Planned educational change tends to be imposed from the top down and increases the requirements for local reporting. This paper reports on the effects of a curriculum-planning workshop on teachers' instructional practices. Eight teachers at a Catholic college in rural Western Australia participated in a curriculum-planning workshop to learn how to…

This report summarizes the proceedings of an Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) sponsored meeting. The discussion and followup papers address issues related to disseminating promising and exemplary programs in conjunction with OERI's responsibilities to plan a system of expert panels. Section 1 of the report includes the minutes…

This book provides a working knowledge of the Internet to assist teachers in implementing Internet resources in the K-12 curriculum. Part 1 - The Basics includes chapters 1-3. The first chapter deals with the information glut on the Internet and the time management problems this poses and presents a conceptual image of the Internet. Chapter 2…

This booklet offers guidelines for the development of dissemination strategies, especially those concerned with research and programs. Individual sections address: the importance of including sound dissemination plans in grant proposals, factors found to be closely related to information utilization in the dissemination process, a philosophical…

This essay derives from roundtable discussions of teams from seven research universities involved in a Knight Collaborative Engagement on Academic Indicators and Information Systems to Guide Resource Decisions. While colleges and universities are built on the premise that good data, well tested by an often adversarial process of discovery and…

The American Association of University Professors' Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure reports on potential problems and concerns in government regulation of research opportunities, methods, and use of research results. Federal actions, campus responses to these actions, and the relationship of academic freedom and national security are…

Reviews research on obsolescence (decline over time in validity or utility of information), citing two major state-of-the-art reviews and subsequent research involving citation studies and use studies based on circulation and reshelving statistics. A problem-solving management model developed to aid libraries deal with obsolescence is discussed.…

Teachers in England and Wales were asked about their use of teachers' centers and leaders of teachers' centers were asked about materials produced by the Schools Council. Hopes originally voiced for coordination between teachers' centers and the Schools Council in the dissemination of new materials have not been met. (IS)

Evaluated the extent to which similar decisions concerning student placement were made by multidisciplinary team members based on varying amounts of assessment information. Found that individuals who reviewed large amounts of information made decisions similar to those who reviewed little information. Found about half the decisions accurate.…

Non-quantifiable knowledge, involving sensory information, conceptualization, and imagination, is discussed in relation to educational evalution. Evaluation is discussed in terms of educational connoisseurship, or the art of appreciation; and educational criticism, which informs, interprets, and appraises. (MH)

Information use in senior-level university decision-making councils involves organizational, interpersonal, and individual processes. Leadership styles emphasizing a group-process team approach to decision making are best for utilizing information to form policy. (Available from: Jossey-Bass, Inc. 433 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104,…

The British Columbia Learning Assessment Program is a province-wide program designed to aid in decision-making processes about curriculum revisions; preservice teacher education and in-service programs; resource allocations; and future research needs; and to inform various publics of educational attainment. The article provides an overview of the…

A survey examined secondary school teachers' perceptions of the effects of program, student, and teacher evaluations on instructional improvement. Results indicated that student evaluation was most effective in influencing teachers to revise their instruction. Teacher and program evaluations appeared to be ineffective as change agents. (MH)

Characteristics of evaluative studies used by California state legislators are discussed: specificity in addressing particular policy decisions; factors which contribute to or hinder the accomplishment of educational objectives; balanced studies with a range of indicators; and attention to local concerns, and to fiscal and legal issues. (MH)

Using the 1995 National Research Council ratings of doctoral programs in 41 fields, a statistical methodology is offered for assessing how measures of program size, faculty seniority, faculty research productivity, and faculty productivity in producing doctoral degrees influenced raters' decisions. Then using data for one field, economics,…