Examines questions on establishing a valid education for impoverished black students and offers suggestions to assist in correcting this group's disenchantment with the public schools. Questions concern teacher education for poor black students, how teachers can encourage poor black students to learn, and how teachers can identify gifted minority…

Provides four sample activities and illustrations to develop students' perceptual skills. Seeks to help teach students that (1) understanding art takes time and effort; (2) personal reactions are important; (3) understanding the culture in which artworks are created is useful; and (4) many different approaches are available for understanding art.…

The effects of a summer program on self-concept scores of 139 gifted students in grades 4 to 8 were examined. Results indicated that regular and special program students did not differ significantly in self-concept; existing gender differences in self-concept were attenuated upon program completion; and self-concept was unrelated to grade.…

The Javits 7+ Gifted and Talented Program (Community School District 18, Brooklyn, New York) was designed to provide an opportunity for socioeconomically disadvantaged children to receive intensive school-based activities that would prepare them for gifted education programs. Teachers assessed students using Howard Gardner's concept of multiple…

Five questions about the academic, psychological, and socialization effects on gifted and talented learners of grouping for enrichment, of cooperative grouping for regular instruction, and of grouping for acceleration are addressed. Analysis of 13 research syntheses supports sustained periods of instruction in like-ability groups for gifted and…

Describes preservice and in-service teacher education programs by the Collaboration for the Improvement of Teacher Education (CITE) to develop reflective thinking in students, focusing on the Framework for Reflective Pedagogical Thinking, a coding scheme developed by CITE to analyze students' reflective thinking about curriculum, methods, and…

Suggests ways for teachers to help elementary school children connect with history by enhancing their natural interest in stories. The approaches, adaptable to any age and topic, include using children's literature, acting, and storytelling. Stories of the past provide a base upon which children build larger ideas about history. (SM)

Presents results of an experiment enabling students to develop their own cognitive and metacognitive strategies to promote autonomous learning in mathematical problem solving, knowledge acquisition, and written composition. Explains that students dealt with models of teachers' and classmates' cognitive performances and monitored their own…

Discusses what teachers should do when older elementary students lie. Guidelines for handling the situation are presented along with suggestions for making children feel good about telling the truth. Three activities for encouraging truthfulness in the classroom are suggested. (SM)

Substantive and methodological problems encountered in a five-year synthesis of research on college impact are discussed, including general issues in higher education research and scholarship, relevance of assessments of student change, unnoticed indirect effects of college experience, inattention to individual differences, validity of common…

Four predictive models offering an ecocultural perspective on the educational and personal-social development of children at risk for learning disabilities and other learning problems are proposed: main effect, additive, multiplicative, and compensatory. Preliminary results favor the compensatory and additive models. Both risk and protective…

Follow-up at the end of high school of 23 students identified as gifted in the second grade found that 87% had demonstrated average to high levels of accomplishment, that all intended to earn a college degree and pursue a career, and that far more females than males considered marriage in describing personal goals. (DB)

A study used the Coursework Cluster Analysis Model to assess comparability of community college and lower-division courses taken by 76 transfer students and 168 "native" students at Southern University (Louisiana). Results indicate that the different student abilities and backgrounds and different institutions produced different kinds of…

Reviews aspects of foreign language instruction (FLI) often cited as incompatible with the goals of general education. Argues for inclusion of FLI at the center of general education, describing the critical linguistic skills and cultural learning gained through language study. Offers six suggestions for restoring FLI to the liberal education…

A study investigated the attitudes of 35 graduate nursing students toward the self-directed learning incorporated into a problem-based curriculum at an Australian university. Results show substantial and highly significant increases in student perceptions of themselves as self-directed learners and in perceptions of the value of self-directed…