In this essay, Rachel Schachter and Donald Freeman present the familiar problem in studying and improving teaching: how to connect what teachers know and think with what they do as they teach. They outline how research on the public and private worlds of teaching has become bifurcated, with the private side of the work often disconnected from…

While case study is considered a common approach to examining specific and particular examples in research disciplines such as law, medicine and psychology, in the social sciences case study is often treated as a lesser, flawed or undemanding methodology which is less valid, reliable or theoretically rigorous than other methodologies. Building on…

This article explores the possibility of developing an ethico-politically coherent and practical research framework for studying the learning and knowledge-production and dissemination processes of utopian groups and movements. It seeks to develop understanding of utopias by identifying and conceptualizing their pedagogical aspects. At the same…

Educational effectiveness research (EER) has accumulated much knowledge in the areas of school effectiveness research (SER), teacher effectiveness research (TER) and school/system improvement research (SSIR). Yet many schools and educational systems are not making enough use of the material and their insights. The article reviews evidence of…

The article "Getting lost in translation" by Harris, Chapman, Muijs and Reynolds addresses the engagement of policy-makers and educational practitioners with (the results of) educational effectiveness and improvement research. In this commentary the article is discussed from the perspectives of research utilisation, the solidity of the…

Jory Brass and Leslie David Burns provide a useful and informative review of research appearing in the "English Journal" ("EJ") and "Research in the Teaching of English" ("RTE") over the past 100 years. It is a bit unfortunate, if understandable, to exclude books and articles in other journals, because such a restriction excludes many pieces of…

This article presents the author's response to comments on her article, "Will a Clinical Approach Make Education Research More Relevant for Practice?", which focused on the question of whether a clinical research practice might make education research more relevant for practice. The characteristics of a clinical approach are: (1) an overlap in the…

Environmental education is an important strategy in addressing environmental problems faced by communities around the world. In this article, the author particularly keen to know how the act of "doing research" will advance the field of environmental education and as such contribute to the solution of broader environmental problems. The author…

In response to a Critical Notice published in these pages by Roberts (Vol. 32/1,2001), this article notes several specific reservations with regard to Shor's model of empowerment as outlined in "When Students Have Power" (1996). The original book documents one critical educator's attempts at negotiating power in a college classroom setting. While…

Agrees with many of the points expressed in Herbert Zimiles's criticism of quantitative research in this issue, but argues that the shortcomings identified by Zimiles are present in many qualitative studies as well. Both quantitative and qualitative research need to follow high standards of research design and execution. (MDM)

Argues that although Gardner's conception of human cognition, characterized by a set of multiple and distinct cognitive capabilities, is an advance over the narrow conception of IQ, it runs into fundamental difficulties of a methodological kind and is based on a discredited empiricist theory of knowledge which work with artificial neural networks…

Replies to "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences: A Case of Missing Cognitive Matter," also in this issue. Disagrees about the role theory of knowledge plays in the context of justification of multiple intelligences. Specifically, asserts that the article's criticisms based on philosophy of science claims and work with artificial neural…

Examines the manner in which the data-driven character of child development research limits the validity and penetration of the search for new knowledge and understanding, and imposes a skewed image of what is known about children and childhood by excluding the less objective observations and insights of the clinicians and practitioners.…

Responds to Herbert Zimiles's criticisms in this issue of an overreliance on empirical, quantitative data in child development research, arguing that, although quantitative research has limitations, intuition is no substitute for a rigorous, systematic investigation of a hypothesis. (MDM)

Responds to commentaries in this issue by Greta Fein and by Daniel Walsh and Gary King on criticisms of quantitative research. Argues that the data-driven nature of child development research has an impact not only on how research questions are answered but on what questions are asked in the first place. (MDM)