Summarizes 10 basic exam questions relating to distance, direction, time, and world interest that have confounded college freshmen entering a professor's geography classes over the past 15 years. Students bewildered by the pretest usually did not pass or even finish his course. Also, foreign students performed better than American students. (MLH)

Demands for educational excellence are hard to answer because definitions of excellence differ, and excellence may not be readily quantifiable. Current reforms seem aimed at educational adequacy and standardization rather than at realizing individual potential. Reforms should probably focus less on testing and more on student motivation. (PGD)

Explores the interconnections among educational philosophy, professional commitment, technical support, curriculum, instruction, and accountability. Provides practical suggestions for translating general ideas of excellence into widespread improvements in the quality of instruction and student performance. Describes California's experience with…

The Commonwealth Teacher Training Study conducted shortly after World War I and the activities of the Commission on Teacher Education from 1938 to 1944 addressed the problems of recruiting and motivating higher quality education majors. The findings of these studies could prove highly relevant to today's concerns in teacher education. (PGD)

Pedagogy consists of three components: the generic behaviors common to teaching in all disciplines, content-specific teaching behaviors, and theoretical concepts useful for explaining the application of these behaviors. Pedagogical research provides critical information about the behaviors that are used, those that work, and the reasons they work.…

Describes the essential characteristics, development, implementation, and anticipated benefits of an innovative New Jersey program that will allow local districts to hire and train for certification prospective teachers who have college degrees and subject area expertise. (PGD)

The stocks of special materials and teaching hints constantly offered both new and veteran teachers promise to solve teaching problems, but instead merely increase teaching's complexity. The author's experiences as a teacher support her argument that emphasis in teacher education should be placed on developing effective attitudes in teachers. (PGD)

A high school principal who hires the products of teacher education programs comments on the shortcomings of teacher education, noting particularly the graduates' lack of professional pride and poor subject matter preparation, and the failure of programs to involve practicing teachers. (PGD)

Reflective Teaching is a form of laboratory experience suitable for preservice, inservice, and graduate level teacher education, as well as for research on teaching. Participants teach one or more of 36 specially designed lessons to small groups of peers, assess the learning that takes place, and evaluate their own effectiveness. (PGD)

Describes the author's experiences as a student in a one-room school accommodating grades one through eight. The lone teacher employed a style that maintained excellent discipline, fostered self-confidence in the students, drew significant lessons from everyday experience, and developed the whole person. (PGD)

By taking the oath presented in this article, educators avow their dedication to their profession and its ideals, to their students, to their own continued learning, and to promoting political, social, and economic equality through education. (PGD)

Institutions prarticipating in the Higher Education for Adult Mental Health Project created model programs to enhance the quality of their responses to growing numbers of adult students. This article describes the project and summarizes the efforts of 18 participating institutions located in the southern United States. (PGD)

Teachers at Ferris High School in Spokane, Washington, are joined by the parents of high school students in the production of elaborate annual shows that both create a sense of community and raise approximately $10,000 a year for the school. (PGD)

Teachers and administrators in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, received inservice training to prepare them for participation in a widely appreciated supervisory relationship that grants teachers professional respect and reserves formal evaluation for teachers who are clearly failing to meet objectives cited in their personal professional growth plans. (PGD)

The author went to graduate school, despite a warning that Ph.D's have difficulty finding jobs. Now he believes too many good students heeded the warning, leaving graduate schools populated with merely competent rather than challengingly intellectual graduate students just when a developing wave of college students will require hiring new…