Considers the ways young children manifest individual differences and the benefits of acknowledging these differences for both parent and child. Offers suggestions to parents for accommodating and understanding their child's unique traits and behaviors. Stresses the importance of the parent's role in helping children accept and be comfortable with…

Discusses characters in books that are portrayed as oddball, or different from their peers, and are therefore misunderstood and often mistreated and ostracized. Suggests activities for elementary and middle school students based on books and films that include oddball characters. (LRW)

Our emphasis on accountability overlooks children's differences. Half of all individuals who take a norm-referenced test will be below average. Should such students be pushed, mauled, and remediated or squeezed into a common learning mold? Holding teachers accountable for humane treatment of "whole children" is a worthier pursuit. (MLH)

A California superintendent explains how Santa Barbara County Education Office created its Beyond Tolerance Educational Center-a nonprofit, self-sustaining organization dedicated to combating and preventing hate and intolerance and instilling compassion for all people. All eighth-graders visit the Simon Weisenthal Museum of Tolerance. (MLH)

This study with 432 college students examined how variables influence the relative performance of groups and individuals on creative problem-solving tasks. Having more ideas available (through a priming manipulation) led to better individual performance. Group performance, however, was enhanced by training appropriate to problem content that…

"The Animal School" provided a powerful metaphor about the importance of individual differences. Nearly half a century later, this article revisits the classic educational tale. It articulates a number of specific changes that schools need to make to be able to meet the physical development needs of all students. (Author/MKA)

Describes a project involving a group of 65 freshmen at a private girls' high school. After taking the Dunn, Dunn, and Price Learning Style Inventory, students were given their preferred learning-style profiles and instructions for adapting learning and study methods. Test scores improved substantially without implementing a comprehensive…

The Process Communication Model is based on personality types (reactors, persisters, workaholics, dreamers, rebels, and promoters) denoting different sets of behaviors, perceptions, and motivators that influence individual learning and teaching styles. The model is comprehensive and process-oriented, covering interaction styles, communication…

An analysis of data from the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress Trial State Assessment suggests that person-fit statistics may not provide additional information about results of psychometrically strong achievement tests. More research is needed before person-fit statistics can be used routinely in analysis of item response data.…

"Kappan" asked 75 "young education leaders" of 1980 to answer some open-ended questions regarding education's purpose and future direction. The 42 respondents identified knowing, thinking, and problem solving as education's major purpose, followed by personal development and economic competence. Respondents felt integration of technology was the…

Notes that moral decisions include both moral concepts and factual beliefs. Considers possible sources of variation in factual beliefs and presents research into children's and adults' thinking about practices based on factual beliefs different from their own. Discusses how individuals take these differences into account when judging the seemingly…

Notes that the Piagetian perspective admits the existence of interindividual differences but interprets them as noise masking the universal logical succession of structures, whereas the differential perspective views development as consisting of "vicarious processes." Asserts that the main aim of the "procedural studies"…

Explains the relationship between computers and multiple intelligences and explores its potential. Topics include behaviorism and cognitivism; constructivism; multiple representations in the human mind, including various forms of intelligence; individual differences; the challenge of altering early representations; and machine versus human tutors.…

Using contingency table analysis and logistic regression, a study explored how individuals' demographic characteristics and the importance of job qualities influence their preference for and employment in the public sector. Results show that desire for government jobs declined between 1989 and 1998. (Contains 34 references.) (JOW)

The Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (MSI-R; D.K. Snyder, 1997) norms were compared with scores for 162 volunteer Cherokee participants. Differences were found on the Inconsistency, Conventionalization, Global Distress, and Aggression subscales. Participants classified as fluent or nonfluent in the Cherokee language differed on the…