This introduction to a special issue on using consultants to improve teaching in higher education considers the origins and rationale for instructional consulting, raises some questions about the conceptual underpinnings for consulting practice, examines who offers and who sells consultation, and urges training in consultation skills and greater…

Suggests the Book Chat model, which emphasizes subject-related, process-oriented learning principles, be adjusted to accommodate two aspects of change in literary practice: the selection of texts for literature programs; and the influence of critical-literacy theory on the way teachers question children about what they read. (NH)

Discussion of why many experimental educational programs seem promising initially but disappointing when widely applied leads to detailed examination of the concept of "explanation." A proposed model for planning classroom work involves: (1) focusing students on the nature of the problem; (2) orienting pupils to a theoretical construct; and (3)…

This article reviews the principles and shortcomings associated with the mechanistic and holistic models of teaching and learning. Speech language pathologists and teachers are urged to exploit the plurality of theories available in developing effective interventions. (DB)

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field concludes that the scaffolding metaphor is fundamentally flawed. The author proposes an alternative model, Strategic Content Learning, which is seen as more successfully promoting correspondence between instructional activities and the…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field identifies issues in the metaphor's use and concludes that effective special education has been inhibited by isolation of interventions from theory and by the way teacher education is structured. Use of the scaffolding metaphor to refocus…

Contends that institutional resources for the improvement of teaching and learning are often lacking at community colleges; thus, the idea that they are teaching institutions--as opposed to research institutions--is flawed. Asserts that the increase in the number of part-time faculty results in departments with a smaller core of full-time faculty…

Argues for more blurring of the roles of teachers, students, and researchers. Examines models and metaphors in process instruction (specifically the Jazz Metaphor), and shows how new "blurred" roles for teachers and acceptance of a range of methods can be applied in working with future teachers. (KEH)

This paper argues for a paradigmatic shift away from individualistic models of development and learning in early childhood special education to a social constructivist model. Principles for inclusive early childhood practice are explicated, based on classrooms as communities, learning as socially mediated, curriculum as contextually relevant and…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for learning disabilities first suggests the flying buttress, which becomes integrated into a new structure, as a better metaphor. It suggests that scaffolded instruction depends on sophisticated shared assumptions about the conversational process. Evidence that some children…

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field urges that all available literature, rather than a particular metaphor, should be used to evaluate the efficacy of instructional procedures in interpreting findings of instructional research. (Author/DB)

This response by the original author to six commentaries on his paper concerning the scaffolding metaphor for learning disabilities highlights common themes (such as the basic dynamics of meaningful learning) and revisits arguments for and against the utility of the metaphor. Suggestions for broadening the metaphor to address related issues such…

This critique of J. Renzulli's review of his own work on gifted education suggests that no classroom observational studies have critically examined the dynamic interaction of Renzulli's Three-Ring Conception of Giftedness model, that within a school context the model is difficult to conceptualize, and that the model's complexity limits the number…

This article presents the goals, philosophy, and theory of the Direct Instruction model. The theory stresses the learning of generalizations with multiple examples through a highly structured curriculum. Connections between theory and practice are illustrated with a variety of examples of thinking operations from Direct Instruction programs.…

This article reviews aspects of the work of Lawrence Stenhouse in curriculum development and research, identifying and summarizing his core ideas: curriculum development as social and political action, the importance of case studies for involving teachers in research, and teaching as an art. (TE)