"Excellence" has been a prevalent term in New Labour rhetoric on education, most notably in the stated goal of "excellence for all" in education. Despite that, the meaning of the term has remained imprecise, and the implications of universal excellence unclear. In this paper, three distinct definitions of excellence are…

During the 2009-2010 school year, Marzano Research Laboratory (MRL) was commissioned by Promethean Ltd. to conduct a second year evaluation study of the effects of Promethean ActivClassroom on student academic achievement. This report describes the findings from the second year study along with aggregate findings from the first and second year…

This paper provides a brief historical outline of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), its definition, its behavioral characteristics, and a guide to creating successful learning environments for these students. Diagnostic criteria for ADHD are listed and discussed, and incidence figures of 3 to 5 percent of all school-age children are…

This paper examines several questions about reflective thinking and its application in education as a way of extending the applications of the concept. An early section offers background on reflection from dictionary definitions and from philosophers such as John Locke and John Dewey. The next section examines educational practice and reflective…

In light of recent research suggesting links between learning style and culture, this review of the literature looked at the various definitions of learning style, reviewed a framework for categorizing the types of instruments used to assess learning style, and explored the literature on learning style research among diverse groups. The study…

Since the passage of the Family Support Act in 1988, states have been pursuing a variety of experiments in welfare policy innovation. This document summarizes state welfare waiver requests reviewed and approved by the Department of Health and Human Services as of September 1995. Included in the document is a list of definitions of waiver provision…

This handbook is a major effort to establish current and consistent terms, definitions, and classification codes to maintain, collect, report, and exchange comparable information about students. The selection of terms represents the best combined judgment of many individuals as to what data might be most useful for decision making about…

The effects of broadening the definition of eligibility for services from the Washington State Division of Developmental Disabilities (DDD) are analyzed. Five different definitions are discussed. The existing definition includes: (1) "statutory conditions," which includes persons who are mentally retarded or have difficulty carrying out…

This survey of literature discusses the content and research methodology of 25 articles on creative writing written since 1988. It is divided into sections covering articles discussing (1) definitions of creativity; (2) theoretical aspects of teaching creative writing; (3) specific teaching methods; (4) journal writing to discuss literature; and…

This dictionary of higher education provides definitions of terms, organizations, abbreviations, and concepts specifically relevant to further and higher education in the United Kingdom. "Further education" is defined as below degree level education for students over age 16 and is often vocational. The dictionary also provides…

This brief paper focuses on the need to widen the definition of "gifted and talented" so that it encompasses a wider pool of talent, and to redesign vocational-technical education programs. It discusses the various different definitions of giftedness and the necessity of rewriting the definition so that it encompasses a wider pool of talent. The…

This paper reviews the characteristics and needs of students with high functioning autism. First, it lists 18 common characteristics of autism, then it stresses that autism is defined by the general pattern of characteristics. Next, it discusses how people with high functioning autism differ from those with autism. These differences include higher…

This report provides an overview of Minnesota's Medical Education and Research Costs (MERC) project, which was undertaken to gather data on the costs of medical education and health care research conducted by hospitals, medical centers, and health maintenance organizations and to develop mechanisms to assess the costs across the health care…

This paper proposes that a metaphor of linguistic levels, similar to that used in general linguistic theory, be applied to the study of levels within an essay. The linguistic conception of levels in a piece of writing is not sentence-paragraph-essay (which might be characterized as a rhetorical division) but rather (or in addition to)…

Currently, many college and university English departments are reviewing the purpose of their departments. Are they still departments of literature? A writing program is best served by staying in an English department, with the caveat that the department move towards a cultural studies curriculum--the writing program within an English cultural…