The key to successful harnessing of the power and potential of new educational technologies lies in appropriate training of teachers. An educational technology joint venture was created at the Northern Territory University in Darwin (Australia) in which the Institute of Technical and Further Education provided the equipment, the Computing Services…

In 1991 the School District of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) invited elementary and middle schools to participate in a pilot project to develop and implement portfolio and performance-based assessments. Twenty-five schools began work in winter 1992. Research for Better Schools, Inc. analyzed the progress reports submitted by the schools. The…

The National Alliance of Business (NAB) reported recently on the National Workforce Assistance Collaborative that works with community colleges and other educational institutions to build their capacity to develop the work force of the 21st century. NAB had conducted a series of focus groups with participants from business, industry, education,…

This paper offers a review of the literature on university-school collaborative efforts and describes the status of such efforts in Mississippi. A K-12 task force appointed by the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Education was assigned to perform an audit of Mississippi collaboratives. The audit identified many school-university partnerships…

One method of training principals and teachers to lead substantive change initiatives lies in partnership activities between schools and the local university. The Collaborative School Improvement Program (C-SIP) is a successful school-university partnership that focuses upon collaborative relationships between Eastern Michigan University and area…

This book illustrates how educators in four U.S. communities committed themselves to preparing students for the democratic way of life. In four narratives, educators directly involved in four different school-reform efforts describe how they initiated demographic practices in their educational settings. The four schools serve as reminders that…

This document provides an overview of a survey of child care planning advisory groups in 14 cities that was conducted in December, 1991 and January, 1992. The survey sought to identify major issues related to community-based planning for child care services in Ontario, Canada. After discussing the background and history of child care planning,…

This paper presents two examples of the case study method applied to enhance preservice teachers' decision-making abilities and multicultural perspectives. In the first example, preservice teachers (N=17) enrolled in a sophomore educational psychology course chose a case from a preselected list to diagnose and present to the class for analysis and…

Project WORK was developed by San Diego State University and San Diego City Schools in California to prepare young people with disabilities for work and life after high school. The program teaches employment skills; supports students in their first work experience; works with students and their families to plan for the student's work and life…

In June 1990, the research group at George Mason University (Virginia) Center for Interactive Educational Technology began designing a multimedia prototype to foster higher-order thinking skills in social studies. As an initial step, the Civil War Interactive Project using the Ken Burns documentary, "The Civil War," was used in a design…

The effects of group computer-based instruction and learning style on achievement and attitude were studied for 190 elementary school students in grades 4 and 5 in Austin (Texas). The cooperative learning methodology chosen for this study was "Learning Together." Learning Together is a cooperative learning method emphasizing five major…

This book describes the framework for an individualistic approach to learning--critical self-directed learning (SDL). A preface explains what is meant by "critical practice of SDL," describes educational streams that have fed into the concept, and situates the context within which the ideas about critical SDL developed. The order of the chapters…

The early work experiences of graduates of Michigan State University's engineering program who did and did not participate in the university's cooperative education program were compared. A two-part survey that covered work experiences during college, skill development in undergraduate programs, career evaluation and outlook, demographic…

Surveying a project that was conducted through the Center for the Study of Writing at Carnegie Mellon University, this book details the classroom inquiries conducted during the 4-year project (1988-1992) by 33 teacher-researchers from secondary and postsecondary classrooms. The articles and their authors are: (1) "Teachers as Theory…

A cooperative demonstration program between industry (General Electric) and education (John Patterson State Technical College, Alabama) designed and conducted a training program and competency assessment for individuals entering high technology positions related to industrial production in Alabama. The program was designed to develop employees as…