This paper presents the results of a document and interview analysis focusing on the standards and frameworks materials that have been newly developed for teachers and administrators in New York to determine the fit between these guidelines and the developing sociocultural concept of curriculum as "conversation" within the domains of…

This encyclopedia provides scholarly information on all aspects of educational technology. It treats integrating educational technology as a problem-solving process. The book consists of 123 papers by numerous authors, divided into five sections. Section 1, "Educational Technology: Definition and Conceptual Background," introduces educational…

This book contains the following papers examining the didactic, academic, analytic, philosophical, and technological underpinnings of distance education: "Introduction"; "Quality and Access in Distance Education: Theoretical Considerations" (D. Randy Garrison); "Theory of Transactional Distance" (Michael G. Moore);…

Educational literature is replete with calls for changes in preparation programs for school administrators. This paper contrasts traditional administrator-preparation programs with one designed around the Quality Schools paradigm. The program emphasizes administrator candidate selection, human needs, the empowerment of others, effective…

The product of nearly 20 years experience in the early childhood field, this book gives current and intending practitioners a better understanding of the nature of leadership in the early childhood profession and its effect on the professionalization of the field. It explores who is or can become a leader and why early childhood leaders are in a…

This book, which is designed for individuals interested in changing and developing their organizations, examines the organizational learning cycle and ways of learning collectively. Among the topics discussed in the book's nine chapters are the following: (1) changing nature of work and organizational learning; (2) theoretical framework of…

This paper reports on a model in which graduate students were encouraged to regard their classrooms as laboratories to replicate earlier research on the use of examples in teaching concepts. The De Cecco and Crawford (1974) concept teaching model, which requires teachers to define the attributes and values of concepts and to reduce the number of…

This paper presents one sixth-grade teacher's efforts to advance curriculum at a Hawaii elementary school through continuous monitoring of the effectiveness of her learning and teaching program. Deliberate and careful reflections in personal teaching journals, meetings with an educational consultant, school administrators, and teaching colleagues,…

Students in an undergraduate course in abnormal psychology annually employ a cooperative active learning model to conduct a 4- to 6-day, values-oriented public policy forum (PPF) within the class itself on a general topic of concern to the field of mental health. A comprehensive and structured five-phase model for a PPF is detailed for course…

Over the last 15 years or so, research into measurement error has begun to consider not just whether the test items fit, but whether the people who answer the items fit. Attempts to systematically identify people who do not fit the typical pattern have led to several "person-fit statistics." This digest describes the need for such…

To examine the relationship among the Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS), Educational Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ), and Philosophy of Adult Education Inventory (PAEI), the three instruments were administered to 111 graduate adult education students. The instruments had similar purposes: PAEI measured philosophical orientation relative to…

Definitions and short explanations of key concepts in the field of instructional evaluation are presented. Evaluation is defined as the process of determining the value of programs, projects, materials, and personnel. It is distinguished from research in that the aims of research are less time- and situation-specific, attempting to uncover…

Taking as its guiding principle that through peer coaching new teachers can offer each other valuable feedback as they try out teaching techniques in the classroom, this book reports on a longitudinal study in peer coaching. The book aims to give teacher educators a new method for encouraging reflective thinking and professional growth in…

This paper reviews research on teaching practicums and describes research-based efforts of the University of Waikato in New Zealand to make the practicum component more effective. Changes in the practicum component being implemented include clarifying the relationship between theory and practice; improving the communication among schools,…

Noting that reading instruction in the last years of the 20th century is still characterized by controversy, this book presents 18 essays that examine the best available research evidence about what is known--and what needs to be learned--about the teaching of reading and how children learn to read. Topics of the essays include whole language,…