Discusses developments in preschool education including implications of its nonmandatory nature and explores the similarities and differences between preschool and compulsory education. (JOW)

Challenges the doctrine that the curriculum of public education must be value-neutral. Argues that education should embrace a commitment to the highest possible level of cognitive awareness, supplemented by commitments to persons, to the enjoyment and employment of knowledge, and to community service. Recognized limitations on public education's…

Presents a model outlining three procedural steps to be followed in the revision of refinement of existing instruction consisting of component, congruence, and continuity analysis. Basic instructional components are defined and Merrill and Wood's Instructional Strategy Diagnostic Profile (ISDP) is presented as an instrument for determining…

Discusses 17 years of growth and development at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical Institute in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. (JOW)

A survey of newspaper editors on trends in educational news coverage indicates that many newspapers are expanding and improving their coverage and are covering a variety of educational activities, but that fewer than half have a full-time reporter assigned to education. (RL)

A survey of American library education and development in the last century. (LS)

Examines the introduction and growth of state-supported schools in two German colonies in Africa, Kamerun and Deutsch Ostafrika, describes African reaction to and utilization of them, assesses, from the colonial perspective, why such schools were introduced and what they were intended to accomplish, and examines the reasons for their differential…

Suggests the worst and best prescriptions which could be derived from E. D. Hirsch's book, "Cultural Literacy," and other books like it. Recognizes that Hirsch has identified a serious problem in the schools, but indicates that his proposed solution is too simple for a complex problem. (MS)

Provides an overview of this special issue on educational systems design. The International Systems Institute (ISI), a nonprofit agency that contributed the issue, is described; and summaries of the papers are presented, organized according to major themes covered (i.e., conceptual models and issues, design applications, and design learning). (LRW)

Conceptual ambiguity surrounds notions of gifted and talented; justification for talent development is often linked with rejection of the term gifted. Talent development should mean identification of those who show superior natural abilities as well as aptitudes for a particular domain and emphasis on developing those special skills. (SK)

Although it does not conform to school expectations of parental involvement, an immigrant family's attempts to instill values by exposing children to physical labor teach them about work and its hardships and makes them aware of the value of education. (Contains 61 references.) (SK)

This article reports how Philadelphia's new, standardized curriculum is just one component of a larger agenda for secondary education. By 2008, the school system plans to make a transition from about 55 high schools, when Chief Executive Officer Paul G. Vallas took the helm in 2002, to between 70 and 80 smaller ones of choice. As part of the…

This paper examines the implementation of British Council English language teaching projects at Chinese universities. The study argues that the key to successful cross-cultural communication is an informed appreciation of the perception gap that separates donor and recipient. Cultural sensitivity and the use of a culturally appropriate methodology…

This article deals with the issues of access and expansion in France. It elaborates on the rationale and causes behind the expansion of higher education over the last 25 years and the impact this has had on the system, more particularly in terms of inclusion and exclusion. The article shows that, as in the United Kingdom, although expansion has…

A great deal of emphasis has been placed on what was originally called school development planning and what is now more commonly known as school improvement planning. While attention is now moving to the strategic dimension the danger is to associate strategy with the mechanistic structures of the strategic planning approach. The key to successful…