In her more than 30 years of teaching, the author has practiced differentiation in her own classroom at all educational levels. Although she is well familiar with the vocabulary, research and reasoning behind it, the most compelling answer she can give for why differentiation matters in the middle grades comes from her personal experience as an…

A middle school teacher describes her experiences after being awarded a one-year grant to write curriculum, highlighting the process of scholarship. Her curriculum project concerned early adolescent females' self-efficacy, so she studied feminism in all its varieties. The paper describes her feelings about the beauty and importance of scholarship.…

Examines the concept of empowerment as a movement to foster the democratization of the workplace and staff development. Empowerment versus participative management, the relationship of empowerment to organizational theory, factors influencing empowerment in organizations, and possible consequences of successful empowerment for employees and…

Highlights the value of resilience as a key concept in work with young people in need and considers implications of a resilience-led approach for policy and practice. Discusses social and developmental factors influencing a child or young person's degree of resilience, with particular reference to the resilience enhancing potential of school…

A needs-based developmental induction program for beginning teachers should concentrate not only on orientation and development of individual strengths, but also on the situational/contextual personal and professional concerns of first-year teachers. The successful program tries to identify and meet the instructional and noninstructional…

Presents a model that identifies the reasons why parents become involved in their children's education, using the model to explain how such involvement influences the developmental and educational progress of children. The paper examines parents' choice of specific involvement and discusses why their involvement influences their children's…

Argues that technological skills and self-efficacy with computers are as fundamental to education as are English, math, and science. Examines the debate over educational technology, concluding that researchers stressing the short-term learning outcomes and cost effectiveness of technology are overlooking its long-term consequences. (PEN)

Research shows that parks and recreation services provide people with opportunities that have substantial positive health effects, resulting in massive public-health cost savings. In a rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt and collaborate is critical for leisure services professionals. Recreation and parks must be reconceptualized to remain…

This article examines the relationship between cognitive, instructional and social psychology. It is proposed that all human activity is instructive with self-instructive activity opening the person to the instructive activity of others. The psychologist's job is seen as finding out what can be taught and to whom. (DB)

Using the metaphor of the "Wizard of Oz," this paper satirizes the use of an unofficially identified and often highly paid group of educational consultants to reform and revitalize special needs career/vocational education. It begins with the premise that leaders in the educational system believe that they can somehow install three…

The International Task Force on Literacy, a coalition of non-governmental organizations, calls on other non-governmental organizations, governments, and heads of state to join its commitment to literacy and related principles. An introductory section links mass illiteracy to poverty, structural injustice, and economic marginalization, and focuses…

Claims that African American female adolescents have unique identity issues that structure developmental tasks. Uses data from a longitudinal study to explicate a three-dimensional model of the identity developmental process. Describes adolescents' development of skillful, unique, expressionistic, and assertive styles of dealing with perceived…

Describes the concept of telework, or telecommuting, and its influence on the electronic community and organizational structures. The electronically distributed organization is discussed, and implications for research on telework are suggested in the areas of privacy regulation, self-efficacy, temporal aspects of employee behavior, communication…

Considers ways that factors in the college environment can negatively affect the performance and perceptions of self-efficacy of students and faculty. Discusses the problems and needs of a fictional science instructor suddenly confronting students unable to understand basic course concepts and of an older student anxious about returning to school.…

Advances an important new way to conceptualize and assess the causes of parental behavior by examining how internal working models influence parents' beliefs and behaviors. Suggests that a primary source of parents' feelings of self-efficacy with respect to child rearing, as well as their explanations for their children's misbehavior, is the…