Response to "Education - Soviet Style"
  Natasha Artemeva

This article has been written as a constructive dialog with an article from the previous issue written by Nurgul Kinderbaeva and Linda Serra Hagedorn "Education - Soviet Style."

"Education - Soviet Style" is one of the rare and much needed articles that address differences between the Soviet and Western education systems. These differences often cause difficulties for Western educators and administrators who attempt to evaluate Soviet degrees. The lack of information on the former Soviet education system often creates obstacles for former Soviet students and professionals who intend to continue their education and careers in the West. The comments in this article clarify and complement the previous article and provide more information on the Soviet education system.   full text + original article

Editors' Note:
  Phil Brocato

Fukuda's Chalkboard

Student Essay:
Amalie Gorbold

I'll never forget June 6, 1996, because that was the day Roy Cobb died. He was nobody special to me, but I was at his funeral to help with the military rifle salute. I remember Roy Cobb because he is the only person I've ever seen buried in a pink Cadillac. The day of his funeral was like most summer days in Tuskegee, Alabama. The air was loaded with humidity, and piercing sunbeams beat down through the pine trees by the cemetery. I had no idea this dead soldier, his scrubby dog, and a car painted Pepto-Bismol pink would change the way I thought about courage, but it did. At that funeral, I learned courage isn't worn like a uniform. Real soldiers wear courage on the inside.   full text

Student Essay:
Michelle Robinson

Tabling Icelandic Education

Essay:
Kenan Peterson

Elaboration Theory and Cognitive/Learning Styles
  Bryan Delgado

The essence of Elaboration Theory stipulates that instruction can be structured in an ascending manner of increasingly complex learning: Instruction should be organized in a increasing order of complexity" (Reigeluth). This is reminiscent of the vygotskian construct of Zone of Proximal Development where instruction is removed in a subtractive manner as the young scholastic student internalizes a subject matter.

The conceptual essence of Cognitive/Learning Styles "refer[s] to the preferred way an individual processes information." It is the usual mode or way a learner thinks (cogitates, cognitively creates nascent constructs) or actively engages (meta-cognitive strategies) the mental constructs: the ideas they have learned; the way they recollect/access internalized information, the ways learners remember a distinct approach to a problem solving situation. It is an affective personality dimension that modulates attitudes, values and degree of social interaction.  full text

Student Essay:
Jennifer Yudnich