What are colleges for? What are they supposed to do? Are educators teaching their students how to grub for grades or how to learn in deep lasting ways? These are just some of the questions that the author attempts to explore in this article. An unbiased observer, looking at any organization, would look to its core processes, what its members do,…

A multiyear effort to understand and improve the practice of learning communities across North America has revealed encouraging trends and areas in which work should continue. The authors asked fifty-six educators involved in the work to write and talk about the state of learning communities. The authors wanted to learn how learning community…

Research into the critical period of Chinese pupils' moral development is one of the most important parts in the field of moral psychological study. This paper reviews 20-year literature available on the critical period of pupils' moral development and its instruments to measure it. It also gives details of its inadequate research into pupils'…

This paper is about Ph.Ds, practitioner-centred research and action learning. The aim of this paper is to help develop a framework for those completing doctorates based on action learning. The paper explores relationships between the personal learning of action learning participants and the public knowledge associated with conventional research.…

A problem sometimes called Moser's circle problem where a circular region has to be partitioned with chords without any three chords intersecting at one point, is discussed. It is shown that Moser's circle problem makes the students to use a variety of mathematical tools to find correct solutions to problems and gives an opportunity to think about…

As yet little research into the perspectives of Chinese students studying in mainland China's Higher Education Institutions has been undertaken. This paper explores the issue of students' support needs and presents the findings of a study carried out in 2005-2007 at a public university in North East China. The Action Research method used…

An expanding body of research suggests an important role for parent or family competency training in children's social-emotional learning and related school success. This article summarizes a test of a longitudinal model examining partnership-based family competency training effects on academic success in a general population. Specifically, it…

Since its founding in 1875, Brigham Young University (BYU) has served a mission defined by its sponsoring institution which includes elements of character and spirituality (affective domain) in addition to the intellectual (cognitive domain). However, it is only since the establishment of the Office of Institutional Assessment and Analysis…

This "snapshot" illustrates how one school is managing to make a positive difference for ninth graders. It describes the Ninth Grade Success Academy, a school-within-a-school at Thomas A. Edison High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has a number of features specifically designed to help ninth-graders make successful…

The Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Improvement Act was recently passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush. Past and present Perkins legislation is examined in this paper in order to identify the roles and responsibilities of CTE teachers in meeting the current and future needs of the profession. This paper…

One of the greatest challenges facing today's district-level policymakers and educational leaders is helping America's youth avoid adverse outcomes such as school failure, substance abuse, teen pregnancy, and delinquency. This document describes an alternative policy approach to address these problems--the building of resiliency in youth. Rather…

The Esperanto language was consciously designed as a coherent system, in contrast to the 3000 conventional languages originated by people's cave-dwelling ancestors. The systematic nature of Esperanto makes it ideal as an instructional tool. The amorphous nature of English makes its serious use very difficult for students. Even though they learn to…

Supporting Greek life has been an important educational initiative for many colleges and universities. Although Greek students are typically involved with the college and community, there are other aspects of Greek culture, such as hazing and alcohol abuse, which are troublesome to university administrators. This document discusses standards, set…

In a basic-level writing course at the University of Minnesota, students were asked to read and engage in intelligent conservation about Keith Gilyard's "Voices of the Self." The book is about education but alternates autobiographical material with scholarly analysis. Literacy researchers expect students to read a text, understand what…

An exercise allows students to take a turn at setting a standard for instructors and, when done in groups, can encourage student socialization and interaction and build skill in constructing and presenting arguments. The exercise is in three parts and consists of: (1) committee power, in which students are asked to serve on one of three committees…