Lukiv's Educational Stew, Ingredient 2 of 5:
Student-Centered Approach: Is There Another way?
  Dan Lukiv

As a teacher, do you teach mathematics, language arts, or some other subject, or do you teach students? That might seem like an odd question. But doesn't the oddity really lie in our ignoring the students we teach in favor of what we are trying to teach them?

A teacher of the odd sort fails to see the needs of the students (Olsen, 2000, p. 6). As one teacher laments, "I was so busy teaching that I didn't have time for the kids." What a sad statement! (p. 6). How unfortunate for the teacher to focus on the external, the displays, books, and curriculum guides as their means of teaching. Relationships are ignored. "You start to plan your lessons sometimes not really thinking about who you are delivering it to, but just thinking about the delivery of the lesson. (p. 7).   full text

The "Push" of Experiential Voices
  Andrew Foran

What lessons can educators learn from the experiential narratives of the students, and the pedagogic reflections of the teacher, who experienced the Adventure Based Experiential Learning (ABEL) course at Sir John A. Macdonald High School, in the Halifax Regional Municipality of Nova Scotia? The student voices contained in this article may challenge the emerging pedagogic practices of service learning. As I present these voices, I hermeneutically reflect on the pedagogic significance contained in their lived experiences for phenomenological insights of personal growth, student challenge, peer support, and personal identity, within a community-based practice of education.

The ABEL course did not constitute a rejection of the current-curricular system; rather I believe that it has proven to be an exemplar for the way curriculum should be taught in today's schools. Although teachers have become increasingly successful at fostering student growth, it seems that they have not managed to bring about widespread change in the traditional way students are expected to learn or in what courses we expect them to learn. I believe ABEL is an innovation, created from the benefits of a traditional educational experience, which can provide a new image of learning, leading, and teaching.   full text

Siblings with Disabilities: Positive or Negative Relationships?
  Nancy Deaner & Timothy Lillie

Sibling relationships are defined in many ways and by several factors. Birth order, sex, age relationship, number of siblings, and parental influences are some factors that may affect the dynamics of a sibling relationship. The interactions between siblings play an important part in a childÁs social development. Knott, Lewis, and Williams (965-976) note that children often acquire social skills through their relationships with siblings, which they later use in social exchanges with their peers. This sibling interaction also provides children access to a variety of roles to assume and skills to develop. An older child often teaches and models and the younger child provides positive reciprocation. However, the relationship and its dynamics often change when one of the siblings has a disability. About 10-12% of all public school students are identified as students with disabling conditions (Turnbull, Turnbull, Shank & Smith, Exceptional Lives 4); this means that a substantial proportion of families and siblings who themselves are unlikely to experience disability are nevertheless affected by the fact of their relativesÁ identification by the schools. While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides for categorical definitions of disability, it has long been recognized that families of children identified have a range of needs that are more similar than different (Simpson, Working with Parents).   full text