Describes a quasi-experimental study comparing students' perceptions of empowerment in two sections of a graduate social-work course. One section was taught using a traditional format of lectures, exams, and papers. The other was taught with techniques intended to empower students: learning contracts, formative evaluations, and narrative…

Examines the problem of bullying in and around schools, providing information to help those involved in school life recognize the characteristics of a bully and understand the symptoms of children who are victims of bullying. Provides a basis from which caregivers can understand and implement workable intervention strategies. (SM)

Adults cannot adequately prevent their children from observing media messages. Students are actually safer if they are educated about analyzing and assessing unsavory messages for themselves. Appropriate media-literacy pedagogy involves five essential elements: background, tools, deconstruction of media techniques, product evaluation, and original…

Presents practical suggestions for encouraging empowerment in young children. Describes how a shift in the instructional focus from teaching to empowering can be incorporated throughout the school day. Emphasizes that children's qualities, such as kindness, helpfulness, and flexibility, must be encouraged and noted equally as often as tangible…

Presents case study data on one sixth-grade classroom of Kids as Global Scientists (KGS) project participants during the eight-week program. Finds that students made significant gains in weather content knowledge, and interviews revealed a high level of student motivation and satisfaction with the project. (Contains 38 references.) (Author/WRM)

An experiential practitioner discusses the foundations of his ethical perspective on challenge by choice--participant choice within adventure activities. These foundations include existential and experiential philosophy, leisure theory, and the adventure-based counseling model. The ethics of choice and informed consent is discussed in relation to…

Proposes that higher education, particularly community colleges, be evaluated not solely on institutions' functional merits or impact on student income but on their value in developing active citizens. Of special significance is the finding that community college attendance is associated with an increased sense of self-empowerment, and may offer…

Illustrates the use of multigenre research reports, a collection of student responses to a topic that incorporates several different writing modes. A ninth-grade global issues class was assigned a multigenre research project on Latin America. Reveals the results of the projects and provides an appendix. (CMK)

Materialism and the commodification of knowledge and education have left students alienated and disinterested. In response, some Chicano students have revolted against educational dehumanization and are engaged in a process of spiritualization through indigenismo. Chicano studies provides a potential path toward educational transformation by…

Explains that individualized still-life arrangements steer students away from duplicating cultural forms as subject matter and replaces them with the process of training the eye to observe line, space, proportion, texture, and color in changing settings. Describes how students can create their own still-life arrangements. (CMK)

Describes the use of a token economy in a fifth-grade classroom that teaches students economic concepts and helps develop their decision-making skills. States that students learn about scarcity, savings, price, inflation, insurance, rent, and utilities. Includes additional resources. (CMK)

Examines both civic and academic outcomes for 260 students participating in three models of service learning courses (placement-service optional, placement-service required, and a consulting group). Explains that after one semester of service learning, student outcomes were mixed. Suggests that instructors consider carefully whether to require…

Defines Structured Freedom as a model of instruction that gives students responsibility for their own learning and engages them in convergent and divergent thinking. Illustrates the use of Structured Freedom in social studies instruction by applying its four stages to a Pueblo Indians unit that focuses on historical comparison. (CMK)

Describes how one teacher used peer review to help students understand state content standards. Students held one another accountable for the basics, then she assessed the core content of their work. To get students thinking about standards-based learning, she used a pizza activity. Next, students created rubrics for assessing book reports and…

Explores the reasons for using the Internet in the classroom: (1) stimulates student interest; (2) develops information literacy; (3) encourages student interaction; and (4) offers students control over their learning. Discusses two examples of how the Internet can enhance the social studies curriculum and recognizes the barriers to Internet…