Delineates four compelling reasons for placing bioethical issues, including abortion, in a curricular context. These include linking ethics and civics, preparing informed decision makers, public debate, and studying the future today. Includes activities and questions designed to provide students with a conceptual focus. (MJP)

Advocates teaching controversial issues to children, claiming that they already have some knowledge of these through their own experience and media exposure. Describes role-playing activities, including simulated small claims court and city council hearings. Provides an overview of a five-day instructional unit on violence. (MJP)

Interviews with 30 successful undergraduate Latino students in a highly selective university revealed that although most students came from "at-risk" socioeconomic backgrounds, they had access to specific personal and environmental resources that made them invulnerable to negative consequences of educational risk. Stresses the importance…

Examines the inherent dichotomy between the competing needs of maintaining emotional safety and exploring sensitive issues in social studies classrooms. Argues that an effectively safe classroom can serve as a necessary backdrop for addressing controversial issues even in the earliest of grades. Maintains that most teachers simply ignore these…

Discussion of a Dickinson College (Pennsylvania) first-year seminar identifies its teaching objectives, describes class activities, and examines transcripts from the simulation of a negotiation, the course's capstone experience. Evidence suggests the students mastered information and concepts, were thinking critically about issues, had developed a…

The Brown University (Rhode Island) medical school curriculum content remains the same, but students must now demonstrate proficiency in relationships with patients, both real and simulated. In addition to traditional skill areas, students must demonstrate competency in effective communication, moral reasoning and ethical judgment, lifelong…

Describes a middle school history unit focused on the African American experience. The unit is constructed around four general types of historical questions that can be applied to any history unit. These are informational, empathetic, methodological, and analytical/evaluative. Provides examples of each type of question. (MJP)

A survey of medical school faculty (n=135) found that most respondents saw 32 of 77 exit objectives for medical students as essential. These objectives included general clinical, cognitive, and interpersonal skills. Objectives relating to diagnosis and management of specific conditions were deemed useful but not essential at the undergraduate…

Maintains that art education in an urban environment needs to move beyond multicultural awareness. Urban art education must stress art as a way of knowing about the world, a way of making nonviolent statements about social and environmental problems, and as a way of working cooperatively with other students. (MJP)

Presents seven exemplar lessons on Native American cultures from a spiral curriculum on United States history. Includes lessons from the kindergarten, middle school, and secondary levels. Describes teacher rationale statements and a grading rubric for middle school essays. (CFR)

Kent State University (Ohio), a traditional residential institution located near an urban center, is grappling with urban challenges by redefining institutional success, expanding definitions of scholarship, reducing program complexity to enhance completion rates, supporting teamwork and unit productivity, valuing senior members of the…

Maintains that, in recent years, schools and school districts have begun to explore an integrated curriculum approach to arts education. Discusses three areas of concern related to the arts as disciplines and the arts presented through an interdisciplinary approach. Calls for explicit policy directives to provide guidance. (CFR)

Discusses two related dilemmas: (1) the tension between the Western view of historical progress and the realities of modern society; and (2) the tension between old and new approaches to teaching and learning about the arts. Argues that the end result of implementing the Goals 2000 program might diminish the teaching of the arts as discrete…

Maintains that the broad arenas of the social sciences bind multiple areas of study together, giving added breadth and depth to each. Identifies the basic tenets of multicultural, global, and civic education. Includes suggested learning activities on the theme of individual versus community rights and responsibilities in U.S. history. (CFR)

Maintains that the history of anti-Semitism has historical links to Christian theology. Asserts that Christianity provided ample fuel for the secular anti-Semitism preached by Hitler and the Nazi party. Contends that educators can draw important lessons on the value of education and the pedagogy of teaching history. (CFR)