Investigates the comparative effectiveness of two teaching strategies, large-group and individual/small group singing activities, on kindergartners' developmental music aptitude. Examines improvements in children's singing and musical aptitude in order to ascertain length of time and types of instruction necessary to affect improvement. (MJP)

Over 200 pharmacy students in a University of Georgia class on the American health care system engaged in debates on health care issues, discussed newspaper articles, conducted client home visits, analyzed county health statistics, and completed exercises on pharmacists' compensation and health care planning. Most participating students responded…

Describes an observational study conducted to determine critical areas of school effectiveness. Notes that quality middle-level education has the components of educational empowerment and involvement and teacher techniques that focus on developmentally appropriate strategies, block scheduling rather than one-period scheduling, and ability grouping…

Details how to begin designing, implementing, and evaluating educational media in the geography classroom. Describes an approach to educational multimedia design focused on a coherent set of multimedia design standards informed by an understanding of evaluation functions. Includes illustrations from multimedia instructional screens. (MJP)

Recounts the case of a learning disabled sixth grader mainstreamed into a social studies class. Describes a variety of instructional strategies and activities that capitalize on the student's strengths to facilitate learning. These include critical thinking maps, semantic maps, simulations, and kinesthetic learning. (MJP)

Provides specific and useful guidelines for utilizing learning styles to increase instructional effectiveness during choral rehearsal. Broadly identifies students as either "analytical" (inductive reasoning) or "global" (deductive reasoning). Includes a chart containing specific rehearsal activities designed to interest each group. (MJP)

Reviews a 1992 study of California's bilingual education program, entitled "Meeting the Challenge of Diversity: An Evaluation of Programs for Pupils with Limited English Proficiency," and argues that the report too easily attributes the disappointing outcomes of limited-English-proficient students to lack of sufficient resources rather…

Maintains that much of the high school curriculum, particularly in social studies, contains innumerable facts that have no use except to pass school tests. Reviews research on effective instruction as applied to social studies. Includes 17 characteristics of highly engaging social studies teaching and learning. (ACM)

Reports on a study of the impact of nursery school/preschool education on primary school readiness and achievement of 1,800 English and Welsh children. Finds significant positive effects in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. Discusses the effects of nursery school versus playgroup experience and the role of socioeconomic status. (CFR)

Thirty sixth graders in accelerated mathematics classes were taught in cooperative-learning teams for 12 weeks. Students appeared to benefit academically, personally, and socially from the cooperative-learning strategies used to teach mathematics, cooperative-learning skills, effective communications, internal locus of control, and personal…

Describes inservice teaching seminars in Sierra Leone, West Africa. These seminars were designed to equip heads of departments with the ability to manage themselves and their departments effectively and give them guidelines on how to conduct in-school staff training. The seminars have produced a better working atmosphere in the schools. (11…

Three cases of use of collaborative learning techniques in the college classroom are described: a developmental mathematics course, a graduate-level writing project, and college science instruction. Each case includes description of specific class activities and assignments, results, and teacher concerns and comments. (MSE)

Through a combination of workshops and distance education, rural Australian middle-school teachers learned outcome-based programming, teaching, and assessment designed to improve outcomes of students experiencing educational disadvantage related to rural isolation, poverty, or aboriginality. Workplace learning, supported by in-school collegial…

Curriculum reform in higher education is focusing on enhancement of undergraduate education in a variety of ways, including multicultural education, specialized courses for freshmen and seniors, improved calculus instruction, and development of thinking and writing skills. Strengthened general education requirements are a major target in many…

This paper discusses six theoretical assumptions about effective instructional practices for culturally and linguistically diverse learners; literature on African-American cultural practices, interests, and cognitive styles; attitudes, perceptions, and instructional practices of effective teachers of African-American students with disabilities;…