(1976). The Social Studies Teacher: An Exploration of Ethical Behavior. The ethics and conduct of social studies teachers are discussed and the values that should guide their classroom behavior are articulated. Two sources of values are integrated to derive the value base for ethical conduct. The first source utilizes the three criteria for education presented by the educational philosopher, R. S. Peters–character and intellectual development, conceptual development, and learner consciousness. The second draws on the democratic ethic and gives paramount emphasis to human dignity and rational processes. Guided by these values, the purpose of schooling for the social studies teacher is to develop educated and ethical citizens who possess the knowledge, values, and skills to be effective participants in a democratic society. A portion of the paper is devoted to the dilemmas that arise among parents, teachers, and students regarding the purpose of schooling. The role that teachers play in preserving the equilibrium of power between parents, teachers, and… [PDF]
(2005). Families Finding the Balance: A Parent Handbook. We Can! Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition. US Department of Health and Human Services We Can! (Ways to Enhance Children's Activity & Nutrition) is a new public education outreach program designed to help children 8-13 years old stay at a healthy weight through improving food choices, increasing physical activity, and reducing screen time. The program is a collaboration of four Institutes of the National Institutes of Health (NIH): the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and National Cancer Institute (NCI). We Can! is unique because it focuses on parents and families in home and community settings. Research shows that parents and families have a big impact on shaping the behavior of children. They can do much to help children maintain a healthy weight and prevent overweight. We Can! is harnessing that power through: (1) Programs in local communities throughout the country; (2) Partnerships with other national… [PDF]
(1992). Guia de Recursos para la Madre Sola. (Resource Guide for the Single Mother). Funded under the Women's Educational Equity Act, the Assertiveness Training Program for Single Mothers was offered to mothers with children enrolled in the Omaha Head Start and Parent-Child Center Programs. The 16-week long program, providing a total of 40 hours of training, covered a wide range of topics in addition to the initial workshops on assertiveness. Human sexuality, parenting skills, relaxation techniques, positive thinking, and community resources (e.g., law, housing, credit) were among the topics discussed. The original goals of the training were that participants would (1) gain a positive self-image, (2) recognize the alternatives available to them, (3) be able to express their needs and feelings to others, (4) take advantage of resources at their disposal, (5) implement in their own homes positive actions that would influence their children, and (6) acquire problem-solving skills that would enable them to make decisions and accept responsibility for their choices. This… [PDF]
(2002). Historic Schools: A Roadmap for Saving Your School. This brief suggests that not every historic school can or even should be saved, but all too often, historicschools and options for renovation are routinely dismissed without full consideration of alternatives or community input. The article further asserts that many schools are either abandoned ordemolished simply because of their age, as school administrators argue that theycannot be preserved and adapted to meet modern educational program needs.The article suggests that as residents, parents, elected officials, or school board members, there are various ways to get noticed, participate, and ultimately advocate for saving a historic neighborhood school. The included strategies serve as a road map to help get started, ask the right questions, follow leads, identify warning signs, and build support. The strategies include: (1) get familiar with the process (school facility evaluations, inflated school renovation cost estimates and prejudices, state reimbursement rules, acreage… [PDF]
(2000). The American Freshman: National Norms for Fall 2000. This 35th annual report of national normative data on college freshmen is part of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) longitudinal study to assess the effects of college on students. The freshman data reported here are weighted to provide a normative profile of the U.S. freshman population for use in policy analysis, human resource planning, campus administration, educational research, and guidance and counseling. The data are reported separately for men and women and for 26 different institutional groupings. The major stratifying factors are institutional race (predominantly white versus predominantly black), institution control (public, private, nonsectarian, Roman Catholic, Protestant), institution type (university of four-year college), and the selectivity of the institution. The norms for 2000 are based on the responses of 269,413 students at 434 baccalaureate colleges and universities. An overview identifies major trends, which include: (1) the gender gap in…
(2001). Astronomy: Project Earth Science. This book presents classroom activities and reading materials. The activities use a hands-on approach and address the standards. Each features both a student section and a teacher guide. Eleven activities include: (1) "It's Only a Paper Moon"; (2) "Time Traveler"; (3) "Solar System Scale"; (4) "Hello Out There!"; (5) "How Far to the Star?"; (6) "Solar System Soup: The Formation of the Solar System"; (7) "The Goldilocks Effect or 'This Planet Is Just Right!'"; (8) "The Greenhouse Effect"; (9) "Creature Feature"; (10) "Reason for the Seasons"; and (11) "Ping-Pong Phases." Readings include: (1) "Angular Diameter"; (2) "What Is a Light Year?"; (3) "Hubble Space Telescope"; (4) "Scale Measurements"; (5) "Scouting Earth/Moon"; (6) "The Parallax Effect"; (7) "Understanding the Earth as a System"; (8) "After…
(2005). Parents' Victory in Reclaiming Recess for Their Children. Childhood Education, v82 n1 p19 Fall. This article discusses the issue of schools limiting the opportunities for children's physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and creative development that recess affords. Red Rover, hopscotch, jump rope, chase, telling secrets, hanging out, making friends, losing friends–these familiar pursuits of childhood recess are vividly memorable. While these are common memories for adults, many children now attending elementary school are experiencing a different reality. Today's climate of increasing school accountability and intense focus on strictly cognitive performance has forced a restructuring of the school day. In the aftermath of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, time literally can mean money. Schools are eliminating activities deemed unnecessary or frivolous, especially those whose contributions to academic achievement are not "scientifically proven." Current research suggests that as many as 40 percent of school districts throughout the United States are reducing or…
(2005). Finding Aristotle's Golden Mean: Social Justice and Academic Excellence. Journal of Education, v186 n1 p79-85. Over 2,000 years ago, Aristotle wrote a treatise on ethics in which he proposed that there were both intellectual and moral virtues to be developed in the human being. Virtue ("aristeia") was roughly equivalent to the English word "excellence" and the unifying virtue that was both a moral and an intellectual virtue was prudence. Excellence lay not in some intellectual ideal as his teacher, Plato, had suggested or simply in the knowledge of the good or true as Socrates had suggested, but in the "ability of a person to act excellently." Aristotle believed that in most instances right action lay in the intermediary point between two extremes of excess and lack, the golden mean. Education in these times has been plagued by often stultifying battles between extremes, each position containing important insights that are critical for promoting excellence in human development but are also distortions born of extremes. Educational battles in the last century have… [Direct]
(1985). Implications of Neuropsychological Research for School Psychology. Research has suggested that the two hemispheres of the brain serve specialized functions, with the most recent studies portraying the left hemisphere as processing information in a linear, serial, or sequential manner and the right hemisphere as processing information in a holistic, concrete, or visual mode. Although few systematic studies have attempted to integrate cognitive and neurological points of view, Paivio's (1971) portrayal of two distinct, yet interactive memory systems may be consistent with established hemispheric differences in functioning found in the human brain. Research examining the learning of individual words supports this dual processing theory. To extend this research, the degree to which the concreteness of prose materials would interact with a learner's hemispheric processing was investigated in 96 normal adult learners. Subjects were assigned to a control, imagery instructed, or hemispheric interference condition and were auditorily presented an abstract… [PDF]
(1965). THE CHESTER CASE. THE VERBATIM FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW, AND DECISION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION WITH ITS FINAL ORDER IN THE CHESTER SCHOOL DISTRICT CASE, WERE REPORTED. THE AREAS STUDIED WERE–SCHOOL BOUNDARIES, POPULATION FACTORS, CLASS SIZE, ADMINISTRATION, FACULTY RECRUITMENT, TEXTBOOK USE, ORIGIN OF THE SEGREGATED SCHOOL SUSTEM, AND PROPOSALS FOR DESEGREGATION, BUSING, AND OTHER FACTORS DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY RELATED TO THE SEPARATION OF THE RACES AND THE DIFFERENCES IN THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION OF NEGRO AND WHITE PUPILS. THE UNLAWFUL DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES DEPRIVED NEGROES IN CHESTER OF THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS. THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS CHARGED WITH ASSIGNING ONLY NEGRO TEACHERS AND CLERKS TO ALL-NEGRO SCHOOLS, MAINTAINING SEGREGATED ALL-NEGRO SCHOOLS WITHIN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM, ESTABLISHING SCHOOL ZONES CONFINING THE NEGRO TO ALL-NEGRO SCHOOOS, FAILING TO PROVIDE ENOUGH KINDERGARTENS TO ACCOMMODATE NEGRO CHILDREN IN CHESTER, PERPETUATING THE INFERIOR PHYSICAL CONDITION…
(1996). Turn Off the Radio and Sing for Your Lives! Women, Singing, and Experiential Education. Experiential educators are encouraged to include singing in their curriculum. Singing offers a dynamic form of creative engagement and can assist learners in taking risks in their learning and in active experimentation. As a holistic learning tool, singing engages the six capabilities that humans have for learning: physical, emotional, cognitive, intuitional/metaphoric, spiritual, and relational capabilities. Singing is a connecting force interpersonally; intrapersonally, it supports lateral thinking, connecting right- and left-brain functions. Singing can relax the body and provide a vehicle for safe emotional release. It generates physical energy and aerates the body through deep and sustained breathing. All the physical senses are stimulated by singing, which in turn produces heightened states of sensitivity and arousal. As part of a holistic healing practice within adventure therapy programs, singing can be used explicitly to heal physical and other ailments. Singing is… [PDF]
(2003). A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country. This report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights examines federal funding of programs intended to assist Native Americans at the Department of Interior, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Justice, Department of Education, and Department of Agriculture. The report reveals that federal funding directed to Native Americans through programs at these agencies has not been sufficient to address the basic and very urgent needs of Indigenous peoples. Among the myriad unmet needs are health care, education, public safety, housing, and rural development. The section on education outlines the history of federal Indian education; describes current issues related to dropout disparities, loss of cultural identity, and community involvement; and looks at unmet needs in the areas of school administration, special education, higher education, vocational rehabilitation, and other set-aside programs. Significant disparities in federal… [PDF]
(1995). Volunteers Teaching Children: A Guide for Establishing VINE Ecology Education Programs. "Volunteers Teaching Children" describes the Volunteer-led Investigations in Neighborhood Ecology, or VINE Programs, established by Denver Audubon Society members as an urban education project, and how that model has been adapted to draw on the human and financial resources available in other cities. VINE Programs give children opportunities to discover and investigate the plants, animals, and ecological relationships that exist right in their own neighborhoods through hands-on natural science investigations. The activities teach observation and critical thinking, communication, and cooperative group skills. The programs are delivered by volunteers to schools and institutions where children go after school and on Saturdays such as libraries and community centers. This book begins with an overview of VINE Programs and covers such topics as "Starting with a Think Tank"; "Conducting a Needs Assessment"; "Designing the Project and Defining the…
(1993). Communications Skills Training in the Public Sector: Applying the Carkhuff Model for Patient Management. The long-term results of a 32-hour interpersonal communication skills training program for unit staff in a large state psychiatric hospital were evaluated. The main goal was to improve staff effectiveness through systematic training in communication behaviors expressing empathy in staff-patient interactions. Staff outcome measures were turnover, self-reported symptoms of burnout, use of leave and overtime, and assaults and injuries from patients. Patient outcomes were staff perceptions of patient milieu, patient satisfaction, patients' rights complaints, numbers of restraints and seclusions, numbers of patients' attempts to leave, and recidivism rates. Two adult psychiatric units that received the training (72 staff members) were compared with 2 that did not (86 staff members). The Carkhuff Human Resources Development Model was the basis for the training. All staff completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Ward Atmosphere Scale before and 6 months after the training. Analysis… [PDF]
(1991). Hunting and Outdoor Education. Coalition for Education in the Outdoors (CEO) Newsletter, p1-3,18-20 Win/Spr. This article addresses the controversy over including hunting as a part of outdoor education. Historically, figures such as Julian Smith, of the Outdoor Education Project of the 1950's, advocated hunting as a critical element of educating children and youth about care and protection of natural resources. Henry David Thoreau saw hunting experiences as a means of becoming acquainted with nature. As with any human activity, hunting is engaged in by individuals with varying degrees of interest, competence, and responsibility. Because there are between 16 and 18 million licensed hunters in the United States, there is an implied obligation for outdoor educators to work toward educating hunters to live up to the highest standards of ethical behavior. Animal rights activists and anti-hunting groups have disseminated teaching materials to schools which emphasize simplistic and moralistic approaches in dealing with complex ecological, biological, social, and economic issues. Research has… [PDF]