In recent years, schools have been moving away from centralized decision making, granting teachers the authority to determine course content. This book explores the concept of including students in curricular decision making. Chapter 1 explains why students at all grade levels should be involved in choosing topics of study. Educational research…

The University of Alabama is one of seven schools participating in the Foundation Coalition, a National Science Foundation-sponsored partnership looking at educational reform within the undergraduate engineering curriculum. Participants incorporate curriculum integration, human-interface development (active and cooperative learning), and…

A study examined what children do within a teacher/learner relationship as they learn about text. The two questions guiding the study are: (1) how does a child's relationship with his teacher help him learn to read and write, and (2) what qualities of this relationship stand out as essential to the meaning making process? An account of the…

Teachers today are faced not only with oversized classes, but with students of varying abilities who differ in the ways they process information. The fostering of diverse styles of learning has been neglected in the teaching of mathematics. The use of journal writing as a vehicle for assessing students' understanding of material provides an…

One of the deepest and most debilitating schisms in the university classroom, as in life, is that between the left and right sides of the brain, reason and emotion, the head and the heart. More and more college English teachers have become aware of the value of addressing the whole brain, the whole person. Teachers set up goals and communicate…

This study investigated children's practices and ideas or perceptions about self-regulation for two particular aspects of schoolwork: completing homework and learning for a class test. Subjects were 86 Anglo children (ages 7, 9, and 11) who were interviewed about their practices and ideas concerning homework completion and test preparation.…

The role of the media in our daily lives is discussed and its potential applications in the second language classroom are examined. Evidence of the power of the mass media is noted in the impact of news coverage on the news itself, and in the immediacy of news coverage. Video is also seen as stimulating and appealing to many, and able to reflect…

An exploratory investigation attempted to determine how learning at work actually takes place and in what ways learning on the job differs from classroom learning. The study was based on extensive observations and interviews over a 5-year period at two manufacturing plants that implemented a computer-based system known as Manufacturing Resource…

A study investigated the role of bilingualism (Basque/Spanish) and motivation in third (English) language acquisition in Spain's Basque country. Subjects were 321 secondary school students in two programs, one with instruction primarily in Spanish and one with instruction primarily in Basque. The following independent variables were analyzed in…

A request for narratives concerning their most effective and most ineffective professors was sent to 222 graduates from Rollins College (Florida). The narratives covered a period of 26 years, from 1964 through 1990. The responses suggest three dominant characteristics shared by ineffective professors: (1) lack of passion for their subject matter;…

This document presents a curriculum (based on the author's own experiences listening to music) that aims to get children to become aware of themselves by having them write down their thoughts and feelings (their "contemplations") after listening to music or in response to famous quotations. The document discusses how the curriculum was…

A study investigated adults' motivation for participating in Marshall University's off-campus credit education program in adult education. The 38 respondents (56 percent of those contacted) received their master's degrees during 1982-1992. Ninety-five percent of the respondents were white, and 5 percent were African-American. Seventy-four percent…

These four articles are part of an ongoing series of material directed to a statewide veterans group in Florida with regard to assessing the educational effects of the Vietnam Era GI Bill. Part 1 focuses on the manner in which the Veterans Administration (VA) relies on program starts as a measure of success rather than on completion rates. It…

Music awakens interest during language learning, and use of song can stimulate students to greater oral participation. Songs are universally enjoyed, break the day's monotony, and make repetition enjoyable. They also allow linguistic exercise in a noncompetitive situation and offer a more authentic linguistic experience than most classroom…

Intended for students who are able to read but lack the motivation to do so because they have not encountered books that speak to their interests and concerns, this revised booklist contains more than 400 titles. The titles represent books of high quality that deal with topics of interest to the average adolescent. Titles and annotations are…