Most American colleges and universities assimilate students into highly competitive undergraduate experiences. By placing achievement for personal and material gain as the bedrock of a college education, these institutions fail to educate students to become collaborative learners: people who are committed and prepared to join with others in…

Spain is currently implementing the regulatory modifications promulgated by the Declaration of Bologna, which should result in the updating of the structure of university degrees, and the inclusion of the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) methodology. In some Spanish universities, the experimental adoption of this methodology…

In this far-reaching discussion of curriculum and liberal education, William A. Reid compares curriculum making to the idea of "pursuit." Like justice, Reid argues that curriculum is not something that we own or possess in a material sense; rather, it is an achievement that anyone involved in schooling must and should pursue. Drawing upon the…

Virtual environments are able to extend the space of interaction beyond the classroom. In order to analyze how distributed cognition functions in such an extended space, we suggest focusing on the architecture of intersubjectivity. The Euroland project--a virtual land created and populated by seven classrooms supported by a team of…

Purpose: The applicability of total quality management (TQM) to higher education instruction is controversial. The purpose of this paper is to help clarify the application of TQM to higher education instruction by identifying and analyzing the dual roles played by both students and instructors. The authors also offer an improvement to the…

An ever-increasing proportion of high school students in the United States today aspire to graduate from college. Yet statistics indicate that the percentage of college students receiving bachelor's degrees has remained relatively constant over the past 25 years, that it now takes on average 6 years to get a four-year college degree, and that…

Guidelines are provided for evaluating research on the process approach to the teaching of writing to exceptional children. Focus is on the roles of the teacher and the learner. Suggestions are presented for further research, specifically in the areas of fluency, the functions of writing, and the effects of instruction. (Author/JDD)

It is proposed that while interest has focused on specialized professional vocabulary as an object of language instruction, the same vocabulary can be viewed as a tool for teaching. The exchange of concepts and terminology between student and teacher improves student understanding of the language and the problems of translation. (MSE)

This paper addresses the theme of the special issue by looking at the development of student autonomy in learning in the French programme at the University of the West Indies St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago. The paper explains why a focus on autonomy is apt to meet both the programme's linguistic goals and its larger societal goal of preparing…

An instructional unit in housing design created to address problems of group work in higher education is described and evaluated. Students and educators were consulted and literature reviewed for salient issues. The new unit was piloted with students. Results show design of group projects should address: project organization, assessment, balance…

An experiment applied the theories of knowledge engineering and expert systems to science instruction for junior high school students. The model encourages a more creative, constructivist approach to teaching certain science concepts and skills while fostering improvement of logical thinking, communication, and independent learning skills. Results…

Articulation remains a significant problem in language education as in education in general. The particular concern is that articulation is targeted toward programs and not toward learners. Specific language teaching methods, and use of more-uniform teaching materials and testing have been used to cope with the problem. However, a broader…

This paper argues that medical ethics education relies too much on strategies that target ethical thinking and should focus more on students as ethical actors in specific clinical contexts, responding to ethical dilemmas. Traditional approaches may not offer the skills students need to learn norms of ethical behavior. Strategies for encouraging…

Classroom communication in the second-language class is examined from an ethnographic perspective, highlighting the role of students in helping each other learn. Turn-taking, patterns of addressing teacher and peers, and different kinds of interaction that promote learning: cooperative; didactic; competitive; theatrical; personalized. (MSE)

Discusses historian Henry Adams' disillusionment with the educational system and with his own teaching. Suggests improving history instruction by involving students more actively in learning. Proposes incorporating interactive learning strategies including (1) interactive lectures; (2) questioning; (3) small groups; (4) critical thinking and…