This article discusses a business school professor's approach to teaching a University Seminar, the first course in the freshman year component of the liberal arts requirements at Seattle Pacific University. Drawing on Cardinal Newman's "The Idea of a University" (1873/1947), three theses shaped the design of the seminar. First, the…

Piecemeal change to improve schooling is an approach that at its worst does more harm than good, and at its best is limited to creating pockets of good within school districts. When it comes to improving schooling in a district, however, creating pockets of good isn't good enough. Whole school systems need to be improved. This article focuses on…

This article discusses the relationship between procedural and conceptual problem solving in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment designed within the field of science education. The contribution of this article, and our understanding of this phenomenon, is anchored in our socio-cultural interpretation, and that implies…

The idea that validity should be considered a property of inferences, rather than of assessments, has developed slowly over the past century. In early writings about the validity of educational assessments, validity was defined as a property of an assessment. The most common definition was that an assessment was valid to the extent that it…

This complete resource provides staff developers with the necessary tools for training leaders at all levels of the educational system to become the catalysts for large scale, sustainable reform. Hear from practicing principals, superintendents, and educational experts; observe actual training sessions; and visit classrooms to see how the model to…

The purpose of this narrative inquiry is to share a story of self-reflection and deliberations about issues of ethics, values, social justice, and educational leadership. It begins as a story of reflections about one College of Education team's struggle for authenticity in the development of a new educational leadership program. However, the story…

This paper proposes that learning and teaching for pupils with severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties could be enhanced by a closer focus on emotional factors and on the careful identification of what is meaningful for them. Phil Goss, senior lecturer in counselling and psychotherapy at the University of Central Lancashire draws on…

This paper seeks to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the topic of public aid to Christian schools in a Reformed Christian perspective. To do so, I need to clarify a Reformed Christian approach in regard to this topic and then review the studies of the issue in legal and educational aspects in the light of the Reformed perspective.…

The Ministry of Education (2000) handbook, "Gifted and talented students: Meeting their needs in New Zealand Schools" requires each school to show they are identifying and catering for their gifted and talented students. The terms "gifted" and "talented" represent a range of diverse special abilities rather than…

Although multicultural education, a field dedicated to promoting equity and justice in education, continues to be the target of conservative critics, its contemporary crisis brews from within. The greatest danger to the movement toward equity and social justice that underlies multicultural education in the US comes from educators who ostensibly…

Globalization and market liberalization served to displace the perception of education as a socialized concept of basic needs and human rights in favour of one that views it as just another commodity in the marketplace. Increasingly, educational structures were dismantled and replaced by new policies and procedures aimed at restructuring…

This article describes current goals for K-8 school mathematics and outlines 7 critical areas in which students frequently experience difficulty. Effective mathematics teaching is related to teaching that takes into account the 3 learning principles articulated in the National Research Council (2006) publication, "How Students Learn". Research…

We support role changes for educational and psychological consultants who work with children and youth with disabilities as they make important transitions. Principles derived from critical pedagogy and disability studies could provide the theoretical framework for the proposed shift in roles that change the basis on which consulting services are…

In this much-needed volume, Nel Noddings uses her extensive experience at every level of schooling to challenge the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Noddings invites readers to think critically about the ideas underlying NCLB, the reform movement that shaped it, and the processes it has put into play. She considers such questions as: Is money the…

In contemporary life and education, the local is marginalized in favor of large-scale economies of consumption that are indifferent to ecological concerns. The consequences of neglecting local human and natural communities include a degraded habitat, loss of wilderness, alienation, rootlessness, and lack of connection to communities. Critical…