Presents secondary students' perceptions of cooperative learning (CL) in an attempt to understand how and why CL benefits students affectively and cognitively. After describing the structure of learning and schooling, the article discusses how CL promotes positive interdependence, social skills, work skills, and individual accountability. (SM)

Discusses how writing and analysis of life histories, identification and analysis of personal teaching metaphors, and action research can be powerful means for encouraging professional development in teachers. Recommends that teacher educators engage in self-study and life-history analysis to encourage students to do the same. (SM)

Provides a critical perspective on service learning, and raises issues about focusing on the growth of students, which often ignores the service recipients and fails to ask how service is affecting the communities in which it is being performed. A new service-learning paradigm is offered to overcome some perceived inconsistencies in the existing…

Argues that society ought to provide all its school children with access to computers. The authors explain that the dearth of computers in inner-city schools is compounded by the students not having access to computers in their homes. A New York City project that evaluated how technology can improve learning among at-risk students is described.…

Offering voices and perspectives from multiple generations of literacy educators, this yearbook includes articles which represent an assortment of literary styles and paradigms. Articles and their authors are: "Motivation Matters" (L. B. Gambrell, keynote address); "The Use of Cloze as a Measure of the Interactive Use of Prior…

The need for improvement in undergraduate general education, as well as the need for colleges and universities to test student knowledge and ability on a systematic basis, is discussed. Four obstacles to improved undergraduate effectiveness are pinpointed: (1) lack of visible commitment; (2) fragmented responsibility; (3) lack of incentives for…

Faced with declining enrollments and decreasing resources, institutions of higher education need to consider new ways to conceptualize their purposes and the administrative processes relevant to those purposes. Asserting that the organizational structure of the institution and the learners, educators, and instructional methods interacting in that…

A response to a piece of student writing will be most effective if it helps students consciously identify and solve their composing problems, stimulates them to use the response, and helps them to transfer these practiced skills. Furthermore, the response should (1) take place during the process of writing rather than after a piece is completed,…

Presents a response to recent calls for reform in science education. Argues for increased "hands-on" experience, both in the laboratory and in the environment. Suggests the need for producing more "enthusiastic" science teachers. (TW)

Responding to a critique of their earlier article, authors Levin and Meister, joined by Glass, attempt to clarify some of the issues and to correct implicit misunderstandings in the critique, while detailing the application of cost-effectiveness to educational interventions. Twenty footnotes are appended. (IW)

A middle school teacher presents three case studies of seventh-grade students who began the school year poorly but then decided to change. All three students had challenging home situations but, after becoming motivated to succeed, showed dramatic and rapid improvement. Such motivational changes are seen as stemming ultimately from reasons…

Four components of high-achieving middle schools together provide for the refocusing of middle level education on student achievement, while being attentive to the needs of the early adolescent learner. Those components are: a culture that supports achievement, ongoing discussion about achievement, a supportive structure, and an academically…

The problem of poor school achievement is in part because students lack work and discipline values. The article suggests moral and ethical teachings inspire students to be better scholars and people; and teacher education must prepare teachers to be moral educators by reintroducing moral education into the curriculum. (SM)

An interview with Larry Lezotte, Senior Vice President for Effective Schools Products, Ltd., presents Lezotte's insights on current school improvement efforts and the effects on student learning. Lezotte discusses his beliefs about student learning, backward mapping, cultural diversity, data disaggregation, staff development, and teacher…

An overview is provided of the relevant concepts from Total Quality Management (TQM), fuzzy logic, and the chaos theory of education in an effort to support the case for student success courses. First, the paper discusses student success courses, which emphasize helping students develop the skills needed to identify, create, and pursue an…