J.E.B. Stuart High School moved into the minicourse elective program five years ago from an anthology-survey oriented English curriculum. The students are grouped into two levels, one offering minicourses for eleventh and twelfth graders and the other offering minicourses for ninth and tenth grade students, with some courses open to all of the…

This paper argues that teachers of English may be reverting to a kind of doublespeak in elective English programs which reflects an unsteady knowledge of how to evaluate all English programs. The terms "elective" and "teacher specialization" are examined as they relate to the classroom experience. Labeling a course as an…

Taiwan's senior high school technology education (TE) is moving from industrial arts (IA) to living technology (LT). However, senior high school LT faces two major challenges. First, LT, a required course, may be changed to an elective. Second, there is only a vague distinction between junior high school LT and senior high school LT. In terms of…

The objective of the study was to determine whether Competency-Based Testing (CBT) schools altered their curriculum differently than Non-Competency-Based Testing schools (NCBT), and, if so, what selected factors were identified as contributing to the differences among the responses secondary schools made to CBT. The data from 410 member high…

"Death in Literature," a nine-week elective course for high school juniors and seniors, was added to the English curriculum at a Kansas City high school in 1976. It has proved very popular with students and is being expanded to 18 weeks. The explicit objectives of the course are to help students to explore the theme of death in various types of…

Background, rationale, and consequences of a plan for teaching introductory undergraduate psychology are described. The setting is a college where eight to ten members of the psychology department have traditionally shared the teaching of introductory courses. The faculty recognized that there was not consensus on the content of an exemplary…

This research examined the effects of belief-based messages on the intentions of ninth and tenth grade, Hispanic-American students to enroll in their first elective science course at the pre-college level, chemistry. The design of the study was guided by the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1989) and the Elaboration Likelihood Model of…

In order to promote multi-cultural literacy among its students, Delaware County Community College (DCCC) developed a multi-cultural sequence of humanities electives. The sequence emerged as a response to the predominantly White student body's lack of knowledge or curiosity about other cultures. The first of the four courses in the sequence is…

The traditional upper-level course in French civilization at Utah State University was abandoned in favor of a course entitled "France Today," taught once a year to a consistent enrollment of students majoring in a wide variety of disciplines. The content varies somewhat each year, but the class typically begins with several class…

This study was undertaken to determine if high school females who elected an accelerated mathematics program could be distinguished from high school females who elected a regular mathematics program on the basis of parental modeling, parental reinforcement, and academic and career interests. Findings indicated that the groups were differentiated…

During the early decades of social science in the United States, the strong applied emphasis in sociology and the mutual interest of sociology and social work in social reform made these disciplines nearly indistinguishable. The dissolution in 1909 of the American Social Science Association began a period of divergence between the two disciplines…

Current advertising courses and educational practices reflect advertising education's allegiance to the real world, particularly the real world as defined by large advertising agencies. A student-run ad agency provides students with a total learning experience on a small advertising agency scale in line with what they are likely to experience in…

Differences found in men's and women's attitudes towards mathematics, and differences in demonstrated abilities and experiences in mathematics classes are detailed. The sample used includes 479 pupils from 22 classes in 11 urban and suburban schools, with approximately 49% of the students female. The instruments used to collect data included…

Reasoning that in a basic English class there is barely enough time to read one or two novels a year, an English teacher convinced the principal of a Youngstown junior-senior high school that an independent reading course would be of tremendous value to those students who are avid readers as well as those who enjoy reading but can never seem to…

This study examined the links between Australian adolescents' achievement goal orientation and the information sources they used when making decisions about returning to school and selecting courses for the elective final 2 years of high school. A total of 230 year-11 students from 2 coeducational comprehensive schools in a large city…