Details changes in programs and practice to improve middle level education. Examines characteristics of developmentally responsive middle schools. Identifies barriers to efforts to provide meaningful learning experiences through curriculum integration. Maintains that changes should revolve around expanding teachers' models of learning to…

Discusses the current state of environmental science and studies. Argues against critics who claim that the increasing diversity of environmental studies faculties is eroding the curricular coherence and academic integrity of the programs. (Contains 24 references.) (WRM)

Considers the state of teacher education in Russian higher educational institutions and focuses on the needed changes in the design of teacher education. States that the key idea in the designing of teacher education consists of the fact that the higher educational institutions ought to be reoriented toward producing the professional teacher. (CMK)

Offers a critical discussion on the issue of educational standards by (1) clarifying issues surrounding educational standards, (2) critically examining the assumptions underlying popular discourse about standards, and (3) offering and arguing for an alternate perspective based on democratic ideals. Discusses the impact of this on classroom…

This rejoinder to critiques of "Behavior Disorders: A Postmodern Perspective" stresses that postmodernism is not a rejection of empiricism or of positivism but does place theory and research in a historical context. It is a critique of the exaggerations and abuses of research and theory but not research and theory themselves. (CR)

In Hardin (Montana) schools, where 55% of students are American Indians, the same identification methods are used to identify gifted students among all cultural groups. These methods include nonverbal standardized tests and subjective recommendations based on the Frasier Talent Assessment Profile. Other equitable practices include equal…

Identifies and criticizes eight myths of curriculum integration. Points out the high, real, and certain costs of curriculum integration relative to the low, vague, and difficult-to-measure benefits. Questions the ability of curriculum integration to improve achievement, facilitate accurate accountability, and generate appropriate curriculum…

Argues that the concept of best practice is an illegitimate importation from an inappropriate paradigm, and its use threatens to undermine the very values that its proponents espouse. After explaining best practice, the paper presents an alternative vision, suggesting that the future of educational practice and theory lies in the development of…

Describes an applied research project which builds on a perceived need for community information and through exploiting the professional know-how of library science, takes the initiative in inventing and designing an information product and service to meet that need. Discusses cooperative planning and describes seven main components of the work.…

Nationally, rural students in grade 8 outperformed their nonrural counterparts on the mathematics section of the 1996 National Assessment of Education Progress. Fourteen states had significant rural-urban differences in mathematics achievement, but seven favored rural students and seven favored nonrural students. This pattern was related to six…

Presents an annotated bibliography covering awards, computers and technology, critical thinking, developmental psychology and aging, ethics, graduate education and training issues, high school psychology, history, introductory psychology, learning and cognition, perception/physiological/comparative psychology, research methods and research-related…

Provides information on the history of community college growth. States that the analysis of the work of community college historians must occur within three arenas: (1) public policy; (2) the community of professional historians; and (3) the classroom. Summarizes the articles in this "History Teaching at the Community College" issue of "The…

Examined the key constructs of Norway's centrally-based curriculum reform plan, Laerplan 97 (L97), interviewed those responsible for designing the subject related curricula, and administered teacher questionnaires (n=54). Findings show how the journey from policy making to effective classroom practice would benefit from a continuing interface with…

Focuses on a way of teaching that explores the connection between historical and cultural content in works of art, linking the present and past through reCognizing (understanding a previously known thing differently or viewing an unknown thing in multiple ways). Provides an example of reCognition using the Kwanzaa Playground in Columbus (Ohio).…

Examines the transformation of the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe as the foundation for proposing objectives teachers might use to guide students in borrowing traditional images from their own or others' cultures. Offers a series of six objectives to guide students in understanding and transforming traditional images. (CMK)