This paper discusses negative consequences for students placed in low ability classes and presents some alternative grouping and instructional practices which have been proven effective in heterogeneous classrooms. (LMO)

Cooperative learning fosters better student achievement than individualistic methods, increases cross-ethnic friendships, improves students' self-esteem, and creates positive attitudes toward other students and the school. Cooperative learning requires a period of adjustment on the part of teachers and pupils. Six cooperative learning techniques…

Reviews research on instructional methods designed to operationalize the principal elements of Allport's contact theory of intergroup relations. These cooperative learning methods, which employ ethnically mixed learning groups who are rewarded for learning as a group, have had positive effects on intergroup relations and on the academic…

Examines the effects of school types and ability grouping within school types on individual student performance. Results demonstrate that students in high ability groups gain more and students in low ability groups gain less over a five-year period than they would be expected had they not been separated into ability groups. (Author/PS)

Reviews the range of thought concerning the extent to which the student's educational experience should be formally structured and externally imposed or informal and structurally controlled by the student. Recommends allowing students to make choices to the extent that they are comfortable and learning remains functional and effective. (PGD)

Offers suggestions for organizing the primary classroom to provide ideal conditions for teaching reading. (DF)

"Looping" is a practice that allows single-grade teachers to remain with the same class for 2 or more years. Organized in a question-and-answer format, this book answers 72 questions about looping commonly asked by teachers and parents, including questions about its benefits, disadvantages, and implementation. Chapters include: (1) "What Is…

This handbook is designed to help student teachers and beginning teachers handle the "surprises" they encounter on the job. The scenarios in the book identify critical incidents and potential situations teachers are likely to face and offer help in keeping teachers out of unpleasant situations or suggesting courses of action when they find…

This study compared cognitive, social, and affective progress of students in a multi-graded classroom and a single-graded classroom. Participating were teachers in kindergarten/first, first, and second grade classrooms and a random sample of their students at two suburban Virginia schools. Five teachers taught in single-graded classrooms and one…

Historical information about how teachers have taught over the past century was reviewed to determine what patterns of teacher behavior have persisted over time, despite reformers' efforts to change them. Although there were periods of change during the 1920s and the 1960s, teacher-centered instruction reasserted itself after reform efforts…

Describes the advantages of an ecological and active approach to classroom management, presents an analysis of how such an approach might be developed, and discusses several issues which need to be addressed in order to improve classroom management. Twenty-nine references are listed. (Author/CHC)

The administrator of a high school equivalency program discusses the needs and preferences of returning adult students and suggests steps that the school can take to make these students feel comfortable on campus and in the classroom. (SJL)

Describes pedagogical experiment with emphasis on the student and his/her specific needs and motivations. Involves self- and group work with teacher support. Individual work alternates with group work, focusing on production of a project or task corresponding to objectives defined by members of group. (Author/BK)

The author describes a modern one-room schoolhouse in Ocracoke, North Carolina--an open plan building in which six teachers instruct students aged 6 through 17. He extols the school's individualized learning environment, flexibility, and humanistic philosophy. (SJL)

The "cyberjournal" is a bridge between handwritten journals and word-processed essays that can be integrated into college courses to help students improve writing skills and maintain classwide discourse and multivoicedness through the Internet. Discusses the advantages of cyberjournals (class-centered, public, task-focused,…