(1978). Brain Research and Learning. Current research on brain activity has many implications for educators. The triune brain concept and the left and right hemisphere concepts are among the many complex theories evolving from experimentation and observation. The triune brain concept suggests that the human forebrain has expanded while retaining three structurally unique formations that reflect early ancestral relationships to reptiles, early mammals, and recent mammals. The left and right hemisphere and division of labor theories attribute functions to specific regions of the brain. These theories lead to the conclusion that educators must be concerned with educating all areas of the brain, since all of the areas interact. The research suggests that a basic education must include informational and processing skills as well as creative behaviors and artistic activities. Educational issues such as learning disabilities, genetic and biological differences, and instructional designs have already been in influenced by… [PDF]
(1977). Wellesley College Case Study for the Sloan Commission on Government and Higher Education. The impact of government legislation and regulation on Wellesley College in Massachusetts is analyzed. The impact of federal aid on the economics of the college is considered in terms of capital resources and operating resources. The analysis also considers the effects of government legislation and regulation on capital costs, first-time implementation costs, and continuing operating expenses. The influence of government programs on the character and the philosophy of the college is also considered. Two highly visible areas of college/government relations are student financial aid and civil rights. Civil rights issues include: affirmative action and minority employment, sex discrimination, the Buckley Amendment (student records), age discrimination, and research on human subjects. Other legislation and regulations affecting higher education concern copyrights, the Higher Education General Information Survey, occupational safety and health, tax reform, gifts of stock to colleges, the…
(1982). What's Left of Federal Funding for Sex Equity in Education?. This overview of funding available for women's equity from federal sources reflects the decreasing governmental support for equal education programs. Major attention is given to federal support of research and development activities, and suggestions are offered on general strategies for obtaining such funds related to sex equity in education. Some federal funding sources are described, including the Women's Education Equity Act Program, Title IV of the Civil Rights Act, Vocational Education Act Programs, the National Institute of Education, the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Office for Civil Rights, agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services, and ACTION, to name a few. These materials provide an agency overview, its relevance to sex equity, potential applicants, and publications and agency contacts. Programs both within and outside of the U.S. Department of Education are included. Public funding…
(1982). Assertion Training With American Indians: Cultural/Behavioral Issues for Trainers. Assertiveness training, a current preferred method of training appropriate communication skills, strives to teach a behavior which enables a person to act in his/her own interests, to express honest feelings comfortably, or to exercise one's own rights without denying the rights of others. Assertion training could be envisioned as an intervention strategy for Indians to create conditions for a new era in which their future is determined by Indian acts and Indian decisions in pursuit of entitlement to services rather than their need for services. Designed to aid educators, human development specialists, and mental health professionals in developing assertion training programs with American Indian people, the manual discusses assertive behavior; elements of Indian culture and Indian thinking; a selected assertion training model composed of instruction, modeling, behavior rehearsal and feedback; application of assertion training to express Indian rights and responsibilities; aspects of… [PDF]
(1977). Reading Comprehension and Right/Left Brain Thinking. Extensive research has proven that the functions of the two hemispheres of the brain tend to be qualitatively different. The left hemisphere, which for most people is dominant, is the major controller of speech, reading, and writing; it is the hemisphere toward which education traditionally has been directed. The right hemisphere excels in nonverbal skills. It also appears to be responsible for providing the intuitive, imaginative, creative side of human personality. It is this hemisphere that many educators claim has been neglected in the schools. The challenge for the teacher of reading is to draw upon both modes of knowing to enhance comprehension. Teachers need to learn how to encourage expression of the nondominant and creative right hemisphere to facilitate the active, problem-solving left hemisphere; to ignore the function of the right hemisphere is to teach only half the child. Numerous teaching/learning activities could effectively be used to draw upon both brain sides;…
(1998). Implementing Children's Rights: What Can the UK Learn from International Experience?. The welfare and treatment of children is a key test of society's commitment to human and social development. This report details a study of the implementation of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in the United Kingdom (UK) and contrasts the U.K. approach with those adopted in other states, focusing on those at comparable stages of economic, social, and political development. Methods used in the study included a literature review of appropriate documents, such as summaries of U.N. Committee hearings and state party reports; questionnaires completed by staff of nongovernmental agencies and government officials; and follow-up telephone interviews. The report outlines arguments for the promotion of children's rights, explains the significance of the U.N. Convention, and identifies how the Convention can be used as a tool for implementing children's rights. The bulk of the report compares the approaches to reporting adopted in other countries and the measures… [PDF]
(1977). Educational Outcomes of Social Studies Programs in Rural Schools. Performance of rural 13-year-olds on the 1971-1972 social studies assessment by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) were reviewed in terms of three major exercise themes. Performance on skill exercises revealed rural strengths in source selection and human affairs insights, but weaknesses in reading maps and graphs. Fewer than 30% determined the social message behind selected songs. Results of knowledge exercises revealed that rural students know much about local issues, and the distribution of federal, state, and local power. Fifty percent comprehended foreign political systems, but only about 22% demonstrated knowledge of world affairs or geography. Only 16% understood the U.S. election process. Attitudinal exercises showed about 90% supporting the right to choose one's own religion and 57% felt that a non-believer in God had the right to hold public office. Although 94% wanted to improve conditions in other poor neighborhoods, only 30% felt they knew how. Only… [PDF]
(2002). Find, Deploy, Support, and Keep the Best Teachers and School Leaders. This paper describes the vital role that human-resources management plays as a contributing factor to excellent schools and student learning. Nationwide, it is the norm for human-resources practices to be mismanaged in ways that create inequities in the quality of teaching and school leadership. Examples include hiring constrained by limits imposed by traditional practice, compensation and career advancement that are determined automatically, and staffing decisions governed by seniority rights and entrenched rules. The School Communities That Work task force researched companies and organizations that reshaped themselves to become \good\ and \great\ organizations. Findings allowed the task force to formulate a framework for examining and improving human-resources systems in education. Three principal elements include creating a positive and motivational organizational context, getting the best possible people into roles suitable for them and for the organization, and getting the… [PDF]
(1988). Welfare Reform. Hearings on S. 869, S. 1001, S. 1511, before the Committee on Finance. United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, First Session (October 14 and 28, 1987). Part 2 of 3. This series of hearings, the second of three on welfare reform, focuses on the following legislation: (1) the Family Security Act (S. 1511); (2) child support enforcement bills (S. 1001 and S. 869); and (3) the Aid to Families with Dependent Children Employment and Training Reorganization Act. Among the speakers and witnesses were the following: (1) Lloyd Bentsen, Senator, Texas; (2) Barbara Mikulski, Senator, Maryland; (3) Terry Sanford, Senator, North Carolina; (4) Daniel J. Evans, Senator, Washington; (5) John G. Rowland, Congressman, Connecticut; (6) Jaime B. Fuster, Resident Commissioner, Puerto Rico; (7) Nancy Johnson, Congresswoman, Connecticut; (8) Bill Clinton, Governor, Arkansas; (9) Kevin B. Aslanian, Coalition of California Welfare Rights Organizations; (10) Stephen Heintz, Connecticut Department of Income Maintenance; (11) Marge Roukema, Congresswoman, New Jersey; (12) Linda A. Wilcox, Maine Department of Human Services; (13) Ann C. Helton, Maryland Department of Human… [PDF]
(1974). On the Freedom to be Accountable. Freedom and accountability are not antithetical; they are equal elements and complementary principles in the educational equation to protect the productive pluralism of the student, the teacher, the administrator, and the institution. Pluralism is a critical value to be preserved and promoted through public policy decisions which emphasize freedom and independence. Educational institutions must receive the financial support necessary to maintain viable programs and to assure diversity, difference, and competition. The public has a right to know how public funds are being used to educate and to demand that the monies be spent wisely, but it does not have the right to interfere with basic principles of academic freedom and professional judgment. There must be educational accountability but business must not be the model. Educators' self-imposed model of accountability should focus on the outcome of the learning process as a developed value, the development of individual persons. The… [PDF]
(2006). Critical Curriculum Design for Blended Learning in Higher Education: The Strategies, Principles and Challenges of Interactive Classroom Management. Journal of Educational Technology, v3 n2 p16-25 Jul-Sep. The main purpose of this article is to introduce a critical curriculum design approach for bringing curriculum change for Blended Learning in higher education. Furthermore, the strategies, principles and challenges of this approach are also presented. This paper provides a perspective on such serious concerns as whether curriculum change should start with professors, administrators, learners, education communities and/or professional reformers at local, state and national levels. Also, this paper includes treatment of the Radical Constructivists' view of blended learning with merging Media Richness Theory. The author hopes that it emphasizes the importance of considering a wide range of situations in implementing curriculum change, of matching innovation with the realities of the interactive classroom management in higher education. Besides, the author's intention in this paper is to discuss the rights of learners and professors by fostering courtesy, confidentially and human dignity… [PDF]
(2006). Moving Men into the Mainstream: The Next Steps in Urban Reform–Putting Policy to the Test. Civic Bulletin No. 46. Center for Civic Innovation This bulletin is adapted from the third panel of three at a Manhattan Institute conference. The focus of this paper is on the re-entering ex-offender population. Howard Husock introduces the people who are on the front lines, working day-to-day with people coming out of prison, thinking about what are the right strategies. These people include Peter Cove and Mindy Tarlow who are operating programs that are taking people off the streets and trying to point them toward the mainstream, Fred Davie from Public/Private Ventures in Philadelphia who is evaluating an ambitious 17-city program that involves government money and faith-based groups to find out whether that approach is working, and Brent Orrell who works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and who has been thinking about what role the federal government ought to play. (Contains 2 footnotes.)… [PDF]
(2006). Education for Sustainability as a Frame of Mind. Environmental Education Research, v12 n3-4 p265-276 Jul-Sep. This article will review some problems with taking the notion of sustainable development, as a policy, as the touchstone of environmental education and will explore some central strands to understanding sustainability as a frame of mind. It will be argued that at the heart of this interpretation of sustainability lies the notion of a right relationship with nature which both conditions our attitudes towards the environment and our sense of our own identity. The contribution of certain influential eco-centric accounts to the idea of sustainability is critically evaluated and a sense of sustainability is developed which is neither anthropocentric nor eco-centric. It is argued that the essence of sustainability, so conceived, is intrinsic to authentic human consciousness and some of the metaphysical issues which it raises for education and modern Western society are indicated. [Reprinted from "Environmental Education Research" (2002) 8(1), pp. 9-20.]… [Direct]
(2006). Growth Attenuation and Due Process: \A Response to Gunther and Diekema (2006)\. Research and Practice for Persons with Severe Disabilities (RPSD), v31 n4 p348-351 Win. This article presents the authors' response to Gunther and Diekema's argument about growth attenuation and due process. As a case study, growth attenuation raises complicated issues. The authors address some issues that have not been sufficiently addressed. Those involve family support, assistive technology, constitutional rights to \self,\ the standards and procedures for decision making, and the social construction of disability. Then, they connect this case to two other issues: the human genome project and the uses of neuroscience. Both seek to enhance a person in order to achieve a quality of life that is more acceptable to the person, the person's family, and society. They conclude by looking to the future of enhancing the quality of life of people and families affected by disability. But they do so, fully mindful of the nation's shameful history of discrimination, all too often abetted by professionals aggressively employing usual and innovative technologies…. [Direct]
(1991). Educational Rights of Children with Disabilities: A Primer for Advocates. Intended for child advocates, this book analyzes children's educational rights under two federal statutes, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The nine chapters address the following topics: (1) the statutory framework of the two laws (including eligibility, age ranges, operation, and reach); (2) content, quality, and the meaning of "free appropriate public education" (e.g., meanings of "special education,""related services," and "least restrictive environment"); (3) special issues regarding related services (e.g., the "medical exclusion," in-school assistance with health-related needs, and children with substance abuse problems or psychiatric disorders); (4) educational evaluations (rights, procedures, and safeguards); (5) individualized education programs, placement decisions, and parent participation; (6) procedural safeguards and dispute resolution (e.g.,… [PDF]