This paper brings together the main strengths and challenges currently facing Scottish education and outlines approaches to the ways forward. Knowledge about how to improve education systems has grown rapidly over the last two decades. One key challenge facing Scotland, and no doubt many other countries, is in ensuring a smooth "learner…

Today's ever-changing learning environment is characterized by the fast pace of technology that drives our society to move forward, and causes our knowledge to increase at an exponential rate. The need for in-depth research that is bound to generate new knowledge about curriculum and program development is becoming ever more relevant.…

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a professional development model is an authentic means of stimulating reflective, insightful, professional growth. This paper describes a conference session that modeled the PBL professional development model as participants engaged in an actual PBL and created their own PBL professional development model. The…

A group of 30 Nevada teachers participated in a summer institute to explore reservoirs and tributaries of the Truckee River. These river studies increased teachers' awareness of water as the life source supporting numerous living creatures and social, cultural, and political issues. Using their newfound cultural and ecological perspectives to…

Examines use of cohorts in educational leadership programs from conceptual and practical viewpoints. Suggests ways to develop cohorts and discusses cohorts' effects on students, faculty, educational programs, and systems. Examines the potential for using cohorts to develop transformational leaders. Effective cohorts are learning laboratories that…

Discusses staff development for technology use whose goal is to help teachers use technology as a dynamic part of the curriculum. Highlights include creating a team to design a vision of technology integration; understanding adult learners; assessing teachers' needs; designing individual learning plans (ILPs); and evaluating staff development…

The papers in this collection fall into three categories. Part 1, "Overview of Research," includes "New Directions in Language Anxiety Research" (Dolly Jesusita Young) and "Native Genderlects and Their Relation to Gender Issues in Second Language Classrooms: The Sex of Our Students as a Sociolinguistic Variable" (Lydie E. Meunier). Part 2,…

This manual explains how to foster contextual learning and curriculum integration. There are 12 sections: "Contextual Learning"; "Connecting Academic Standards with Contextual Learning"; "Using Career Development to Add Context and Relevancy to the Classroom"; "Curriculum Integration"; "Guidelines for…

A selection of essays in learning styles in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction includes: "Cultural Differences in Learning Styles" (Gayle L. Nelson); "Difficulties with Cross-Cultural Learning-Styles Assessment" (Patricia A. Eliason); "Gender Differences in Language Learning Styles: What Do They Mean?" (Rebecca L. Oxford); "Cognitive…