A three-year national study of adult museum programs used a qualitative research approach and naturalistic inquiry and interviewed 508 museum program participants, 75 instructors, and 143 museum program planners in all types and sizes of museums, including art institutes, natural and cultural historical museums, science centers, historic houses,…

This paper begins by describing the changing needs in the education of today's information technology (IT) professional. It presents a theoretical framework for using an experiential learning approach in the context of professional education in IT and information management and describes an instructional model that augments the principles of…

Examines differences in democratic behavior of children of different gender and ethnicity attending traditional rural primary schools and those attending rural schools with experimental active learning programs. Shows children in active learning programs engage in more democratic behaviors. Relates this to small group activities. Notes this leads…

Describes an integrated curriculum approach to world history/language arts that employs student filmmaking as its primary instructional approach. Discusses how the production process allows teachers to assess students' content knowledge, writing skills, and research skills. Includes a list of "helpful hints," a model content outline, and…

Describes a current affairs program involving the examination of social issues in a Canadian elementary school. Discusses significant aspects of the program, including the debate format, the use of computers, and a partnership with a local cable television company. Includes an appendix of the debating/talk-show format used. (CFR)

Describes techniques for creating collaborative student-constructed hypertexts. Maintains that student goals include courseware development, promotion of critical thinking skills, and facilitating student-directed learning. Reports that students' reactions to the assignments were overwhelmingly positive. (CFR)

A large-enrollment, undergraduate cellular biology lecture course is described whose primary goal is to help students acquire skill in the interpretation of experimental data. The premise is that this kind of analytical reasoning is not intuitive for most people and, in the absence of hands-on laboratory experience, will not readily develop unless…

For four years middle-level students and science teachers have participated in a two-week summer workshop outreach project collaboratively designed and implemented by School of Medicine and Department of Education faculty. The project's goals included improving the attitude of student participants toward the study of science; increasing…

While most of the dialogue in education today is about accountability, standardized testing, and adequate yearly progress, the truth is that student success is deeply connected to the physical, emotional, and cognitive needs that they have at different ages. The best schools already know this and follow practices that are academically engaging and…

Fourth-grade students (83% of whom were identified as "at risk") in an inner-city school in the southeastern United States participated in a hands-on, interdisciplinary unit about the environment for 2 weeks. Lessons covered a wide range of environmental issues such as pollution, rainforest devastation, recycling, and Earth appreciation.…

This Master's degree project developed a program for decreasing disruptive student behavior in order to increase the amount of on-task time in the classroom. Types and occurrences of disruptive behavior were documented over a 6-week period in two classrooms at each of two junior high schools (grades 6-8) in Illinois. Analysis of the data revealed…

This study examined interaction and communication patterns among students (n=9) and with the instructor in a graduate course offered at a distance using the FirstClass computer conferencing (CC) software. Specifically, the following questions were addressed: (1) What are similarities and differences in interaction and collaboration between CC and…

This paper outlines hurdles to using the World Wide Web for learning, specifically in a collaborative knowledge-construction environment. Theoretical solutions based directly on existing Web environments, as well as on research and system prototypes in the areas of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and ITS authoring systems, are suggested. Topics…

In this paper, pilot sessions in Rwanda and Nepal are analysed to evaluate the therapeutic benefit of active science for traumatised child refugees. The nature of the activities, choice of tools, organisation of the sessions, group size, and the role of the educators are investigated. Despite the lack of quantitative assessment, practical…

This paper presents background information on "why" some students may not be responsive to the traditional lecture/discussion classroom format. It offers a model, based on a "high-tech," state-of-the-art classroom facility, for revitalizing lectures. The author recounts her own classroom experiences as she attempted to integrate technology into…