Because idioms are omnipresent in the authentic language students are exposed to, to successfully comprehend and produce natural language, learners of a second or foreign language need to possess a good knowledge of idioms and competence in idiom use. This paper examines the approaches to teaching and learning idioms. A discussion of the…

Over the past decade, vocational and technical education teachers were encouraged to use commercially produced task lists to develop their curriculum materials. Unfortunately, however, many commercially developed task lists distributed by private companies, state departments of education, universities, and many other agencies may, to some extent,…

As microcomputers have become increasingly more economical to purchase, vocational teachers have found that they have the equipment but little courseware for vocational-technical education areas. To help solve this problem, the staff of the Francis Tuttle Vo-Tech Center (Oklahoma) decided to develop their own vocational software and established…

This document contains specific exercises designed to help secondary students understand the spatial and temporal characteristics of hurricanes that affect the eastern part of the United States. Selected exercises require students to: (1) use maps; (2) interpret statistics; and (3) perform mathematical calculations. Introductory material is…

These workshop materials describe an approach to teaching children about dinosaurs. The lesson centers on a story written by Dr. Edith Bondi and illustrated by Shawn Turung, entitled "Just Like People." The story, appended, consists of 36 ways dinosaurs are similar to and, occasionally, different from human beings. Illustrations, too,…

Questionnaires designed to tap misconceptions of the content of psychology courses can serve as pedagogical devices useful for introducing students to topics and for evaluating student learning. The topic of sleep and dreams is of particular interest to students. To develop a useful introductory tool and to evaluate students' knowledge of sleep,…

Examples of primary source materials that can be used in a U.S. history survey course are presented to illustrate the use of primary documents to provide insight into how particular individuals or groups reacted to specific events. An introduction to the documents and their significance in U.S. history is provided, along with suggestions for class…

This document addresses the questions of what teachers have achieved during the U. S. Constitution Bicentennial celebration in the areas of curriculum development and instruction and whether or not the celebration has been accompanied by educational renewal and improvement in secondary schools. Persistent problems in teaching and learning about…

English for specific purposes (ESP) coursebooks compiled by writers in the People's Republic of China are described. Eight textbooks are examined focusing on their common features in terms of reading passages, reliance upon Chinese language, focus upon the Chinese environment, emphasis upon structural grammar, focus upon vocabulary, rhetorical…

Designed to determine how well the student materials and teachers' guides of commercial spelling programs inform teachers of and reflect important spelling research, present management systems adaptable to individual student needs, provide strategies eliminating unnecessary or nonspelling instruction, and maximize the provisions for individual…

Guidelines for understanding computer-assisted instruction (CAI) pedagogical designs and evaluating CAI software for its relevance to specific teaching and learning objectives are presented in this paper. Topics discussed include applications, drawbacks, and examples of the five types of CAI software--drill and practice, tutorial, simulation,…

This paper describes the "Make-A-Problem" activity through which students can reframe their attitudes toward mathematics by putting art into the mathematics class. "Make-A-Problem" contains three sections: (1) problem--the student creates a problem dealing with a specific concept assigned by the instructor; (2) picture--an artistic interpretation…

Describes the involvement of the classics department at the University of Maryland in promoting the study of Latin, specifically by providing inservice teacher workshops for high school Latin teachers and by hosting a Latin Day for high school students. (EKN)

CAMILLE's primary objective is to exploit recent developments in multimedia computing to create a flexible, student-centered, electronic language learning environment to support the acquisition of a second language. The consortium's first target was to produce a learning resource for beginners of Spanish and another for beginners of Dutch, as well…

This study, part of a larger research project on political socialization in Europe, examines the role of educational materials in informing individuals in the Netherlands about the political system of the European Community. The report covers five topics: (1) educational materials; (2) educational materials in an ends-means model of formal…