Four-year-olds attending traditional and Montessori preschools were compared on two memory tasks and on three social cognitive reasoning tasks. Although the Montessori students performed better on the recognition task, there were no other significant differences between the groups. Conclusions about the Montessori curriculum were made. (GDC)

Describes study which indicates that the attitudes of curriculum supervisors toward possible consequences of curriculum organizations of magnet schools is less favorable than their attitude toward consequences of the comprehensive school. Magnet schools are those designed to accommodate specific student interests (performing arts, engineering).…

Begins with a brief overview of the origins of constructivist thinking among the philosophers and the major forms of constructivism. Continues with definitions and descriptions of models of constructivist classrooms and teams. And concludes with a comparison of constructivist and traditional approaches to learning. (Contains 27 references.) (WFA)

Reflects on seminar presentations within four major themes: (1) the acceleration of change in higher education owing mostly to information and communication technologies; (2) complementarity and contrast between virtual and classical universities; (3) institutional responses to change; and (4) quality issues. Proposes various agendas for further…

After Deer Valley School District (Arizona) adopted a whole-language, discovery-based curriculum, parents who believed in a traditional "basics" curriculum established Valley Academy, a charter K-9 school serving 455 students. After struggling through administrative and financial problems, bad publicity, and interpersonal conflict, the principal…

Argues that the commodification of knowledge that would be the logical consequence of marketing online education is still resisted by traditional institutes where the penchant for scholasticism and academic independence is rigorously maintained. States that it is questionable whether this scholastic heritage should be sacrificed for the largely…

Academic leaders are not sure how to deal with for-profit universities, especially those that offer degrees online. One perspective is that they may disappear, victims of criticism, fraud, and abuse. However, thoughtful analysts believe that an Internet revolution is transforming higher education worldwide. If that is true, educators had better…

The school choice debate evokes compelling arguments by advocates and opponents alike. As the controversy continues, urban school districts are losing significant resources to charter schools. Districts seeking to compete in the race to reclaim dollars lost to the school choice battle should emulate the factors that have propelled parents to seek…

The 10 journal articles and documents annotated in this bibliography cover various aspects of the controversy provoked by the emergence of the back-to-basics movement. Several attempt to define the movement and to place it in political and educational context. One paper reports statistics on its growth. Several sources delineate the movement's…

THIS STUDY WAS DESIGNED TO EVALUATE THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRESS OF CHILDREN IN AN UNGRADED PRIMARY SCHOOL PROGRAM. THE EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS WERE SIX GROUPS OF CHILDREN WHO WERE COMPARED WITH STUDENTS IN THE SAME SCHOOL OPERATING IN A TRADITIONAL GRADED SYSTEM. DATA WERE GATHERED THROUGH (1) TEACHER OBSERVATION OF PUPIL HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR…

A series of single day visits to selected elementary and secondary schools in Illinois, Nevada, California, Florida, and Massachusetts was made by a visitation team of teachers, administrators and architects from the Monroe (Michigan) School District. This document reports the visitation team's impressions of developing educational systems,…

Data indicates a greater positive attitude toward school held by children in an open program compared to children in a traditional program, thus supporting the idea that an open environment may lead to more positive attitudes toward school. This research is drawn from an extensive evaluation of open education being conducted under the leadership…

This paper describes the educational movement toward alternative schools and suggests further sources of information concerning this change in American education. Following an analytical comparison of open and traditional schools, the author discusses some of the most important perceived problems related to open schools. Problems noted are…

Open school Native American students had a more positive self-identification than either Native American or white traditional pupils. (Author)

Two open plan schools were compared with two schools of traditional architecture so that the relationship between the building design and the program could be examined. (Author/MLF)