This paper summarizes the current contexts of education and teacher education, describes the Austin Teacher Program's (Austin College, Texas) response to these contexts, and outlines salient features of the Austin Teacher Program redesign. Four common themes emerge from commentary during recent years on the status of American education: increasing…

The role of educational media and technology personnel in the development of distance education curriculum is the focus of this fact sheet. The definition and background of distance education are briefly described as nontraditional education involving communication between teachers and learners by such means as correspondence, radio, and…

A report is given of a procedure that may be used by teachers to reconsider their educational beliefs and practices, and determine whether their teaching behaviors are in accordance with their professed beliefs. Part I of the procedure, the Educational Beliefs System Inventory, is a 69-item inventory composed of statements of beliefs about human…

A survey of the past 100 years of curriculum development in the United States reveals a series of changes in curricular practice and philosophies. This document reviews those trends in curriculum change, according to historical time periods. Discussed in the section covering 1880-1910 are the Herbartian and Romantic philosophies, the Baltimore…

In three parts, this symposium presentation to the American Montessori Society: (1) comments generally on current perceptions of Montessori education; (2) poses questions about practices in Montessori classrooms that challenge Montessori educators' core beliefs about Montessori education; and (3) discusses the cutting edges of contemporary…

The University Council for Educational Administration's (UCEA) response to the National Policy Board's agenda is reviewed in this address. Recommendations for action include: reassessment of the organizational mission; initiation of assertive interaction with critics; and collaboration among all professional groups. Examples of the UCEA's actions…

Pursuant to a request from the Arizona State Board of Education, an interagency task force was formed in fall 1989 to examine the issue of values instruction in Arizona schools. This document begins with a summary of the resulting report, along with a list of suggested common core values, recommendations for development and implementation of a…

This paper addresses a decline in educational standards and discusses the role of curriculum. After defining the problem, it presents the evidence, pointing to the following factors: (1) decreasing student achievement after the fourth or fifth grade; (2) a curriculum that reflects and perpetuates this decline, e.g., by setting course requirements…

This paper argues that a major review of the theory of educational administration is required if it is to regain a credible role in academic and practical circles. The argument, which considers the case of regional directors in Victoria, Australia (a role similarly endangered on present assumptions and trends), has four major parts. First is a…

This paper compares pluralistic and equitable approaches to sociocultural and language teaching in Australian schools. The pluralistic view of multiculturalism overemphasizes ethnic differences with the hope that appreciation and tolerance will follow. In fact, fostering feelings of difference may increase racism and cultural chauvinism. This…

An earlier review (Daresh and LaPlant 1985) resulted in an impression that most field-based training in educational administration is understaffed and undervalued. Accordingly, this review analyzes the historical development of apprenticeship models used in the preparation and continuing education of practitioners in medicine and law, in order to…

This paper reviews current educational research and philosophy on effective school characteristics and discusses how to put them into practice. Prevailing beliefs among educators have advanced from "there are good and poor learners" to "there are faster and slower learners" and now to "most students are similar in learning…

This bulletin summarizes the principles of discipline and classroom management that appear to be successful. It also looks at how educators in Oregon and elsewhere are applying these principles in their schools. Despite differences of philosophy, certain principles are shared in some form by all schools of thought. The first chapter discusses…

Materials presented in this document focus on the historical development of culture and politics and their effects on education in Poland. This document proposes that Polish education is affected by the societal pressures of socialization and change and that schools socialize children in the cultural and philosophical behavior patterns of a…

E. D. Hirsch's call for authoritative knowledge about composition is flawed, according to this document, because he focuses on the product and not the process of composing, thereby excluding more of the problem of composition than he includes. Hirsch's principle of readability--that styles that communicate meaning with less effort from the reader…