Through an analysis of a contemporary rite of passage-the final stage of teacher preparation-I develop a new theory of liminality that both builds on and extends Victor Turner's enduring insights. The analysis focuses on how preservice teachers in an undergraduate education program engage in a process of identity formation within an asynchronous, nondimensional, liminal space made possible and shaped by e-mail and with the support of experienced mentor teachers.

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Newly Betwixt and Between: Revising Liminality in the Context of a Teacher Preparation Program

All students can be taught how to manage conflicts constructively by integrating training into the existing school curriculum. This article describes a practical and effective approach to curriculum-integrated conflict resolution training that involves students in repeatedly using integrative negotiation and peer mediation procedures to resolve diverse conflicts found in subject matter. Research results indicate that this approach to conflict training not only enables students to learn, use, and develop more positive attitudes toward conflict resolution, it also enhances academic achievement.

Integrating Conflict Resolution Training Into the Curriculum

In this article, Jennifer Groff explores the role of the arts in education through the lens of current research in cognitive neuroscience and the impact of technology in today's digital world. She explains that although arts education has largely used multiple intelligences theory to substantiate its presence in classrooms and schools, this relationship has ultimately hindered the field of arts education's understanding of the relationship between the arts, human development, and learning. Emerging research on the brain's cognitive processing systems has led Groff to put forth a new theory of mind, whole-mindedness. Here she presents the evidence and construct for this frame of mind, how it sits in relation to multiple intelligences theory, and how it might redefine the justification for arts education in schools, particularly in our digitally and visually rich world.

Expanding Our “Frames” of Mind for Education and the Arts

(1999). Social and Emotional Learning in Middle School. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas: Vol. 72, No. 6, pp. 331-336.

Social and Emotional Learning in Middle School.

Some meta-analysis studies that show the efficacy of Cooperative Learning in comparison with competitive or individual learning are analyzed. Efficacy is based on the following data: achievement, high levels of reasoning, time required to accomplish the task, transference of learning, intrinsic motivation, cognitive and social development, personal interactions, friendship, reduction of stereotypes and prejudices, mental health, self-esteem, social competencies, internalization of values and the quality of the learning environment. All the available data suggest that it is a strategy that can respond to the challenges that come with globalization.

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Peter Hodne

Papers

The Three Cs of Safe Schools.