The diversity in educational contexts found in India should be viewed as a valuable feature and as a unique challenge. In an era of greater globalization and educational standardization, of policy borrowing and of international comparisons of achievement, there is a high demand and need to respect context and to appreciate how countries with…

Noting the importance of the relationship between theory and practice to the quality of early childhood education, this paper deals with two issues: (1) translating available empirical and theoretical knowledge into effective practice, and (2) what Lilian Katz's work, collectively, would then indicate for a model of teacher and caregiver…

Much progress has been made in recent decades in improving the quality and quantity of speech competition. The forensic community has endorsed a justification of forensics that emphasizes its educational value. Some critics complain that current competition structure creates detachment from educational opportunities and leads to pandering to…

This paper examines the issue of national curriculum standards within the context of social studies education. The paper explores both the recent "conservative-liberal" consensus in favor of (at least) the idea(l) of national curriculum standards and the nascent opposition movements to national curriculum standards growing within both…

This paper focuses on how school practitioners respond to middle-school reform when it is approached from a research-based, theoretical framework. Using a goal-theory framework, a school-university collaboration at a middle school in a small midwestern town sought to move the school culture toward a task-oriented learning environment. Evaluation…

This paper presents a model for those interested in the design and/or research of instruction in the affective domain. This model is an integration of current theories and models in the affective domain. It is a broad and comprehensive model which represents the hierarchical structures and interactions of affective and related cognitive factors,…

Notes weaknesses in current writing theory as it fails to deal with the affective domains--emotion, memory, motivation, and value. Recommends that future studies should try to make knowledge of the affective processes clear and useful to teachers and students. (NH)

The need for accountability in school psychological services is receiving increased attention. School psychologists are now being asked to demonstrate the effectiveness of their services. Data collection procedures can improve services to clients and systems, enhance the delivery system's psychological services program, validate the need for…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on linking human resource development (HRD) theory and practice that was conducted as part of a conference on HRD. "Development towards What End? An Analysis of the Notion of Development for the Field of Human Resource Development" (F. Peter Kuchinke) examines the following alternative views of…

This paper evaluates how civic education in the United States currently is impacted by the competing theories of individualism ("liberalism") and communitarianism. Each theory's intellectual history and meaning is explained briefly. The implications of the "debate between the defenders of liberalism and their communitarian critics…

As part of the efforts of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in support of the national goals for education (America 2000), staff members are cataloguing and synthesizing research to connect it to federal practice. This paper presents the basic argument that synthesizing research and translating it into practice-oriented…

Drawing from the theoretical background of Schon's concept of the "reflective practitioner," this study compares the ways in which superintendents and school board members view the future and examines their differing perceptions in order to identify possible loci of conflict between them. Board members and superintendents were asked to identify…

Teachers who want to act professionally need to participate in the decision making process. Sound knowledge of current theories is essential as is sound knowledge of students' needs as related to the goals of education. Of particular importance is the willingness to try out alternative approaches and to evaluate the effects of different strategies…

The new research and practice area of "adults and mathematics" is situated within the didactics of mathematics as it is structured and delimited by the concrete forms of practice and knowledge currently regarded as mathematics teaching, learning, and knowing. "Adults Learning Mathematics" (ALM) is a community of practice and research within the…

Teachers rely on mental planning throughout the design, implementation, and evaluation phases of instruction. This paper focuses on the elementary school teacher's use of instructional design (ID) skills in the planning and delivery of instruction, emphasizing the relative and "real" use of ID practices in both mental and written…