This paper reviews research on grouping of students within classes and its effects on learning. Primary consideration is given to grouping and mixing students by ability, though consideration is also given to grouping and mixing students by ethnicity and gender as well as to research on the effects of group size. Results of meta-analyses of…

Liberal education and liberal society are both being transformed into their opposites as the utopian project of diversity, multiculturalism, and group equality continues apace. Taking Allan Bloom as a guide, Carol Iannone explains the way in which American democracy was meant to work and how education was meant to function within it. Iannone…

Schooling for girls is a relatively recent process in Booni Valley, a remote mountainous village in Chitral District, Pakistan. It is impacting greatly upon the lives of the women. This study has taken an ethnographic perspective and has assumed that an understanding of women's schooling requires a detailed, in-depth account of women's actual…

In the wake of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act, localities across the United States initiated public information campaigns both to raise awareness of threats to air quality and to change behavior related to air pollution by recommending specific behavioral changes in the campaign messages. These campaigns are designed to reduce the health…

Issues in the study of friendship across cultures were explored by reviewing a set of studies focusing on the friendships of Indonesian and United States youth. Four topics are considered: similarity of friendships across cultures, dimensions of friendships that vary across cultures, the utility of the individualism/collectivism dimension for…

Purpose: Guidelines developed to minimise the risk of harm associated with alcohol consumption in Australia focus on promoting population health by changing cultural attitudes. This research study was conducted to uncover attitudes toward maternal drinking and awareness of alcohol-related birth defects within the semi-rural Northern Rivers area of…

Social images of Indian/white relations, so typically born and nurtured in fiction, frequently seem impervious to fact, circumstance, perspective, or even argument. Despite a public that in record numbers consumed descriptions like the one that closes Dee Brown's 1971 book, for instance, official accounts of the massacre at Wounded Knee--like…

In examining the university structure, this chapter raises questions as to how institutional protocols can and should be put in place that will ensure that the commitment to urban education is being met, specifically in teacher preparation. In responding to Gutierrez and Jaramillo, these authors do two things. First, they attempt to characterize…

This study focused on how school-age children develop and refine their strategies for dealing with aversive emotions, defined as fear, shame, anger, sadness, and hurt feelings. Two groups of children were used, one from a public school, serving a working class neighborhood, and the other from a sexual abuse treatment agency. The aversive emotions…

The Minnesota Department of Education has created a plan, "Unlearning Violence," to aid schools and communities in their efforts to create safe and nurturing environments for all the state's children. The goals and challenges of this plan were formulated with the involvement of over 600 citizens and an in-depth study of research related…

Exposure to industrialization, urbanization, and commercial activities in the past 45 years has improved attitudes towards women in Pakistan, but they are still considered subordinate to men and the property of parents or husband. Traditional social values do not allow women full integration and participation in social and economic activities.…

This theme issue of the Bernard van Leer Foundation newsletter focuses on the problem of teenage pregnancy and teenage parenthood in developing and developed nations, and examines the problems that teenage mothers face in different societies. It explores societal norms and values related to teenage parenting; the effects of teenage parents on…

This paper outlines a collaborative research project between six teacher training universities in Australia and South Africa which investigated preservice teachers' acceptance of and social interactions with people with a disability. Preservice teachers (n=2,850) were asked to complete a 20-item Interactions with Disabled Person Scale and twelve…

This newsletter describes the 6-year Supporting Diversity in Schools (SDS) project that seeks to create school environments free of racial prejudice and privilege. It briefly describes the program's working themes: (1) giving a voice to people who have traditionally been silent in the shaping of classroom practices; (2) developing pride in…

Results of a study on attitudes of Filipino college students concerning human population issues are reported. A total of 74 University of the Philippines students, half of whom were enrolled in a natural science course, answered a 15-part questionnaire on dating, friendship, premarital sex, marital expectations, and birth control. Several…