This book explores concept-based learning across disciplines and grade levels. Teachers can use the specific strategies to create a seamless learning program that teaches students the skills they need to think conceptually and to solve problems in today's complex, changing world. Chapter 1 reviews national, state, and local standards through a set…

This qualitative study examined the socialization experiences of novice Louisiana middle school teachers. With the middle school as the unit of analysis, it used the aeronautical metaphor to describe schools as organizations where new teachers' initial flight into teaching occurred. Data collection involved interviews with principals, mentors, and…

This report shows how the study of U.S. history can be enriched by blending geography into the curriculum. Because the fields of history and geography have not been melded together in terms of curricula, often history is not taught in relation to geography and geography has tended to be taught primarily as location/place information. The report…

Using primary documents, maps, and visual data, this lesson packet focuses on the founders of Ontario, California, and the Frankish Building that is on the Historic Register of Historic Places. The lesson could be used with U.S. history units on the Progressive Era, with course units dealing with a variety of civic issues, or units involving the…

The Collaborative Vision for Science and Mathematics Education (CVSME) is a loosely coupled organization that has improved communication and fostered collaboration between faculty in the colleges of Education and Natural Science at Michigan State University. The improved communication and collaboration is intended to improve mathematics and…

This report examines the impact of three restructuring strategies--interdisciplinary teaming, school-within-a-school organization, and flexible scheduling---on professional interactions between teachers. The ways in which collegiality and collaboration have been addressed in the education literature are discussed, and how collaboration is…

In this lesson plan, students are assigned a member of the California Assembly to research and a political faction to represent. Students examine representative bills voted on by the California Assembly to determine if their member's voting record coincides with the views of their political faction. Ultimately, students must decide whether, and…

The Water in Africa Project was realized over a 2-year period by a team of Peace Corps volunteers, World Wise Schools (WWS) classroom teachers, and WWS staff members. As part of an expanded, detailed design, resources were collected from over 90 volunteers serving in African countries, photos and stories were prepared, and standards-based learning…

This interdisciplinary guide utilizes the subject matter in the 2002-2003 "Texas Almanac" to help classroom educators teach students in grades three to eight about the social, economic, cultural, and historical background of Texas. The guide has questions, puzzles, and activities that teachers can use to inform their students about the…

Educating students about character development and responsibility can and should be an integral part of the academic curriculum. This collection contains units of study that were written to exemplify some of the many ways that these themes might be taught in preK-12 Massachusetts classrooms. Using the standards of the Massachusetts Curriculum…

The Talent Development High School model is an education reform initiative that aims to improve the academic achievement of students in large, nonselective, comprehensive high schools. In operation at 33 high schools in 12 states across the country, the approach encompasses five main features: (1) small learning communities, organized around…

The message of new faculty is not new, but their power may be. As the demand for new faculty increases due to retirements and increased enrollments in systems and institutions around the country, large cohorts of tenure-track faculty are being hired. Early-career faculty want what they've wanted for many years now: clarity surrounding the tenure…

The course of one twelve-week extra-mural adult class, "War and Society," is described and evaluated. Evidence was presented from a pack of teaching materials; in discussion, the teacher protected divergence of view and learning standards to develop understanding of social situations, human acts, and the controversial issues they raise. (AJ)

This article describes an introductory geography course on the distribution and analysis of wealth at a global level, focusing on the attempts of poor nations to improve their condition and using ten novels as a major resource replacing traditional textbooks. A list of non-western novels is included. (JH)

The purpose of this article is to give some tentative answers to questions such as 1) what is it like to teach at an experimental college? and 2) what kind of rewards and costs can the instructor expect? (Author/RK)