Profiles the Indiana Exchange Project, an endeavor that uses technology to link fourth-grade teachers and students from three geographically and ethnically diverse communities. The students exchange letters, photographs, response journals, local newspapers, and videotapes of classroom and community activities. Includes an example of a summary…

Focuses on a lesson plan that uses reader-response theory to engage students in a study of a short poem about the holocaust. Reader response theory maintains that each reader brings valuable insight and experience to the interpretation of a work. Includes an annotated bibliography on Holocaust poetry. (MJP)

Provides an overview of the research concerning students' perceptions of foreign nations. Compares and contrasts the various measurement techniques including the two most commonly used; semantic differential scales and pair comparisons. Suggests methods for alternative analysis and offers recommendations for future research. Includes a sample…

Identifies content analysis as the process of making inferences about a document by systematically identifying and quantifying certain characteristics of the communication. Characteristics could include style, intended audience, format, message, and surrounding circumstances. Includes several classroom examples, as well as related activities, and…

Describes a project at Athens Academy (Georgia) to integrate media technology into a non-computer course on Middle Eastern studies. Class organization, materials, lessons, instructional methods, and activities are outlined. Analyses problems encountered during the course and reports on an evaluation of the course by outside observers. (DSK)

Argues that social studies teachers need to involve their students in building their own pyramids of knowledge from basic facts into broad general principles. Discusses a class at Moorhead State University (Minnesota) that uses the inquiry method to help student teachers learn to construct lessons that follow the…

Outlines the history, goals, and topics covered by social studies in junior secondary schools in Botswana. Questionnaire responses from 150 junior secondary teachers address conceptions about the definition and content of social studies, the qualities of instructional materials, the quality of social studies teachers, and other related problems.…

Summarizes a geography unit for elementary school students that allows them to explore the social geography of their own local environment and compare it with those of students in partner schools around the world via the Internet. Includes suggestions for teachers who wish to create their own projects. (DSK)

Explains why the transition economies experienced sharp decline after the breakup of the former Soviet Union. Offers some personal accounts and comments on prospects for future development in Central and Eastern Europe. Notes how people in these countries view the transition to market economies. (DSK)

Reports on interviews conducted with Ukrainian teachers who were asked whether they and others they know are better, or worse, off since Ukrainian independence. Addresses inflation, private enterprise, delayed salaries, and new freedoms. Provides insights into the effects of the transition on people's lives and hopes for the future. (DSK)

Describes two books of curriculum materials published by the National Council on Economic Education regarding the Central and East European transition economies: (1) "Economies in Transition: Command to Market" (1997); and (2) "From Plan to Market: Teaching Ideas for Social Studies, Economics, and Business Classes" (1997). (DSK)

Explains the leadership role taken by the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) in running programs in the transition economies to prepare classroom teachers and teacher educators for teaching the basics of how market economies work. Describes training, curriculum development, and exchange programs conducted by NCEE. (DSK)

Advocates the use of archaeology and anthropology as tools for delivering multicultural education in the elementary setting. Argues that archaeology demonstrates to children the ways that various cultures have solved problems related to a common set of human needs. Discusses curriculum design and includes two lesson plans. (DSK)

Describes a project to collect, organize, and analyze petitions to state legislatures and county courts concerning race, slavery, and free blacks in the South between 1776 and 1867. Presents a lesson plan designed to incorporate these, and similar documents, into middle-, and high-school history classes. Includes a sample document. (DSK)

Details and assesses the life and education career of Susanna Rowson, particularly her involvement with geography education in the early United States. Discusses her childhood, career in the arts and on the stage, novel writing, educational career, geography textbooks, and relations with other early U.S. geographers. (DSK)