modeled in "In The Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning" (Atwell, 1998) as a means of differentiating reading instruction for individual seventh-grade students. Examines how the teachers used the dialogue…

Examined whether students' motivational reaction toward self-study text could be influenced by the inclusion of additional instructional materials (nonprint media). Participants were 969 students enrolled in an independent study course. Results suggest that student motivation in print-based self-study courses can be improved by the inclusion of…

This article addresses curriculum development for students with severe, profound, and multiple learning difficulties in the context of British National Curriculum requirements. It suggests that practitioners have recognized the dangers of "complementary curricula" but are using the concept of "subjects as contexts of…

One of the more effective ways to convey the story of our origin and evolution is to present the entire chronicle in a multimedia format that allows today's tech-savvy students to browse at will, thereby extracting parts of the story at their own pace and comfort. This article describes an interactive CD-ROM (included in this issue of "The Science…