The value that honors programs hold for universities lies in the tangibles. Honors programs help an institution pinpoint and cultivate the talents of its finest students. They help these students achieve undergraduate research and encourage them to seek further inquiry and creative endeavor. They provide the counsel, advising, and encouragement…

Lillard et al. (2013) have done a thorough review of published pretend play research from the past 50 plus years. However, they did not thoroughly address the reasons why this body of research has such flaws as well as the contradictory or minimal findings that call into question strongly held views and published assertions regarding the…

Geographical information systems (GIS) are in tune with the current ethos of higher education because of their perceived vocational value. However, it is particularly difficult to teach GIS vocationally. This paper critiques the claim of vocationalism. The authors use an innovative method of evaluating a module that enlists its alumni to reflect…

There is a distinction between engaging in research and being a researcher. Although practitioner research has been widely supported, it has been understood as producing different types of research findings from that of the academic researcher. In England, much of the published research in geography education is conducted by academics or…

Economics is a two-faced discipline. It claims to be a science, describing the world without preconception or value judgment. The reality is that descriptive economics has been shaped by a framework of assumptions geared more to its normative message than to its pretensions. The self-interested individual--who rationally calculates how to achieve…

If educational research stemming from colleges of education is sometimes out of touch, scholarship engaged by school districts and state boards of education is often dangerous in its distant view but arms-length reach. Teaching and learning are enhanced when members of the school community engage in collective grounded efforts to make real change.…

Comments on a article by Blass (January 2009) who pointed out his historical perspective on human welfare problems facing a democratic society. The author would like to add some information from the cognitive-developmental framework that seems most pertinent to these larger issues of obedience and disobedience. It is relevant to note that a number…

The term "knowledge economy", like the term "globalisation", has become a catchword in political and educational debate over the last decade or so, especially in debates upon educational policy where the role of education in preparing young people to take their part in the Knowledge Economy is often seen as paramount over other traditional…

The author recently asked his colleagues, "How can libraries determine the value in collecting, managing, preserving, and/or cataloging e-resources?" hoping to challenge readers to come up with some thoughtful opinions and useful tips. Not surprisingly, he received a handful of substantially different but uniformly provocative and creative…

Higher education--and continuing education as one arm of that enterprise--is not just an economic engine; it contributes directly and in a multifaceted fashion to the common good. It generates and makes accessible a great deal of the knowledge that drives the economy; it helps develop an understanding of the society and the world for millions of…

Makes a case for rereading the fact-value dichotomy that currently divides the contemporaneous literatures dealing with children's moral reasoning development and their evolving theories of mind. Presents findings from two research programs, in which children's beliefs about truth and rightness are combined, to illustrate the natural…

We respond to the commentary by Brusten, Stams, and Gibbs (2007) on the research by Tarry and Emler (2007), arguing for the appropriateness of key design decisions--studying delinquency as assessed by self-report in a sample of 12- to 15-year-old males. We argue that "known-group" methods for assessing involvement in delinquency, the major…

In this article I examine the consequences of the dominance of intuitive thinking in moral judging and deciding for the role of moral reasoning in moral education. I argue that evidence for the reliability of moral intuitions is lacking. We cannot determine when we can trust our intuitive moral judgements. Deliberate and critical reasoning is…

Since the start of the twenty-first century, the mass media in Russia have increasingly appealed to the concept of human capital, initially formed in the framework of the system of education. The sphere of education is being recognized as top priority in the context of the worldwide movement toward what is called the knowledge economy or even the…

Describes examples of adolescent behavior which parents and school personnel find obnoxious. Explains why intelligent, reasonable, and well-adjusted teenagers periodically behave in this way, as something that is developmentally inevitable given the uneven development of competencies in several important areas. Adolescent incompetencies in four…