Explores the link between research and teaching in higher education. Topics include various perspectives on the central function of universities; models of departmental practice linking research and teaching; a deep approach to learning as a bridge between research and teaching; and implications for the education and training of academic staff.…

Discusses theory and practice in the context of peer observation. Peer Observation is widely accepted in principle as a valuable contribution to teacher development, but in practice it is often resisted.(SM)

Challenges vague, underconceptualized notions of teacher professional community. Findings from an exploration of two California middle-school teacher communities suggest that current models obscure significant differences in beliefs and practices. One community stresses teachers' individual rights and responsibilities; the other is driven by a…

Because traditional instruction ignores students' personal construction of mathematical meaning, mathematical thought development is not properly nurtured. Several issues must be addressed, including adults' ignorance of math- and student-learning processes, identification of math-education research specialists, the myth of coverage, testing…

Describes how learner diaries were used as a means for evaluating a teacher-training course. Records how data from the diaries was categorized and interpreted, and discusses some of the issues for this particular type of course that the evaluation has revealed. (Author/VWL)

Examines the complex relationship between the concept of diversity, and the concept of disability and argues for an overriding sociocultural framework for special education as a responsible way to link these concepts in practice. (Author)

Describes functional assessment, discusses the need to translate research findings into formats and processes that can be used efficiently in applied settings, and stresses the need for research to continue to build a technology of functional assessment that meets the range of situations faced in schools and communities. (Author/CR)

Draws on research/development projects aimed at raising achievement through teaching thinking to explore core concepts of thinking skills and learning. Argues that educators need to move from the idea of developing the thinking child to creating powerful learning environments, thinking classroom, schools, and communities. Discusses approaches to…

Reading researchers are under attack by policy makers and others outside the field who want a quick, easy method for teaching students to read. Although common ground exists, nothing points to any single best way to teach reading. What matters most is the teacher, flexible approaches, and student interests. Contains 17 references. (MLH)

To transform gendered organizational theories and practices in education, conversational meeting spaces must be created. Board rooms, classrooms, graduate educational administration courses, preservice education policy courses, staff lunch rooms, and professional seminars and journals are all sites for reinscribing or resisting gendered norms.…

Investigates elementary school teachers' beliefs and classroom practices about reading. Describes how three of the teachers experimented with new language, beliefs, and/or practices, juxtaposing them with current beliefs and practices. Considers how, at the end of two years, two teachers had altered their beliefs and transformed their practices,…

Describes the Virtual Company, a learning environment developed by the Open University (Netherlands) that is modeled after real companies to bridge the gap between learning and working by situating learning in a real-life business setting. Discusses problems in higher education, demands of society, and results of a pilot study. (Author/LRW)

This introductory monograph in this volume on research and practice in higher education reports a study that examined perspectives (shared, differing, or divergent) of practitioners and researchers on higher education literature. The study found these groups had noticeably different viewpoints. However, results suggest that both researchers and…

Discusses the value of institutional reading groups as vehicles for engaging faculty in the body of higher education literature and encouraging the use of research in decision making. Suggests these groups are an effective and efficient strategy for assimilating large amounts of complex information, fostering new knowledge, and sparking campus-…

Comments on a set of five analyses that all examine the same data (the discourse of a problem-based learning group in medicine). Argues that each of the analyses is representative not only of a research tradition, but also of a distinct research language and, as such, can be analyzed on the basis of the expressive potential of that language. (SR)