The article provides syntheses and critical analyses of literature, creative insights, fruitful information, reflections on gifted education perspectives, and discusses the pertinent issues related to enabling sciences, with a particular focus on chemistry. The misconceptions among the gifted students, and a range of pedagogical approaches to…

Despite the intensity of funding and numerous intervention efforts in recent school turnaround initiatives, many perspectives, practices, and policies specific to school turnaround appear to be at odds with organizational theory. Yet, many actors in research, policy, and practice arenas appear convinced that their steadfastness will eventually be…

This article provides an overview of the available evidence on psychological misconceptions, including key findings, current directions and emerging issues for investigation. We begin by defining misconceptions and then examine their prevalence and persistence, discuss their implications for student learning and highlight potential strategies to…

The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive, accessible and strategic overview of what is currently known about school and system reform in the early twenty-first century. It reflects on the knowledge that has been acquired from research, policy and practice over the past three decades and presents it in a way that provides frameworks…

"Chalk and talk" had been the staple pedagogical approach of my Science teaching practice since entering the profession. I felt that there was a great deal of information that I must impart to my students. My tried and tested way to deliver information to my students had always been simply to stand in front of them and tell it to them... So what…

"Race Traitor", a movement founded by Noel Ignatiev and John Garvey, has been given a boost in recent months in three different arenas: the Occupy movement; an antiracist advertising campaign; and in an academic journal. With respect to the last, which is the main focus of this paper, Critical Race Theorists John Preston and Charlotte…

Today, in the era of open access to digital-based information and communication, one of the biggest challenges in higher education to realize moral education and to build academic culture and integrity is the emergence of academic dishonesty behaviors among academic members. The paper describes academic dishonesty behaviors in Distance Higher…

The research summary, "A Complete Education," presents the Obama administration's proposal for ensuring that all students have a comprehensive education. The key areas include: strengthening instruction in literacy and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM); increasing access to instruction in a broader range of subject…

Young, Wright, and Laster (2005) stated that since the "Brown v. Board of Topeka, Kansas" decision, gaps in educational achievement have been a recognized problem across the United States. Particularly, differences in achievement levels for elementary and secondary African American students have remained. Daniels (1998) stated that…

Based on the author's experience with the Atlas Community Project, this article identifies six different types of knowledge needed to mount a comprehensive reform effort: technical, resource, local, process, strategic, and organizational. Efforts to promote comprehensive changes do not necessarily make the reform processes markedly more successful…

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education's strong movement to strengthen accreditation appears to have generated the same kinds of criticism and condemnation as before the redesign. However, results of interviews with 32 teacher education and NCATE leaders show overwhelming support for NCATE. Schools, colleges, and departments…

Fear frequently underlies confusion about shared decision making. Participative decision makers do agree on three basics: focus on improving school effectiveness by involving teachers and parents; need for school teams or councils charged with decision-making authority over certain issues; and a process to improve overall decision-making quality…

Many would-be reformers have become so entranced with educational standards that they fail to recognize accompanying problems, such as optimal generality and subordination levels. There is really no difference between instructional objectives and content standards. Other perils of content standards include inadequate descriptive vigor,…

A big problem with performance tests and standards is their specificity, or lack of generalizability. "Keeping no secrets" and "teaching to the test" for performance tasks and traditional tests are absolutely necessary if schools are to prepare students adequately to meet performance standards. This nontraditional approach…

Describes the Saskatchewan (Canada) School Improvement Program and illustrates the type of data available from annual evaluation reports. Based on some incongruities identified among specified goals, improvement strategies, and reported success, the paper makes a case for specifying, from the outset, the assessment strategies and success…