A visit to a Montana one-room school reveals the characteristics and advantages of one-room schools. Small schools are crucial to student success in early grades and students from small schools tend to outperform their peers. Large schools are borrowing features such as multiage classrooms, peer tutoring, and interdisciplinary projects as they…

Illustrates the importance of "passionate detachment" (passionate about being detached from one's position on a topic) when addressing advocacy in the classroom by describing "Introduction to Social Policy," a course on poverty. Explains that the course aims at developing an understanding of poverty, not just a list of proposed solutions. (CMK)

Examines the effectiveness of the analysis-synthesis and generator-conjuncture-analysis models of design education. Concludes that the generator-conjecture-analysis design method produced student design product of a slightly higher standard than the analysis-synthesis design method. Discusses the findings in more detail and considers implications.…

Argues that the dehumanization of everyone involved with educational standards is astounding. Offers stories of standardized tests and schools that sort children into winners and losers, and of lock-step, rigid "teaching." Contrasts this with success stories from three excellent classrooms where teachers' personal "standards" include deep passion…

This article profiles Leta Stetter Hollingworth, the founder of gifted education. It discusses her childhood, the New York Public School 165 experiment, the Speyer School experiment, and her overriding belief that since all human beings were not created intellectually equal, all children should not be equated in the same way. (Contains…

Asserts that in order to transform colleges into learning organizations, the infrastructure of higher education must be analyzed. States that basic relationships must be redesigned--the pedagogical interaction between teacher and student, the tension between faculty and administration, the caste system relationship that has existed between faculty…

Examines ways in which history/social studies educators might respond to the challenges posed by the critical literature in and about history in order to reconsider why we learn history, what we do (and could do) with it, and for what (and whose) purposes. (CMK)

Emotion is an innate, powerful, and principally unconscious process that is perceptible in body language, responds vigorously to high-contrast information concerning dangers and opportunities, and often biases the direction of our problem- solving responses. Curricular challenges involving the arts, play, and classroom management are discussed.…

Presents tips for early childhood teachers on the use of photographs in the classroom. Includes suggestions for using the camera effectively, using photos of the children, and creating classroom activities with photos. Asserts that the photographs often enhance the meaning of a classroom activity for children. (KB)

Examines three challenges facing the field of early childhood education: (1) homogenization of early childhood education; (2) over-scientization of the field; and (3) bureaucratization of early childhood education. (KB)

Schools in the Seattle (Washington) area are leaders in a trend toward a new "success-oriented" physical education. Schools offer a wide variety of activities that provide opportunities for participation, success, and fun for every student; teach cooperation and problem solving in addition to skills; and promote attitudes and habits that…

Examines origins and potential effects of liberalizing reforms in Japanese secondary education in light of British experiences with policies such as local school management and school choice. Argues that Japanese reform involves necessary diversification of curriculum and pedagogic practices, but administrative shifts toward deregulation and…

Suggests that scoring criteria should be used in order to reduce teacher subjectivity in scoring classroom assessments. Describes scoring criteria as specific expectations made clear in task instructions used to evaluate student work. Provides an example assessment task for high school geography and addresses three common teacher errors. (CMK)

Investigated the nature of children's participation in their education in two primary and two secondary schools in England. Found that children's opportunities to express their views were extremely limited even where school councils existed. Concluded that the goal of active citizenship espoused by recent national curriculum developments will…

Current rhetoric about the educational "impact" of new information and communication technologies (ICT) often masks the complex reality in which it is educators' decisions and practices with ICT that result in change and constitute the impact. In communities of interpretation, teachers and researchers can collaborate to construct knowledge of…