Based on Parrot's work with college students, a six-activity acquaintance rape prevention program for first-year high school students living in a rural South Carolina community was implemented and evaluated. The program decreased students' acceptance of rape myths compared with non-participating students both on a scale developed by Burt and on…

Argues that students must be encouraged to discover their personal reactions to literature rather than to parrot the teacher's response. (MM)

Four components have made particular teachers what they are. First, they have found that students respond best when given positive encouragement. Recent research suggests that an invitational school, where encouragement is the norm, is far more productive than a school that does not invite students to learn. The second component is the teacher's…

Children shouldn't memorize mathematical facts and procedures like parrots, but should learn to think mathematically. In this article, the authors stress that mathematics involves making sense. They provide some simple mathematical challenges for readers to make sense of and to try with their classes.

List of materials needed and procedures are provided for (1) making wobbly bird figures out of plastic pantyhose eggs; and (2) making parrot puppets out of household items. Although geared for art, the activities can be used to complement activities in science or other subjects. (JN)

Article adapted from a speech delivered to a Conference of the John Adaskin Project, sponsored by the Canadian Music Center (Toronto, Ontario, November 23, 1967).

The art of effective college teaching in any discipline should focus on creating critical thinkers. The teacher's role in this endeavor includes encouraging students, accepting student views different from his own, promoting active intellectual participation by students, and continually rethinking and revising syllabi. (MSE)

An African gray parrot, taught to employ the vocalization "want" before an object label so as to discriminate functional labeling from requesting, subsequently generalized "want" to novel situations. The findings of the study indicate that the training procedure might be applicable to intervention programs for humans with…

In suggesting that affirmative action goals and timetables cause racial tension, and in recommending reliance on "free and automatic" access to economic opportunities, the chairperson of the Commission on Civil Rights makes the commission a political parrot of current administrative policy rather than a strong advocate of federal…

In articles on sex and character education in the November 1993 "Educational Leadership," Thomas Lickona parrots slogans and fake history and statistics contrived by the Religious Right. Lickona blames Darwin's evolution theory for variable morality and repeats fabricated success claims for Teen-Aid and Sex Respect, right-wing programs…

Explains how a powerful group of parents and mathematicians manipulated information and capitalized on the public's perception of California's "failing schools" to acquire political clout. In California, "teaching for understanding" is now a banished concept, and mastery of procedural skills ("parrot math") has scored…

Critically examines and responds to the persistent argument by religionists that high school graduation prayer is somehow constitutional despite "Lee versus Weisman." Addresses the loopholes advocated and concludes that the courts have clearly rejected each of them. (183 footnotes) (MLF)

Keeping the pupils' interest up throughout the year in a compulsory language class is a major problem and therefore, language-teaching games are very important. Some new suggestions for games to be used in the elementary school are: (1) The Parrot; (2) The Robot; (3) Ping-Pong; and (4) Telephone. Card games such as Happy Families can be played…

"The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots" by Irene Pepperberg is reviewed from a behavior analytic orientation. The results of the majority of her experiments are discussed in terms drawn from the general literature of behavior analysis and Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior. We conclude that she has provided…

How do international speakers of English assert their identities as legitimate teachers of English given the privileged position of the native speaker? To answer this question, we present case studies of two students from Taiwan in their first year of study in a 2-year master of arts in TESOL (MATESOL) program. The data included interviews after…