Alternative schools for intermediate grade students should be small and located in a separate building, where students and teachers can develop their own sense of identity. Curricula for high risk students require three components: a vocational orientation, interdisciplinary team projects, and a mastery learning/continuous progress approach.…

The Mastery in Learning Project is helping teachers and administrators overcome the isolation of their traditional roles to become professional collaborators. (Author/TE)

The Paideia School Model was inspired by philosopher Mortimer Adler's belief in a high-quality, single-track, liberal arts education to prepare students for work, citizenship, and lifelong learning. This article describes how Chattanooga (Tennessee) parents and educators worked to develop and implement a holistic, rigorous Paideia curriculum. (MLH)

The personalized system of instruction (PSI) is characterized by mastery, specified objectives, self-pacing, small-step sequenced materials, repeated testing, immediate feedback, credit for success rather than penalty for errors, proctors, and lectures for motivation. Research indicating the effectiveness of PSI is cited, and problems with…

For 6 years, Frederick County (Maryland) Public Schools has pursued a major restructuring effort involving 30,000 students and 46 schools and covering all disciplines and grades. This initiative involved five components: developing student outcomes, defining curriculum, developing new assessment tasks, planning for instruction, and providing for…

Explores outcome-based education, tracing its historical basis in competency-based education and mastery learning. Discusses the results of an ongoing dialogue between the authors (a classroom teacher and a university researcher). Although OBE offers some powerful ideas, it is not radical enough. OBE is based on behavioral objectives determined by…

Introduces the conceptual background of a model of youth development that utilizes the principles of the Native-American Circle of Courage. Discusses the four principles of the Circle of Courage: belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. Discusses the development of the model and the life of the artist who developed that artwork for the…

Reviews research on four dimensions of temperament: positive emotionality/approach, fear, irritability/frustration, and attentional persistence. Applies knowledge of temperament to teachers' approaches to children's mastery motivation, fear of novelty, and ego-based anxiety. Argues that educators' training should include understanding of…

Evaluated the effect of using the mastery learning techniques of self-directed feedback, reinforcement, and remediation of knowledge on the performance of a work-related task involving transfer of training. Supports the hypothesis that mastery learning would have a positive effect on transfer of knowledge from the classroom to a work-related task.…

Our aim in this paper was to provide an analysis of goal orientation parameters with respect to reading comprehension strategy use for students with and without reading difficulties (RD). Non-RD students appeared to be more mastery oriented and less performance avoidant compared to RD ones. Also, non-RD students used, more, deeper, more…

In this article, the author argues that, if schools truly were based on standards, they would look much different than they do now. She describes the standards-based system of an experimental school in Colorado. Here, she discusses how students document their work in a variety of ways, such as: (1) various types of portfolios; (2) oral delivery;…

Five elements in a lesson will motivate students to become and remain engaged in learning: (1) teachers must ensure that students see some value in the content of the lesson; (2) students must believe that they have the potential to be successful in the activity; (3) teachers must communicate to their students that they care about them as…

A description is given of the development, implementation, and evaluation of the Curriculum Management System (CMS), a computer managed system that utilizes input from research findings on effective schools. The goals and objectives of instruction are clearly delineated and effectively communicated to students and their parents. Each student,…

This paper explores what has been reported by several researchers in an attempt to make recommendations on the most effective method of introducing basketball to elementary school age children. Based on this review the following observations are brought forward for consideration. Factors which significantly affected student success include: height…

Effective teaching is a multifaceted endeavor comprised of process, product, artistic, and scientific aspects. The scientific dimension pertains to that multidisciplinary accumulation of systematic knowledge which makes possible the prediction and control of human behavior as it relates to the events comprising instruction and learning. This paper…