Cognitive science research has created considerable change in people's understanding of what learning is and how it happens. This change has implications for teaching, learning, and assessment. To develop students' deep understanding of a subject, teachers must understand cognitive theories of learning and apply them in their classroom-assessment…

The paper discusses the process of achieving a conceptual understanding of domain knowledge, examining what type of knowledge matters most in all domains and suggesting the importance of capturing the unique essence within each discipline of what it means to know and understand within that domain. (SM)

The content, skills, pedagogy, and structure that should guide the design of service learning curricula for citizenship education are examined. For service learning to teach youth about their responsibilities as citizens in a democratic society, content and strategies must model and support democratic principles. (SM)

Examines human qualities that undergird citizens' commitment to the common good in diverse societies, suggesting that community service fosters such qualities. Planned interactions across social barriers are necessary to develop qualities of citizenship for pluralistic nations. (SM)

The Constitutional Rights Foundation works to determine how service learning can best educate youth for active citizenship. This article traces the evolution of the group's thinking about service learning and citizenship education, and describes their civic participation framework, programs, and program components. (SM)

This article presents the traditional view of schooling as a barrier to reform; it explicates the learner-centered vision of schooling as an alternative, identifies the underpinnings of the learner-centered approach to schooling, and explores how this vision of schools as learner-centered environments might be enacted. (SM)

Examines why schools and teachers are stalled in their efforts to become more learning oriented, using site-based management as an example of certain desirable and undesirable elements of school reform. Radical reculturing of the school as institution and basic redesign of the teaching profession are recommended to achieve necessary changes. (SM)

Explores the relationship between ambiguity and uncertainty on one hand, and learning and school culture on the other, suggesting that schools must become places where uncertainty, ambiguity, and inquiry are cherished parts of the culture of learning. The paper includes high school faculty and students' reflections on such experiences. (SM)

Identifies and comments on the educational assumptions, policies, and practices that are in harmony with learner- centered schools (processes and purposes of schooling, people in schools, and structure of schools), noting those that serve as repressors to achieving such schools (meritocracy and instrumentality, competition and standards,…

After acknowledging that learning and knowing are coconstructed social processes created and shared by teachers and students as learners, the paper examines mindfulness and multiculturalism as learner-centered processes. Mindfulness, multiculturalism, and learner centeredness are interdependent mindsets that encourage interplay between teacher,…

After describing collaboration and its role in school reform, the paper discusses commonalities and distinctions of schools referred to as professional collaborative and as student-centered collaborative, providing examples of such schools and noting the role collaboration has played in their development. The paper recommends that schools push…

Drawing on the experiences of a fictitious teacher, the paper illustrates where professional development has been and where it is going as it supports more learner-centered schools, discussing the nature of the paradigm shift in professional development that will support the building and continuity of learner-centered schools. (SM)

This paper examines ways to evaluate the potential efficacy of educational innovations and offers strategies for assessing the potential success of borrowing ideas or practices from another setting. Also examines an alternative school system, the Waldorf Schools, and discusses how to move between contextual frameworks and become aware of aesthetic…

Identifies key elements of Waldorf education (holistic and aesthetic), describes the experience of a Waldorf-inspired public school, discusses what mainstream educators can learn from Waldorf schooling, and presents a personal statement about the importance of such learning for educators, parents, and students in an increasingly high-tech world.…

Highlights promising practices in global education (the tendency of global educators to emphasize interdisciplinary concepts, to model inquisitiveness and skepticism, and to stress participatory learning). The promising practices are examined in the context of classroom life at the Shoreline Foreign Language/International Studies magnet school (a…