Provides information about: (1) demographics of Hispanic Americans; (2) findings indicating poorer preparation for college of Hispanics, than of non-Hispanic Whites; (3) roles of sociocultural characteristics and encouragement by school personnel; (4) predictive value of Hispanic high school grades and college admission test scores; and (5)…

The gap between Generation X and earlier generations represents much more than age and technological differences. It reflects the effects of a changing society on a generation. Social changes such as the increase in single-parent households and households with both parents working, corporate downsizing and layoffs, limited opportunities for career…

This digest discusses adult students in community colleges, focusing on their learning expectations and needs. In 1997, nearly a third of community college students were age 30 or older. Adult students often have realistic, practical goals for their education and bring valuable life experience to the community college classroom. However, adults…

Since the 1980s, shared decision making (SDM) has become a significant part of school-reform efforts. Advocates say that SDM will improve student learning, create teacher satisfaction, and develop new forms of leadership. This digest in Spanish presents an overview of research that investigated whether SDM delivers on these promises. Studies…

This paper explores a common assumption: that education must be made an open, interconnected chain of learning opportunities, available to people from cradle to grave, i.e., a "learning society." Learning is examined in the following three distinct, but interrelated, domains: the domain of work; the domain of the community; and the…

Examines ERIC documents that address the need to combine the teaching of literature and the teaching of writing. (HOD)

Describes how shared learning activities, including cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and small group learning, can develop critical reading and problem-solving skills. Discusses the teacher's role in guiding shared learning activities. (MM)

This digest summarizes a report that addresses trends and issues in assessment in relation to the role of college faculty, including advances in assessment to make it more congenial to faculty, different ways in which institutions have approached assessment, and how assessment can be viewed as a faculty role. The report identifies such major…

Gender issues underlie numerous classroom activities, and unstructured language-learning activities may actually encourage children to reproduce gender stereotypes--yet teachers have differing views of the position they should take in this matter. This Digest presents an overview of various perspectives on the teacher's role in addressing…

This ERIC Digest describes how experiential education can help in designing a curriculum that young people find significant. It also describes ways experiential education can help educators make the transition from a traditional program to an activity-based program. Experiential education differs from traditional education in that teachers first…

The school-based teacher educator (SBTE) is a classroom teacher who is responsible for preservice, inservice, or continuing education at a school or district level while maintaining a primary work location in an elementary or secondary classroom. Teachers in this role have the potential for enhancing faculty morale by responding to both the…

Teachers and other professionals providing education-related services to exceptional children from different cultural backgrounds need to be aware of unique perspectives or communication styles common to those cultures, and need to be sensitive to the different values, experiences, and beliefs about special education that may be held by members of…

This paper prescribes methods by which educators may move multicultural education from its primary "product" stage (emphasizing learning materials and similar artifacts) to a more sophisticated "process" stage (demonstrating a more authentic approach consistent with the purposes of democratic public education). Part I discusses the rationale of…

Commercial achievement tests often provide limited instructional guidance and seldom provide feedback specific to any given classroom. The most instructionally relevant achievement tests are those developed by an individual teacher for use with a particular class. This digest describes the steps of test construction and presents suggestions for…

Recent publicity about sexual abuse may be creating more negative attitudes toward normal physical affection. In a study designed to probe this possibility, 301 parents, nonparents, and early childhood professionals rated the extent of their approval of videotaped adult-child interactions. Before viewing the tape, half of the subjects read a…