The middle level years are a crucial time for student development, a time when the path for school success is set for many students. Educators who focus on character and leadership development realize that training in these areas can play a significant role in developing students who will become effective leaders and active citizens in middle…

Faculty and administrators are more likely to take responsibility for student learning and development if they believe that assessment data represent their students and identify specific actions for improvement. An earlier study found that NSSE scalelets provide dependable metrics for assessing student engagement at the university, college, and…

Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) constitute only 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities, yet they enroll 28 percent of all African American students in higher education and educate 40 percent of the black Americans who earn doctorates or first professional degrees. Just fifteen HBCUs accounted for half of the institutions…

Higher education is--or should be--a caring, helping profession but education practitioners and decision makers sometimes confuse caring "about" students with caring "for" students. Colleges and universities often take good care of students but consequently do not require or allow students to become competent, productive contributors to their…

Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Alabama, took the Community College Futures Assembly challenge for the 2006 Bellwether Award from FAST COMPANY's release of "The Rules of Business: Timeless Truths from the Best Minds in Business" to identify its own substantive question for this year's competition: "The New Rules of…

The author describes four capacities--interpretation, instrumentation, interaction, and inner direction--that are as important as traditional academic subjects in preparing young adults for college and career success. He suggests how high schools should address each of these capacities. For example, to develop students' capacity for inner…

Student learning and student development are part of a unified framework rather than separate interests to be pursued independently.

This article describes the power of goal-setting in order to help children become self-motivated and responsible for their actions. It also provides a road-map for a successful process by describing the following strategies: changing negative thoughts into positives, creating affirmations, designing action plans and utilizing visualization. This…

The purpose of the study was to examine the development of students' high-level computer skills and competence (student expertise) in information and communication technology (ICT), and to examine the characteristics of such expertise. Eighteen lower secondary school students, selected to represent both genders and all school achievement levels,…

Formal programs covering the time young people are not in school (only 20 percent of the time) have burgeoned rapidly in the past few decades as a result of profound societal changes. Although the need of all children for out-of-school-time programs has not been met, millions of youngsters do participate in out-of-school-time programs sponsored by…

This longitudinal study of Latino/a college students considers the influence of Latino/a college student experiences and ethnic identity on holistic development. Findings indicate that although similar characteristics are seen among Latino/a students, the role of recognizing and making meaning of racism is a significant developmental task. This is…

The purpose of this study was to examine how early childhood pre-service teachers developed professionally through reflective journals. The study focused on the quality of reflection and the effects of reflection on pre-service teachers' professional development. Thirty-two students, majoring in early childhood education, were participated in this…

Without adequate reading comprehension, writing proficiency, math competency, and critical thinking skills, students pursuing higher education are vulnerable to failure. An environmental Science course built around academic wholism is the focus of a summer program designed to bridge the gap between high school and college. Students self-reflect…

In this article, the author talks about big questions of meaning and value that young people pose and how to respond to their concerns about big questions. He relates the story of his granddaughter, Charlotte, who, at the age of one, would climb up on the stairs not from choice or whim, but "because they're there." For her, it was not play, but…

The author attempted to create an awareness of the representative fiction which is read by adolescents in order to dramatize the high regard, however misguided, our society places on the cult of violence and killing as part of youth's initiation into the adult world. (Author/RK)