Describes a project in which fourth and sixth graders investigated man's relationship to the environment as they explored the physical area and learned the history of Turnbow cabin, Arches National Monument, Utah. (WY)

An instructional enrichment program in a Murfreesboro, N.C., school was designed to help academically retarded students in grades 3 to 8 (I.Q. 72-85). The participating students, who were retarded from 1 to 5 years, were grouped homogeneously to receive individual and small group instruction, and were encouraged to develop good listening and study…

Maintains that Dewey tried to solve social problems related to the growth of industrialism, increasing economic inequality, and political inequality. Argues that Dewey aspired to create a counterculture to correct the human and social devastation of industrial capitalism through a curriculum and instruction that rooted academic learning in…

Discusses Dewey's article on the reflex arc concept as critique of mechanistic approaches to psychology and suggestion for an approach based on evolutionary assumptions. Maintains that the resulting psychology gave an integrated way of understanding the relation between organism and environment, and cognition and behavior; the work anticipated…

Examined how well three measures, representing points on a traditional-alternative mathematics assessment continuum, discriminated fourth graders achieving above, at, and below grade level, and how cooperative testing affected performance assessment. Found strong discriminative validity for the more traditional measures but not for performance…

Used teacher beliefs and attitudes, principal beliefs and school norms, and teacher efficacy to predict effective teaching in heterogeneous classrooms. Found that the strongest predictors of effective teaching were: (1) the subjective school norm operationalized by the principal's attitudes and beliefs about heterogeneous classroom and report of…

Examined effects of using textbook alternatives on six fifth graders' experiences learning about American history. Found that students preferred alternative texts. Using multiple sources raised no questions for students about validity and reliability of evidence. Students used an information-quantity criterion to judge validity of evidence. Three…

First-grade and kindergarten teachers rated parents' involvement in their children's education. A significant portion of teachers reported limited knowledge of parents' involvement in their children's education. Findings were consistent with reports of a lack of opportunity for meaningful communication between parents and teachers, and indicate…

Within the context of current service learning legislation and litigation, a pilot study investigated effects of a service learning curriculum that was part of middle school advisory and science classes. Quantitative data indicated non-statistically significant growth in self-esteem and motivation. Student journals, essays, interviews, field…

Surveyed practices of 3,595 kindergarten teachers related to transition into kindergarten and implementation barriers. Found that in-person contacts with children/families were among those used least often. Most frequent were practices taking place after start of school and/or involving low-intensity, generic contact. School location and…

Documented reports of four Canadian teachers' experiences in kindergarten emergent-literacy program to determine the following: (1) changes in classroom literacy activities; (2) difficult and easy program components; (3) students' capacity for literacy learning; and (4) project satisfaction. Concluded that researchers need to involve teachers when…

Studied effects of three conditions on fourth-grade students' vocabulary acquisition: (1) listening to stories, with brief explanation of unfamiliar words; (2) listening to stories with no explanation of unfamiliar words; and (3) having no exposure to stories or to word explanations. Found that simple word explanations in the context of an…