Enthusiasts and evangelists of open educational resources (OER) see these resources as a panacea for all of the problems of education. However, despite its promises, their adoption in educational institutions is slow. There are many barriers to the adoption of OER, and many are from within the community of OER advocates. This commentary calls for…

Drawing on the literature about responsible leadership in business administration, this article brings the concept of responsible leadership to the fore in the theoretical and empirical debates about educational leadership and to encourage scholars to study the particular characteristics and determinants of responsible leadership in schools. More…

This Center for American Progress report examines whether states' adoption of standards-based policies predicts low-income students' NAEP achievement trends in fourth and eighth grade math and reading throughout the 2003-2013 decade. The report claims to analyze changes across five separate two-year intervals, but it only reports findings for…

Today's education technology holds immense promise, but what matters more than the tools themselves are how they are used in schools and in classrooms. In "Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age," Frederick M. Hess and Bror Saxberg argue that educators have tended to think of adopting technology as a way to "reform" or…

A critique of the "bandwagon effect" in educational innovation. Many new ideas in the past have seemed promising at first and have caught on quickly, only to be subsequently discarded as "chaff." (TE)

The relative newness of the field of adult education and the newness of its research has been one of the problems in the research-to-practice dilemma. Edcuators have a sense of uncertainty and hence uneasiness in their role as social scientists. Others feel that adult education research is too flawed or impoverished for adoption. Dissemination…

This article discusses the lack of communication between educational theorists and educational practitioners, particularly in the area of administrative principles. (SJL)

Discusses how a fundamental disagreement between the values of distance education and traditional academics could be bridged by a mutual commitment to education driven by quality, access, integrity, responsiveness, and a central role for faculty. Notes adoption of distance education could be enhanced by integrating theories of organizational…

This project report establishes a framework for viewing educational needs and change from the context of social technological change, synthesizes the research and policy implications of such a perspective, provides guidance on preparing and dealing with the new educational issues which will result from changing technology during this decade, and…

Highly productive educational methods have been identified through publicly funded research, but these methods or programs have not been widely disseminated or adopted. Problems with the work ethic, discipline, and competition are described, along with the public's need for learning but its desire for entertainment. (JDD)

This article reviews key findings from school-reform studies of the 1980s on sustained use of effective teacher practices in the classroom and explains their relevance to special education. Recent findings are also highlighted and unresolved issues are identified. An appendix lists sustainability factors and issues. (Contains references.)…

Right now every college and university in Kyrgyzstan faces the urgent question of whether to join the Bologna Process. Opinions in the republic are split down the middle: (1) some rectors categorically reject joining; and (2) others would like to convert to the credit technology of instruction and have already started to take active, practical…

Most cultures in the world have an educational tradition dating from well before the Christian era. These ancient educational systems were quite different from the modern Euro-American system that is now so prevalent everywhere, and were successful in producing graduates who were experts as well as citizens of character. This paper suggests that…

Inventors through the ages have engaged in an ongoing attempt to overcome barriers that can prevent effective distribution of knowledge. One barrier involves the accuracy with which the primary source can be represented, e.g., early non-face-to-face communication inventions (e.g., drums, horns, and smoke signals) were rather abstract, while recent…

Staff members of a state literary resource center surveyed their practitioner clients to determine how they viewed research and the kinds of uses they made of it. Mail surveys were sent to all of the 404 adult education and English as a second language program directors in the state, and followup telephone interviews were conducted with 16 of the…