Three articles present suggestions to help elementary teachers promote student development. The first describes games that encourage a sense of community. The second deals with making parent teacher conferences a positive experience. The third discusses how to give confused children who are involved in custody battles an alternative to acting out.…

Contends that is necessary to consider geography when shaping foreign policy. Presents a secondary school group activity designed to integrate geography with other social science disciplines. Includes objectives keyed to the five themes of geography and step-by-step instructional procedures. (CFR)

Presents an interview with Phil Nyden, a professor at Loyola University (Illinois). Describes his qualitative methods course. Includes his suggestion of a group project rather than individual research projects enabling students to focus on methodology rather than substantive issues. Lists course objectives: learning qualitative methods, applied…

This paper discusses theories and practices of the politics of curriculum reform tested while working to establish a freshman seminar course at the University of Prince Edward Island. The step-by-step procedure for negotiating the approval process is relevant to all types of curriculum reform. (Author/MLW)

Reports on a study of the attitudes of 542 students in grades 3-6 toward singing and choir participation in relation to grade level, gender, classroom singing activities, previous singing experience, and degree of singing skill. Finds that most subjects indicated a positive attitude toward singing, but less than half were interested in choral…

Proposes that collaborative small group work can serve as a model for transmitting democratic values and facilitating citizenship education in the classroom. Presents an example of a class divided into teams, arguing selected positions on immigration, and arriving at a written policy. Includes list of collaborative skills to be taught. (MJP)

This article deals with 12th-grade students' conceptions of a mathematical definition. Their conceptions of a definition were revealed through individual and group activities in which they were asked to consider a number of possible definitions of four mathematical concepts: two geometric and two analytic. Data consisted of written responses to…

An experimental study was designed to study the effectiveness of Problem Based Learning (PBL) in the context of higher education in an urban-city university in Lima, Peru. In the fall semester of 2004, eleven sections of Chemistry 1 were offered to first year students in the College of Science at this University. In six of these eleven sections…

This paper presents a multimedia mediated, student centred learning environment which seeks to study the group based, cooperative learning paradigm, using a web based multimedia project. This project is carried out in a Malaysian classroom by groups of students in the second year course in the Faculty of Creative Multimedia (FCM), Multimedia…

Residence hall students' (N = 1,186, 52% male, 90% White, 66% freshmen) involvement in their living community is influenced significantly by precollege student characteristics (gender, ethnicity), classification, attitudes (toward hall director, house cabinet, academic comfort, social environment, group study), and environmental variables (noise,…

As members of the faculty of the same college, the State University of New York at Potsdam, the fifteen contributors to this book have the unique experience of working from the same pool of students in order to explore how to improve teaching, enhance learning, and make the classroom more interesting. Together professors from thirteen different…

The Rhodes College (Memphis, Tennessee) History of Opera class collaborated with Opera Memphis to create a documentary on regional opera production, to present online information about Opera Memphis through a World Wide Web home page, and to construct a class home page to be used as a repository for examples of creative writing. The project…

The provision of child care and development programs that meet the specific needs of infants and toddlers is a major issue among professional caregivers. This monograph provides a quick guide to program planning that focuses specifically on the needs of very young children in group settings. The monograph explains and discusses the planning…

A case study of parental involvement in a seventh grade interdisciplinary activity, called "International Fair," at a Middle School is described and interpreted. The International Fair, the culmination of the work of student groups, involved students preparing booths representing the cultures of different countries and dressing up in…

This paper reports on a 12-week study of 131 students in eight fourth-grade social studies classrooms in two elementary schools in the southwestern United States with low socioeconomic, high minority populations. Although research has indicated that cooperative learning enhances student achievement, promotes self-esteem, and improves interpersonal…