In the brain, five modules or systems (emotional, cognitive, physical learning, social, and reflective) wax and wane in influencing our thoughts and behavior. Emotionally, socially, and physically comfortable students attuned to the content being taught learn relatively easily. Focusing solely on cognitive learning is counterproductive. (MLH)

Argues that psychologists and personality theorists, who claim that values depend upon needs, have mistakenly reversed the order of dependence. Suggests needs do not determine values, but rather values determine needs. (RC)

Conducting question-and-answer sessions among teachers, parents, and mental health professionals can build a tighter home-school community while improving children's quality of life. This article presents the gist of one such meeting with three child psychoanalysts, early childhood-education professors, preschool parents, and teachers. Analysts…

To understand urban Native American students more fully, teachers must grasp the contrast between rural/reservation living and urban life (generally more hostile) for these students and their families. Teachers should determine students' home language and their degree of facility in school English. Teachers should also recognize Native American…

Special education teachers were surveyed to determine the social and emotional goals they had for their students with identified disabilities who were educated in the general education classroom for at least 80% of the school day. Seventy special educators reported on the assessment techniques they used to identify students' social and emotional…

Recently promulgated national education goals and school restructuring ideas overlook middle-school-aged children's unique needs and circumstances. Schools should foster the development of world-class people, not superemployees. Focus should be on developmental tasks and diverse opportunities for self-exploration, competency development,…

Evaluation of the Worker Loneliness Questionnaire, with 51 persons with mild, moderate, and severe mental retardation found the measure to be a reliable instrument with this population. Results showed some individuals were lonely; however, this was not a pervasive feeling. (Author/DB)

Because of changes in the family and other institutions, schools must fill the void created by students' lack of affective development before genuine learning can occur. This article provides guidelines for developing and implementing an advisory program for middle school students that successfully combines the elementary school's child-centered…

The dynamics of self-worth, confidence, and acceptance are much more complicated than portrayed in the simple self-esteem models promoted by today's educators. Because self-esteem is both a product and a motivating force, we can't simply label it as an instructional objective or value to be inculcated in children, independent of their performance.…

Crisis events may be viewed as expected, sudden, or catastrophic. Survivors have common needs: recognition of loss, soothing of fear, a sense of what happened, expression of feelings, assistance with adjustment, shared closure rituals, and ways to remember. Schools' crisis-response plans should include intervention and postintervention activities…

Men's violence against mothers and children as a context of separation significantly increases the immediate and longer-term parenting needs of affected children, according to a South Australian study of single mothers' transition and adaptation to living in a single parent household. Qualitative research interviews with 18 separated mothers who…

The dramatic ups and downs so often witnessed in adolescents are the result of changes in their brain activity. It is vital that the emotional and psychological needs that arise from such intense brain development are acknowledged and addressed so that middle school becomes a safe environment for the budding adults.

Social advertisers--those responsible for public and nonprofit advertising and marketing--must employ many of the major psychological motivations used by commercial advertisers to stimulate desire and action on the part of target audiences. For example, commercial advertisers create psychological stimuli to facilitate motivation of the fulfillment…

Examines some basic principles of evaluation and explains how school administrators can use performance evaluation as one way of making it possible for employees to know that they are achieving and that results are being obtained. (MLF)

Ignoring the emotional experience of school change may unintentionally sabotage rational planning. Reinventing schools means attending to educators' emotional experience, particularly their expectations, sense of loss, and resulting grief. School norms must be transformed so that teachers and administrators can have meaningful conversations about…