Cooperation among students in classroom problem-solving activities is briefly discussed in terms of Piaget and cooperative problem-solving, guidelines for teachers, and the teacher's role. While research results are not unambiguous, teachers can encourage children to interact and share their perspectives during cooperative play by: (1) planning…

Presents resources available from the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) designed to help teachers implement strategies to reduce prejudice. Includes resources on using cooperative learning in prejudice reduction and resources for combating prejudice in the social studies classroom. Discusses four types of strategies for decreasing…

Philosophical and methodological differences exist regarding how best to instruct and encourage young children to read and write. In America, teaching reading and writing to young children has always been an area of controversy and debate, and it remains so today. The purpose of this digest is to review various studies and to identify essential…

This ERIC digest looks at how college faculty can use cooperative learning principles to ensure that students actively create their own knowledge and work together to achieve shared learning goals. The first section describes cooperative learning and recommends training professors to apply an overall system to build cooperative activities,…

Problem solving is the foundation of young children's learning. The role of the early childhood teacher in facilitating problem-solving behavior in children involves trusting children's attempts to learn through problem solving and maintaining a classroom environment that encourages problem solving. Curricula that foster children's problem solving…

A variety of responses to lifelong learning issues are contained in these essays by 12 practitioners directly involved in non-traditional educational alternatives. Sheila Gordon and Augusta Souza Kappner analyze the demographics, motivation, and environment of returning adult students. Peter Smith looks at the educator as facilitator rather than…

Describes how shared learning activities, including cooperative learning, collaborative learning, and small group learning, can develop critical reading and problem-solving skills. Discusses the teacher's role in guiding shared learning activities. (MM)

Seventeen position papers address essential elements in quality programing for visually handicapped learners. The papers represent the philosophy of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for the Visually Handicapped. Following two foundation position papers, "Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired" (K. Huebner) and "Visually…

The time spent in the regular English-language classroom is critical for the limited-English-proficient (LEP) student in eventual mainstreaming. The classroom teacher can work productively with LEP students in the classroom to maximize their exposure to authentic language during the school day. Classroom communication should be simple and clear,…

Each teacher has a style of teaching that provides the most effective way to help students grasp the desired learning concepts. One point teachers agree on is that teaching vocabulary to children needs to be an active process that engages students in entertaining activities and helps them build a bridge between already known vocabulary and the new…

The digest addresses, in question-and-answer format, ways to promote peer acceptance of handicapped students. Topics covered include the effects of first impressions on nonhandicapped students and the impact of physical proximity, and the nature of interdependence among students' learning goals and rewards as structured by the teacher. A…

In the situated learning approach, knowledge and skills are learned in contexts that reflect how knowledge is obtained and applied in everyday situations. As an instructional strategy, situated cognition is a means for relating subject matter to learners' needs and concerns. Four major premises guide the development of classroom activities for…

Cooperative arrangements between academic institutions and industry are examined, with attention to linkages in high technology research and development (R&D), the commercial application of R&D (technology transfer), and the preparation and continuing development of scientific and engineering personnel. Incentives and barriers to campus/corporate…

This booklet reviews the literature and offers guidelines to assist in the integration of students with behavioral disorders into mainstream settings and the delivery of appropriate instructional services to these students. In Part I, Robert A. Gable and Virginia K. Laycock offer practical advice on how principals, other administrators, and…

The gap between Generation X and earlier generations represents much more than age and technological differences. It reflects the effects of a changing society on a generation. Social changes such as the increase in single-parent households and households with both parents working, corporate downsizing and layoffs, limited opportunities for career…