Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how a school leadership team in a rural, high-poverty elementary school learned to lead continuous school improvement in a research-practice partnership. Design/methodology/approach: This case study draws on qualitative research methods, improvement science and Deming's notion of a system of…

Purpose: Some studies have claimed that Chinese thinker Hu Shi (or Hu Shih) received and responded to John Dewey's educational ideas only at a theoretical level and did little for education at a practical level. This paper reexamines Hu's reception of Dewey's ideas with a focus on how he used those ideas to solve China's educational and social…

This study investigated a framework for supporting English teacher candidates' efforts to reconcile theory and practice in classrooms that are subject to the tensions and challenges presented by contemporary, standardized education reforms that often ignore students' diverse cultural contexts, needs, and interests. Using the transcripts of seminar…

Hull-House was a unique social experiment by which Jane Addams realized her egalitarian vision for a shared civic life. Facing soaring social problems of the early twentieth century, Hull-House's most important mission was to help new immigrants learn the rule of self-government and become successful drivers of it. Hull-House was an unusual group…

The world needs great individual educational changemakers capable of identifying problems and creating bold, scalable solutions. But the world also needs Dream Teams--groups of talented administrators, teachers, staff, students, and community members who are passionate about making things better for kids, believe that school-based change is the…

As teachers strive to make sense of and implement knowledge of creativity that is available from the research community, school librarians are called upon to help turn rhetoric into reality. Developing the creativity habit is far more meaningful and effective if the classroom activity is representative of the real-world problem-solving process.…

A case study approach was adopted to investigate two thinking skills programmes for a maximum variation sample of five- to six-year-olds in four schools, in two local authorities (LAs), in England and Wales, using multiple methods. School staff interviewed felt that thinking skills programmes enhanced critical thinking skills and improved use of…

As long as there have been public schools, there have been reformers of public schools. All too often, they have insisted on sweeping changes; enamored of their bold, new idea, they haven't considered whether anything established ought to endure. The result? A century of faddish ideas, but little real progress. Among today's most vocal reformers…

For developmental education students, rates of developmental math course completion and persistence into required college-level math courses are particularly low. This literature review examines the evidence base on one potential means for improving the course completion and learning outcomes of developmental mathematics students: reforming…

In the past, if a question is asked of a student, and that student needed a few minutes to think, that student's thinking would be interrupted by somebody else who'd be shouting out. Now, teachers at St. Johnsbury School in Vermont are really focusing on think time for students and really working with other students in the classroom to be…

This study sought to determine the degree to which a body of successful supervision attributes actually exists in practice. Specifically, this investigation sought to determine: (1) To what extent are the twelve dimensions of supervisory practice from the 1989 ASCD Study currently being practiced among selected instructional leaders in two…

Many books and articles have been written about a Response to Intervention (RtI) model of service delivery for students who are struggling learners. However, little has been written about this model's usefulness as a means of addressing the needs of advanced learners or twice-exceptional learners whose needs may be both remedial and advanced. The…

There is a growing consensus that traditional instruction in basic science courses, in institutions of higher learning, do not lead to the desired results. Most of the students who complete these courses do not gain deep knowledge about the basic concepts and develop a negative approach to the sciences. In order to deal with this problem, a…

Given the pace and enormity of change affecting our lives, attacking problems piecemeal is ineffective. To avoid further chaos, school leaders must launch initiatives from a complete systemic shift. Tenure should be abolished. The shift to problem solving requires perspective, energy, and vision. This can happen only after administrators stop…

This paper develops a theory-practice view of administrative and organizational decision making. Its goals are to improve administrative decision-making processes, facilitate organizational change through faculty involvement, and increase the potential for success in education reform efforts. The first sections discuss the nature of theory and…