Today, many children enter early childhood programs with home languages other than English. This videotape explores the importance of supporting children's home language, while helping them learn English, and gives strategies for helping children become bilingual learners. The 21-minute video provides a rationale for developing both languages,…

This document comprises the remarks of Richard Riley, the U.S. Secretary of Education, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on September 7, 2000 for his annual "Back-to-School" speech. Presented in four parts, the speech focuses on important transitions through children's education. Part 1 maintains that it is imperative that a…

This volume integrates critical curriculum theory with best practice, extending John Dewey's and Maxine Greene's progressive educational philosophy into these two realms. The authors of the seven essays selected four theoretical topics and then applied these theories to practitioners' work. The book was constructed around a series of conversations…

The New Synthesis approach views learning as an active process by which learners create knowledge structures or mental representations. This book attempts to give classroom teachers alternative ways of assessing how their learners think, what they know, and what they can do. The chapters are: (1) "Teaching, Motivation, and Testing"; (2) "Academic…

Taking into consideration the motivational needs of different students, the book discusses both internal and external motivators such as attaining a sense of achievement or leadership versus earning a physical reward such as candy or a field trip. These and other motivating factors are then incorporated into discussions of how to create productive…

In 1992, a study described the legal status, aims, organization, resources, role, and future prospects of the independent educational sector of the 17 countries of Western Europe and the context in which that sector operated. In the six years since the compilation, the European Economic Community has become the European Union. It has increased its…

This document is comprised of the four 1996 and 1997 issues of a newsletter for members of the North American Montessori Teachers Association (NAMTA) providing practical guidance on putting Montessori theory into classroom practice. The March 1996 issue features an article on offering variety in the Montessori classroom to stimulate student…

Recent advances in neuroscience have engaged the interest of early childhood educators who believe that the more we know about the brain, the better able we will be to influence learning. This workshop facilitator's guide and set of two videotapes are designed to assist educators, students, caregivers, parents, and those providing services to…

This paper asserts that through foundations courses in teacher education programs, all preservice teachers, not only social studies teachers, should come to understand the concept of cultural influence through an examination of the philosophical, ideological, and historical past. This paper examines the subject-matter content, authentic assessment…

This document reports the results of a survey conducted in the summer of 1998. Community college districts in California was surveyed on their practices regarding local board education and development programs. Approximately 80% of the districts, or 57 districts, responded. The study found that less than one-third of the districts had a written…

This fastback examines kindergarten education for three- to six-year-olds in the People's Republic of China. Preschool education, which includes nurseries as well as kindergartens, sets the pattern for all schooling in China but is not an ideal system. Serious flaws have emerged that, unless addressed, will weaken education in China in the future.…

A common method used by states, school districts, teachers, parents, and students to assess learning is through use of a scoring guide or rubric. Instructors in a teacher education setting describe their use of rubrics with preservice teachers in the expectation that these teacher candidates would eventually be using rubrics themselves and could…

This book reports on one of the largest studies ever undertaken in Great Britain of what primary schools do to improve literacy and what is going on in classrooms where improvements are taking place. The Leverhulme Primary Improvement Project was a 2-year research project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The book aims to provide insight into what…

This paper asks what it means to construct classroom practice so that the expertise of students and teacher is called forth to respond to the challenge of meeting students' needs for English in the world and for the world. The paper suggests a model and metaphor of the classroom as an atelier--a place of artisanal practice in which the expertise…

This digest summarizes the effective bilingual strategies described in a commissioned paper, "Transforming Education for Hispanic Youth: Exemplary Practices" by Anne Turnbaugh Lockwood and Walter G. Secada, and the recommendations of the Hispanic Dropout Project (U.S. Department of Education) for transforming bilingual education at all…