Discusses the role of the integrated curriculum approach to middle school education as educational standards become more detailed and discipline specific. Considers the value of merging curriculum integration and standardization as well as the value of an integrated approach to inclusion of special needs students and to meeting and exceeding…

Examination of the implementation of General National Vocational Qualifications in Britain highlights the limitations of criterion-referenced assessment practices. Analysis leads to the establishment of assessment principles: (1) continuous assessment should allow for learner development; (2) better ways of assessing "soft" skills are…

Suggests fundamental changes are needed so that teachers can personalize instruction and schools can address barriers to learning; and the time is opportune for schools and classrooms to truly become the center and guiding force for all planning. Discusses six fundamentals that permeate all efforts to improve schools and schooling and that should…

Uses a fictitious character and story to express doubts about the use of business and marketing principles in American higher education. Asserts that higher education is profoundly different from other institutions, and that colleges and universities should be shielded from the vagaries of the market. (CAK)

Describes one teacher education college's experiences with designing and implementing technology standards for teachers, as required by the International Society for Technology in Education. Addresses program rationale, initial implementation, division of content, feedback from faculty and students, and effects on instruction. (JPB)

Interviews with facilitators of eight Outward Bound Belgium programs examined the tacit knowledge that guides their program facilitation. Findings focus on experiential learning as a process of developing awareness of one's own behaviors, group development as a condition for learning, and program facilitation as enactment of a theory of relational…

Explains why schoolwide reform models do not work. Reviews several validated school-improvement principles and discusses their implementation. (PKP)

A new concept of effective communication is evolving. This new form of communication, known as new media literacy, incorporates visual, aural, and textual elements as well as a sense of immediacy. New media literacy is closely associated with Net Generation learners and is commonplace among higher education institutions. Larry Johnson, CEO of the…

Schools must be places where powerful adults step into children's lives. Adolescence is the most difficult time in the course of building an individual's identity and sense of worth. In this article, the author emphasizes that all students should walk paths that enable them to make essential connections with the adults in their lives, and that it…

The term autonomy has multiple meanings based on diversity in theoretical views in current educational literature. Examples are given of multiple meanings of autonomy, and comparisons are made to the Piagetian view of autonomy as self-regulation implying separateness within community. A case is made for the relevance of autonomy as an educational…

This article contends that Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) may enhance our understanding of educational beliefs and that Peirce's logic may be a tool to distinguish between a dogmatic and a pragmatic justification of such beliefs. The first part of the article elaborates on Peirce's comprehension of beliefs as mediated, socially situated and…

In this article, Mary Doveston and Marian Keenaghan discuss their work with teachers and students in developing more effective and satisfying interpersonal relationships in the classroom. Their approach focuses on increasing the capacity of a classroom community to address and measure its progress in the social and emotional competencies which…

Prima facie, in the context of higher education, "entrepreneurialism" offers an example of globalisation: the idea presages a sense of systems of higher education converging across the world. However, entrepreneurialism is not undifferentiated but is to be found in different modes. Various axes identified in the paper offer spectra of…

In this article, the author introduces whole schooling and its role within: to work towards positive change in schooling. The author discusses what led educators to the idea of creating schools that are more effective, engaging, and joyful places of growth and development for children.

What does Penny Thompson really want? Reading her article in "BJRE" 26 (1) proved a baffling experience: it clearly wanted to say something, and to say it passionately, yet signally failed to do so. It fails largely because it lacks an argument; there seems also to be conceptual muddle at its heart. A fuller critique will need to attend…