Rapid expansion in the field of continuing education has created an often bewildering choice of programs. Delineates guidelines that social workers can follow in choosing the type of program best suited to their educational goals. (Author)

Explains how writing across the curriculum (WAC) is converging with active learning to be an effective learning strategy. Gives examples from content areas of home economics of WAC activities: assignment sequencing, audience identification, peer review, and informal writing. (SK)

Presents a set of activities for testing consumer products to encourage students to learn how to use scientific investigations in their everyday lives. Describes the penny flip experiment and testing a detergent. Students learn in a hands-on manner the importance of completing accurate laboratory reports, which allows them to analyze results and…

Provides background information on energy consumption in order to promote scientific literacy about topics related to energy development and consumption. (DDR)

Reviews research on characteristics and resources of family child caregivers providing high quality care. Focuses on regulation, lifelong learning in early childhood education, psychological well-being, commitment to child care, supportive child care connections, and a solid financial foundation. Maintains that consumer education can help parents…

By scrutinizing products and their advertisements, students can learn how to make smart consumer decisions. Activities are described which focus on evaluating advertising claims and designing and administering a poll. Techniques used by advertisers are identified, and a reproducible worksheet for collecting product test and comparison data is…

Promotional campaigns and commercial messages permeate most waking hours of children's lives. Children must be educated about the nature of commercial messages directed at them, and their ability to resist sales pressure must be built. (JD)

A sample of 144 college students responded to content- and application-based questions derived from popular newspaper and magazine articles on contemporary health topics. Overall rate of reader misunderstanding was nearly 40 percent, with a uniform error rate for each of 16 articles, leading to a conclusion that consumer misunderstanding of…

Technology education (based on an organized set of concepts, processes, and systems) is designed to replace traditional industrial arts programs (based on a study of materials, like wood or metals). At the secondary level, teachers can engage students in research and experimentation that cuts across the disciplines. (MLH)

Consumer educators can help students develop consumer/citizen roles through curricula linking consumer rights with citizen responsibilities. Dialogue about issues, community needs assessment, and community volunteer service enable students to practice citizen roles. (SK)

Three interviews each with 10 female secondary family/consumer education teachers elicited themes suggesting that the family plays a role in development of the meanings people hold about the nature of work and choice and persistence in integrated work roles. Families appear to nurture employability skills/values, job-specific skills/values, and…

A study of 200 rural Missouri teenagers revealed that this captive audience is hoodwinked by Channel One TV commercials. Some students viewed sportswear commercials as advertisements for athletes. Others mistook certain Pepsi commercials for public-service announcements. Repetition, testimonials, and bandwagon appeals are classic propaganda…

This summary of a seminar meeting on consumer concerns in services for people with blindness and visual impairments addresses the future of services, an ideal model of the blindness system, goals of rehabilitation services, a mission statement, differential evaluation of system criteria, and strategies to implement goals. (DB)

Based on a complex time series evaluation, a 2-year intervention in 40 supermarkets in Washington (DC) and Baltimore (Maryland) indicates that a nutrition education program could produce small but positive changes in consumers' food purchasing behavior. Limitations of the study and its implications for future evaluations are discussed. (SLD)

Corporations contribute curricular materials to schools. Argues that the goal of these materials is to initiate the school-age population to their products, enhance their public image, and increase visibility of their products. Cites examples of corporate activity with these goals. (MDH)