Students’ Choice: Recommendations for Environmental and Instructional Changes in School

This study investigated 134 middle school students’ suggestions concerning environmental and instructional changes based on their individual learning-style Inventories. The results of the study determined that students could suggest environmental and instructional changes that differed from the accustomed traditional environments and instruction encountered on a daily basis.     

Cannibal's relief: the origins of sex

Microorganisms in the gut of a cockroach resemble those that lived on earth 2000 million years ago. One of their activities, eating each other, may hold the key to the history of sexual reproduction in today's animals and plants.     

A configural analysis of differences among higher education consortia

In order to plan appropriate cooperative programs for particular higher education consortia, it is necessary to identify the characteristics of these organizations. The spatial configuration technique was used to illustrate the impact of eleven variables of the member institutions in differentiating among four consortia. Six of the variables — Control, Highest Degree Awarded, Percentage of Males, Math SAT Scores, Conventional Orientation, Scientific Orientation, and Endowment — were found to be significant in differentiating among the consortia. It was concluded that the spatial configuration technique was an effective way of visually comparing those consortia composed of member institutions, which as groups had similar and dissimilar characteristics.     

Open Disclosures: Learning,Creativity and the Passage of Mental (III) Health

This article describes an ongoing research project at the University of the Arts, London, which investigates the learning and creativity of a group of students with mental health difficulties. It discusses emerging findings on one theme, that of motivation. Employing a longitudinal biographic narrative methodology, this research, now entering its second year, has triggered questions regarding the resilience and fortitude of a group of practising, aspiring artists. This article sketches the theoretical background used to explore this resilience and motivation, and draws on the Kleinian concept of reparation as a way to understanding the narrativised yearning for learning and the urge to create.     

Adding a Human Dimension to the College Numbers Game

Grounded in the context of the gap in civic participation, action-based civics curricula, and how classroom interactions may affect student development, we present the CIVVICS (Civic Interactions motiVating diVerse Individuals in Classroom Settings) observation tool. CIVVICS's four domains—Lesson Planning and Implementation, Classroom Interactions, Student Engagement, and Civic Empowerment—integrate awareness of classroom organization and student engagement with attention to how a classroom promotes students’ connections to civic goals and engages all students in positive interactions. This tool can be used to inform curricular implementation as well as professional development for interventions that promote democratic classroom climates and youth empowerment. We demonstrate the use of CIVVICS in partnership with Generation Citizen, a youth civic education program.