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This book provides educators, parents and caretakers with a variety of instructional strategies for engaging K-8 students. These approaches are designed to enable all students to read easily and enjoyably by utilizing different styles and approaches. The techniques are not generally found in conventional classrooms, but are specifically targeted toward children who either have not mastered, or who do not enjoy, reading, through active participation. The authors cite that within four months or less from introduction, many children begin recognizing words, stringing them together, increasing vocabulary, and reading. Contents include: (1) Introduction to Teaching Every Child to Read (Theory Behind the Strategies; Research Behind the Strategies); (2) Teaching Primary Children to Read (K-2) (Teaching Very Young Children to Read: Getting In-Touch Readiness Activities); (3) Encouraging Parents to Reinforce Reading at Home (Teaching Young Children to Read with Kinesthetic Games); (4) Teaching Elementary Children to Read (3-5) (Teaching Young Children to Read by Singing); and (5) Teaching Middle School Children to Read (6-8) (Teaching Young Children to Read by Combining Music, Lyrics and Text; Teaching Young Children to Read with Tape Recorded Books; Teaching Young Children to Read with Body Parts; Teaching Young Children to Read by Baking; Teaching Young Children to Read by Preparing Them for a Trip or Vacation; Teaching Young Children with Everyday Print; Teaching Elementary Children to Read with Reading is the Answer; Teaching Elementary Children to Read with Language Games; Teaching Elementary Children to Read through Rebus and Rhyme; Teaching Elementary Children to Read Poetry; Teaching Elementary Children to Read By Scrap Booking; Teaching Middle School Children with Cultural Texts; Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Programmed Learning Sequences; Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Small-Group Strategies; Teaching Middle School Children to Read with Contract Activity Packages; Conclusion: Testing Yourself: A Case Study Review.).

Today, there is little deviation from the standard, business-as-usual practices in the world of education. This book challenges these stale practices and asks the important questions that can improve schools beyond the current state of mediocrity. Written for administrators, supervisors, teachers, parents--even politicians and corporate executives--this book provides more than 25 specific problem-solving strategies for improving education without increasing costs. The authors use more than 40 years of background in education, as well the renowned Dunn and Dunn Learning Style Model, to focus on the ways in which we can truly improve schools. The model, which identifies elements within environmental, emotional, sociological, physiological, and psychological domains, reveals how individuals best understand and retain information. This basis is then applied to the "What If?" situations to unearth the most promising practices for school improvement. What If Students Were to Write Their Own Honor Code? What if Principals Understood Each Teacher's Learning Style? What If Parents Knew How to Help Their Children Study at Home? These are just a few of the important situations analyzed by this book. The appeal is clearly widespread and covers the concerns of nearly every essential action-oriented community stakeholder group. The book is divided into three parts and 26 chapters. Part I, Student Issues, contains: (1) What If There Were a Bill of Rights for Students? (Derek Tully); (2) What If Retention Were Not an Option? (Sam Carpentier); (3) What If Students Were to Write Their Own Honor Code? (Charles F. Howlett); (4) What If Students Were Taught to Do Homework Using Their Learning-Style Strengths? (Laura Shea Doolan); (5) What If At-Risk Students Understood How to Capitalize on Their Learning-Style Strengths When Entering High School? (LezAnne Edmond); and (6) What If We Taught College Students the Way They Learn? (Christine Mangino). Part II, School Issues, continues with: (7) What If Instruction Were Designed to Accommodate Differing Achievement Levels? (Andrea Honigsfeld); (8) What If Schools Were Designed around Each Child's Best Time-of-Day? (Derek Tully); (9) What If Principals Understood Each Teacher's Learning Style? (Thomas C. DeBello); (10) What If Students Were Grouped for Instruction by Gender? (Rita Dunn and Andrea Honigsfeld); (11) What If Teachers Were Taught through Their Learning-Style Strengths? (Karen A. Russo); (12) What If High Schools Started at Mid-Morning? (Susan A. Smith); (13) What If We Taught Children to Read with Learning-Style Responsive Strategies? (Rachel Levy); (14) What If We Knew the Cause of School Violence and How to Prevent It? (Marjorie S. Schiering); (15) What If There Were No Clocks and Bells in Schools? (Peter K. Lynch); and (16) What If Schools Met the Challenges of Talent Development? (Donald J. Treffinger). Part III, Societal Issues, concludes the book with: (17) What If the Public Knew Why Many Children Have Trouble with Math? (Rita Dunn and Karen Burke); (18) What If Parents Knew How to Help Their Children Study at Home? (Rhonda Farkas); (19) What If Counselors Used Techniques Compatible with Students' Learning-Style Preferences? (Shirley A. Griggs); (20) What If Professors Practiced What They Preached? (Bernadyn Kim Suh); (21) What If Politicians Understood the Research on Learning Styles? (Marina Vinitskaya and Tatyana Ulababova); (22) What If Teachers Were Culturally Responsive? (Yvonne Pratt-Johnson); (23) What If the U.S. Constitution Were Amended to Include Educational Standards? (Derek Tully); (24) What If Managers Understood Employees' Learning Styles? (Susan M. Rundle); (25) What If There Were a Truly Innovative Law School? (Robin A. Boyle); and (26) What If Large Foundations Really Wanted to Improve Education? (Kenneth J. Dunn).

The focus of this collection of essays is on new approaches to teaching in higher education. Selections are organized in five sections; the first section focuses on learning styles, while the remaining sections focus on applications in various academic disciplines. The chapters include: (1) "Capitalizing on College Students' Learning Styles: Theory, Practice, and Research" (Rita Dunn); (2) "Practical Approaches to Using Learning Styles in Higher Education: The How-to Steps" (Rita Dunn and Shirley A. Griggs); (3) "Learning Styles in Graduate Education Classes: The River of No Return" (Sue Ellen Read); (4) "Educating Secondary Teachers To Work with Students' Diverse Styles" (Nancy Montgomery); (5) "One Texas University's Approach to Integrating Learning Styles in Teacher Education: Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk" (Janet Whitley and Pam Littleton); (6) "Hannibal 'Lecture' Changes His Oral Menu" (Kenneth J. Dunn); (7) "Distance Education: Reaching beyond the Walls" (Jody Taylor); (8) "Learning Styles in a Suburban College" (Bernadyn Kim Suh); (9) "A Paradigm Shift: Learning-Styles Implementation and Preservice Teachers" (Karen Burke); (10) "Learning Styles and College Teaching: My Experiences with Education Majors" (Ann C. Braio); (11) "Tactual Learning at the Doctoral Level: A Risk Worth Taking" (Barbara K. Given and Edward P. Tyler with Nora Hall, William Johnson, and Margaret Wood); (12) "Divergent Styles, Common Goals: Implications for Counselors" (Shirley A. Griggs); (13) "Teacher Training in Progress: Giving It Our Best Shot" (Katy Lux); (14) "Project Learn: A University-Initiated Consortium of Science Educators and Practitioners" (Barbara S. Thomson); (15) "Teaching Graduate Students with a Learning-Styles Approach: Adding Zest to the Course Ingredients" (Laura Shea Doolan); (16) "Incorporating Learning Styles into the Curricula of Two Programs in a College of Health-Related Professions" (Joyce A. Miller and Rose F. Lefkowitz); (17) "Bringing Learning-Style Instructional Strategies to Law Schools: You Be the Judge!" (Robin A. Boyle); (18) "Meeting the Academic Challenges of an Undergraduate Engineering Curriculum" (Joanne Ingham); (19) "The Writing Portfolio as a Learning-Styles Tool in a College English-as-a-Second-Language Course" (Herbert D. Pierson); (20) "Contract Activity Packages in Higher Education: The Flexible Flyer of Pedagogy" (Heather Pfleger Dunham and Barbara-Jayne Lewthwaite); (21) "How I Found Pedagogical Nirvana: Beware of the Law of Unintended Consequences!" (E.L. Deckinger); (22) "Global Teaching in an Analytic Environment: Is There Madness in the Method?" (Ralph A. Terregrossa and Valerie Englander). Some chapters contain references; nine appendixes offer model scales, syllabi, and quizzes. (Contains 208 references.) (SM)

This consideration of learning style and the minority student analyzes and synthesizes the research that reveals the similarities and differences among the learning styles of culturally diverse populations and describes how to teach and counsel adolescents with different learning styles. Research suggests that students whose instruction is not responsive to their learning styles achieve significantly less than children whose instruction is responsive. The implications of the varied individual, rather than the cultural group, and the learning styles of multicultural students are discussed for both teaching and counseling. The efforts of schools that have successfully reversed underachievement among culturally diverse students are described. The research on which these conclusions are based involved the participation of more than 18 professors and 60 doctoral students working collaboratively at St. John's University in New York. The instrumentation designed to identify learning style and 21 elements of learning style are identified. One table and 28 figures illustrate the discussion. A sample programmed learning sequence is illustrated with 45 instructional frames. (Contains 369 references.) (SLD)

This book is intended to serve as a guide to many of the newer techniques for the management and evaluation of faculty. It focuses on procedures that are meant to strengthen administrative and faculty skills and perceptions and explains the close relationship between management style and staff success in meeting program objectives. In addition to management style, chapters cover designing an effective staff selection and employment program, increasing faculty motivation and skills, increasing efficiency in time management, improving faculty evaluation through identifying appropriate criteria, developing evaluation instruments (sample evaluation forms are included), and designing new approaches to evaluation, such as peer evaluation and exit interviewing. (Author)