Theme study is student centered and emphasizes a coherent and holistic approach to learning through the study of broad themes rather than compartmentalized subject areas. This book explains what is meant by a theme studies approach to education and illustrates how it works with case studies--descriptions of theme studies that were conducted at a…

The Green Circle human relations program is designed to help elementary aged children to develop a sense of self worth and an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of human differences. In this guide for leaders/demonstrators, a basic script is suggested for the presentation of the program. Leaders are encouraged to adapt the script to the…

This study examines the effects of interdependent goals and cooperative learning environments on conformity in children. Each of the subjects (390 3rd and 4th grade children) was randomly assigned to a 3-child learning group (or to a no-group control) and then to one of seven experimental or control conditions. The experimental conditions and…

Social studies peer work groups (PWGs) in fifth grade classrooms were more frequent than math PWGs and involved a broader variety of student behaviors and cognitive levels. The majority of social studies groups were cooperative in both task and reward structures. For both subjects, student involvement was highest in cooperatively task-structured…

Microcomputers are useful for writing in classrooms, especially if they are integrated into the classroom context through writing activities appropriate to this medium. Elementary school students' uses of microcomputers to: (1) create a newspaper; (2) send electronic messages; and (3) write reports or letters using interactive text programs are…

This action research project addressed the problem of missing assignments among fourth- and fifth-graders at a school in northern Illinois. In order to document the extent to which students lacked responsibility for turning in daily assignments, the teacher-researchers kept track of missing assignments for each student and grade book records for 6…

This study investigated Hong Kong elementary school teachers' and students' attitudes toward cooperative learning. Teachers from one school completed a two-part questionnaire. Part 1 asked for personal information. Part 2 had eight sections that discussed: organizational strategies used in the classroom; frequency of using classroom organizational…

This textbook offers coursework in English composition and grammar. The first part concerns the sentence as a whole. The second deals with predicates and subjects, makes clear the nature of connectives and modifiers, explains the difference between phrases and clauses, and treats of several other of the more common matters of English syntax.…

Third- and fourth-grade volunteers created two large murals at Nishuane Elementary School. This article is one of four in this issue on elementary mural projects. (SJL)

These activities explore classification and logical reasoning by providing students with opportunities to generate multiple answers and engage in multiple classifications of the same item. No solutions are suggested so that students will look to themselves as the mathematical authorities. Sample items for classification include birthday months,…

This study examined the effect that instruction about and participation in groupwork/cooperative learning had on preservice teachers' attitudes toward cooperative learning, especially their knowledge of related academic and social benefits, and their pedagogical competence to organize classrooms for group work/cooperative learning. Surveys…

Describes a study that determined whether combining cooperative learning strategies with instruction delivered using an integrated learning system (ILS) produced academic and attitudinal gains in fifth-grade students. Results revealed that students using an ILS in cooperative groups for mathematics instruction performed better and were more…

Examined how teachers divided time within the school-year and daily timetables. Data were collected from three schools, using field notes, tape recordings, photographs, discussion, and the Kelly Personal Construct Theory. Found problems of lack of support and lack of quality in interaction with students. Results suggest that better physical and…

Presents a Project WET water education activity. Through a game of limbo, students experience the effort involved in meeting drinking water quality standards. Students investigate the relationship between water quality and water treatment and the ratio of one to a million. (LZ)