Provides evidence that benefits occur when friends, compared with nonfriends, are coworkers on cognitive tasks. Notes meta-analysis which found superior performance was demonstrated in the areas of seeking scarce resources, problem solving, creative activity, and reaching consensus. Argues teachers should consider giving students the opportunity…

A junior high teacher converted her science and math classroom into a business-like setting where students report to work daily and cooperatively participate in planning, learning, and classroom management. (SM)

Higher education must prepare graduates for a globally connected world. While most international education is geared to specialists, Connecticut College is attempting to bring an international perspective to all undergraduate liberal arts disciplines. Other New England colleges can contribute by building a globally competitive workforce,…

The theme of this month's issue is "cooperation"--related to animal, personal, national, and global cooperation; rules and regulations; and team efforts. K-8 resources on the theme include World Wide Web sites, CD-ROM, software, videos, books, and others. Features include cooperative living, alliances of nations, songs of cooperation, and animals…

Techniques for successful team teaching, drawn from an informal survey of Middlesex Community College (Massachusetts) instructors with team teaching experience, are outlined. Issues addressed include techniques for beginning class, taking attendance, seating, forms of address, passing out material, grading assignments, working together in the…

The Eugene (Oregon) Cadre develops school teams that can work together toward common goals. This volunteer group of teachers, administrators, staff, and parents is trained in organizational development. The paper describes the cadre and summarizes practices it has found useful in working with groups to promote teaming and collegiality. (SM)

Presents a model for developing teacher educators who are interprofessional clinical professors. Collaboratively planned by campus, public school, and human service professionals, the model delivers field-based services to future teachers, extending expertise across a spectrum of areas to prepare teachers to respond effectively to diverse student…

The paper satirically describes three public school environments that promoted teacher collaboration. It examines the effect of teacher collaboration in the workplace and investigates the importance of two issues (time and authority) in shaping the extent to which collaboration can succeed. (SM)

Recounts a week-long environmental program that revolved around staff dressing up as Alpha Centaurions to point out pollution on Earth. Activities were chosen to teach students about ways in which our environment is being ruined and students were encouraged to look for solutions. Activities included zoo visits, ecological study of Brockhill Valley…

Defines inclusion and the importance of inclusive education. Suggests that reciprocity built on self-empowerment, mutual need, ethics, and rationality builds partnerships for inclusion. Illustrates creating reciprocal partnerships by describing one effort to build a developmentally appropriate classroom. Describes a seven-step exchange model for…

The paper describes the University of Florida Multidisciplinary Diagnostic and Training Program (MDTP) which emphasizes multidisciplinary teaming in services to exceptional students, their teachers and parents, and university students. Presented are evaluation data on MDTP functions, and a discussion of the implications of a university-based…

The article identifies some of the problems with current cooperative-learning strategies and implementation, links those limitations to both the wider cooperative-learning movement and the nature of middle schools, and calls for conceptualizing and structuring cooperative learning within a much larger educational, social, economic, and political…

A survey of 483 early childhood educators from Head Start, public school prekindergarten, public school kindergarten, and community preschool/child care programs examined the extent to which representatives from various disciplines were employed. Results indicated that relatively few programs reported having sufficient related service personnel to…

A pharmacy school large-group (110 students) course in pharmacokinetics was designed to incorporate small-group team-based problem solving. The method allows students to learn material through traditional lecture, research the topic further, discuss the information gained, and apply the learning to specific cases in a manner that promotes…

This supplement offers 10 articles focusing on middle school education. Topics include remembering adolescence, resources and teaching tips, active middle school students, adolescent development, challenges in middle school education, integrated studies, planning middle school special events, a writing-science-consumerism miniunit on popcorn,…