Introduces and describes this special international issue focusing on educating through the arts. Argues that the arts promote children's sense of success, creativity, and self-expression. Notes contributions to this international issue from Canada, Finland, Norway, Australia, and the United States. Includes a bibliography of 11 references on…

This article examines what is meant by access, participation, and progress in the regular education curriculum and suggests a new framework for curriculum reform that holds promise for all students, particularly students with disabilities. The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is presented and materials and methods of UDL are described.…

This article discusses instructional variables that contribute to a positive classroom climate and serve as setting events for more focused group-individual instructional programs for students with emotional/behavioral disorders. Nonacademic challenges that should be incorporated into these programs are identified and issues are examined that…

Revisits the middle-level school movement. Provides an overview of young adolescents' development, offers representative examples of developmentally appropriate practices, and looks at progress educators have made as well challenges encountered. Emphasizes the importance of understanding physical, pychosocial, and cognitive development in young…

Describes and explains three varieties of information technology (IT): academic IT, vocational IT, and cross-curricular IT. Discusses teacher education and the use of IT. Provides recent trends in IT development in education. (MVL)

Asserts that a rapidly growing high-tech job market requires better educated students. Argues for a more integrated and holistic approach in general and vocational education. Describes the Integrated Studies Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a model of this approach. (MJP)

The University of Maryland Dental School's revised predoctoral general practice program includes a clinical component simulating actual practice, including patient, personnel and office management, team-building, marketing, specialist referrals, and quality control. The program is described and patient, student, and faculty responses to it are…

This article describes a three-year teacher training project that aimed to improve the training of elementary school foreign language teachers at institutions of higher education. The training model paired North Carolina teacher trainers with experienced elementary school teachers who served as their mentors. (eight references) (JL)

Asserts that elementary music education has been influenced by three approaches to learning: (1) the conceptual approach; (2) the child development approach; and (3) the activities approach. Presents six steps to designing an interdisciplinary project in music education. (CFR)

Discusses site-based management as a means of school reform. Emphasizes the advantages of such decentralization for music education. Compares the traditional approach with a reform alternative in terms of decisions affecting teaching, learning, school climate, and curriculum. Urges implementation of site-based management as a means of involving…

Across the country, college faculty are redefining core knowledge and skills to include learning about pluralism in the United States and about world cultures. They are experimenting with new pedagogical approaches that engage cultural diversity in effective ways. Interdisciplinary collaboration, thematic curricula, and cooperative learning…

Discusses the development of a webbed curriculum at the preschool level. The teacher develops the curriculum by observing children, documenting their recurring interests and the themes of their activities, and integrating and connecting class activities. (BB)

Discusses the collaborative use of learning materials in distance education based primarily on experiences at the Open Learning Institute (OLI) of Hong Kong. Topics addressed include curriculum issues; instructional design; academic standards; technical factors; copyright regulations; costs; product evaluation; readability; and ethical…

Examines factors which enhance teacher empowerment, noting that site-based management is often discussed concurrently with empowerment; describes successes with teacher empowerment via interdisciplinary teams of students and faculty at the Virginia Governor's School for the Gifted in the Humanities and in the Visual and Performing Arts. (SM)

An overview of the evolution of the innovative University of California, Santa Cruz, looks at its origins, campus organization, curriculum and instructional philosophy, campus design, leadership and faculty, student population, campus life, and curriculum design. Strategies for and obstacles to effective change are highlighted. (MSE)