The Mainstream Assistance Team (MAT) Project is a 3-year program to develop, implement, and validate a prereferral intervention model with nonhandicapped difficult-to-teach students. This paper presents a rationale for prereferral assessment and intervention focused on the increasing numbers of mildly handicapped students enrolled in special…

After much discussion and several false starts, Nassau Community College (New York) has developed a two-course core curriculum designed to cover significant material from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities in practical proportions. The first course in the sequence, "Exploring Nature and Society," deals with Perceptions of the…

This ERIC Digest discusses heritage education in terms of: (1) what it is; (2) why it belongs in the core curriculum; (3) how it relates to social studies education; and (4) the qualities of exemplary heritage education programs. Heritage education is defined as an approach to teaching and learning about history and culture that uses information…

The report describes the University of Florida Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Training Program (MDTP), jointly administered through the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Special Education. It functions as a diagnostic, training, and consultative resource to local school districts in north central Florida and provides short-term…

Five leading feminist scholars assess the nature and extent of the contemporary women's movement in this collaborative book that focuses on the dual disciplinary-interdisciplinary character of feminist research. The five collaborators are Ellen Carol DuBois, Gail Paradise Kelly, Elizabeth Lapovsky Kennedy, Carolyn W. Korsmeyer, and Lillian S.…

Based on the premise that environmental education should be taught in K-12 social studies classes, this document describes the eco/studies concept of the constant interaction between natural and human designed environments. The use of a model, through which students role play as researching social scientists, is described, along with the concepts…

Brief descriptions of interdisciplinary developmental education programs are provided in this paper, along with a more extensive examination of the Personalized Approach to College Education (PACE) program at the College of the Finger Lakes (CFL) in Canandaigua, New York. Introductory material cites examples of developmental programs which involve…

After recounting a brief history of special education trends and reviewing two early models of learning disabilities, this paper calls for and describes a holistic approach to teaching students based on their abilities rather than their disabilities. It describes how psychologists of the 1960s viewed learning disabilities as a product of deficient…

An ongoing, interdisciplinary reading program for students in grades 7-10 in Perris Union High School District (California) is described. Initiated in 1979 as a result of low reading scores, the program divides all incoming seventh grade students into homogeneous groups. In the first 6 weeks of school these new groups meet once a day for 50…

This article describes a 10-step process for bookwebbing, a method of using a storybook for instruction in a variety of curriculum areas. The process, which is recommended to be used in cooperation with another teacher, is as follows: (1) choose a book which can apply to many curriculum areas; (2) read the whole book; (3) read it again in two or…

Several ideas for implementing writing in the content areas are presented. The ideas, which were submitted by teachers and students, include: (1) a class called "Thinking-Writing" which uses freewriting, clustering, and written dialogue with an imaginary tutee; (2) a testimonial on the importance of knowing how to write in adult life;…

Noting that in different disciplines the study of communicative competence has focused to varying degrees on referential, social, and directive functions of communication, this paper reviews the three major traditions using the term. The first section of the paper reviews the sociolinguistic tradition, which views communicative competence as…

Although three types of foreign language program exist in elementary schools (immersion, partial immersion, and core courses), there is no conclusive evidence as to what length of instruction time results in greater student achievement. A logical approach to foreign language teaching at the elementary level is one that integrates foreign language…

In order to address the significant gap between the ideas emerging from the new economic history and the economics actually taught in secondary school classes, successful strategies from a series of summer institutes are described. Each topic begins with a discussion of basic concepts and recent developments in the economic theory of that…

Information is provided explaining the incorporation of global issues units into an introductory earth science course at Skagit Valley Community College (Mount Vernon, Washington). First, a short description is provided of the original format of the earth science course, which was designed as an introductory level survey course covering topics in…