Types of learning with a strong emphasis on the responsibility of the learner (such as discovery learning) are gaining popularity over traditional forms of (expository) instruction. Discovery learning distinguishes itself by the central role of learning processes such as hypothesis generation (induction), experiment design, and data…

This study explores in an innovative manner the notion of resilience in a group of immigrant students. Structured interviews were used to explore resilience issues with immigrant students enrolled in university. Two interviewers collected and recorded data together, but conducted separate and independent analyses to explore differences in results…

It is easier to talk about a desire to create a report card for higher education--to evaluate its success--than to actually do it. While some objective data are available, success also depends upon the choice of relevant criteria. This choice and the interpretation of the data vary depending upon the view one brings to the study. Moreover, it is…

Using data for school reform is like painting a series of pictures--pictures that are subtle and capture the nuances of the subject. This is a far cry from drawing stick figures or paint-by-numbers. Imagine the experiences of the French painter Claude Monet as he wandered through his garden at Giverny at different times of the day and year,…

We use data from the 1990/1994 Beginning Post-Secondary Survey to determine whether the factors associated with long-term attrition from higher education differ for students who initially enrolled part-time as compared to for students who initially enrolled full-time. Using a two-stage sequential decision model to analyze the initial enrollment…

This article employs the concept of community to interpret teacher professional learning in the context of the school science department. Using the transcripts of staff meetings, lesson observations and the conversations of school administrators, the departmental community is examined in terms of three metaphors: subject, relationships and…

Predictions from the Rejection Sensitivity (RS) model concerning the social causes and consequences of RS were examined in a longitudinal study of 150 middle school students. Peer nominations of rejection, self-report measures of anxious and angry rejection expectations, and social anxiety, social withdrawal, and loneliness were assessed at two…

Education statistics are rarely neutral; those who collect and analyze them have different purposes. In this article, Bracey discusses several principles of data interpretation to help educators avoid falling into statistical traps. For example, because such reports as A Nation At Risk contain many "selected, spun, distorted, and even manufactured…

A substantial literature on the effective treatment of bipolar disorder has begun to appear, particularly in the last 20 years.The majority of treatments studied have employed medications, particularly mood stabilizers, a typical antipsychotics and antidepressants. Most treatments produce side effects and medications are no exception. A review of…

For at least 40 years, there has been a recurring argument concerning the nature of experimental amnesia, with one side arguing that amnesic treatments interfere with the formation of enduring memories and the other side arguing that these treatments interfere with the expression of memories that were effectively encoded. The argument appears to…

This editorial reviews recent studies of accountability policies using National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data and compares the use of aggregate NAEP data to the availability of individual-level data from NAEP. While the individual-level NAEP data sets are restricted-access and do not give accurate point-estimates of achievement,…

In this article, the author argues that American higher education is allowing itself to be held hostage by the rankings industry, which can lead institutions to consider actions harmful to the public interest and encourage the public's infatuation with celebrity at the expense of substance. Instead of sitting quietly by during the upcoming ratings…

We use a rich administrative dataset from North Carolina to explore questions related to the relationship between teacher characteristics and credentials on the one hand and student achievement on the other. Though the basic questions underlying this research are not new--and, indeed, have been explored in many papers over the years within the…

Several years ago, after a career of teaching biochemistry and introductory biology, the author decided to offer a course for biology majors on biological explanations of social phenomena (Biosocial Problems in Contemporary America). His goal in examining these topics was to help students develop critical-thinking skills that would allow them to…

Glyphs, a way of representing data pictorially, are a new way for elementary students to collect, display, and interpret data. This book contains a number of glyph activities that can be used as creative educational tools for grades 1-3. Each glyph has three essential construction elements: the glyph survey (the questions that are asked), the…