Since the U.S. has no strong centralized educational program, the drive for systemic change is proceeding more slowly and unsystematically than in Japan or France. Systemic reform strategies must emphasize building schools' capacity for self-renewal. Getting from uniformly high standards to diverse delivery systems is the challenge. Marshall…

Explores why mental health has been a contested issue in Head Start and describes recent efforts to bring mental health closer to the center of the program agenda. Describes areas of challenge and innovation that might further the program goal of improving the well-being of parents and children in poverty. Concludes with recommendations for…

Profiles a class exercise that teaches the importance of developing an accurate definition of a psychological construct (guilt, control, altruism). The more precise the definition, the easier it is to choose an appropriate technique to measure that construct. Discusses the Health and Psychosocial Instrument File, a recent measurement database.…

Educators should jettison organization-theory definitions of technology as "neutral." Technology helps steer institutions' organizational assumptions, and should be co-opted to educational ends. Outlining specific strategies, a case study suggests how a professional-development unit might provide leadership in a "knowledge…

A survey of 171 individuals, including individuals from government, university, school division/districts, parent, and community groups, found that teachers are the primary agents for identifying youth at risk; formal assessments of youth at-risk are conducted by school psychologists or other psychologists; and early identification of students…

Plagiarism is certainly not new to academics, but it may be on the rise with easy access to the vast quantities of information available on the Internet. Students researching on the Internet do not have to take handwritten or typewritten notes. They can simply print out or copy and save whatever they find. They are even spared the tedium of having…

Scientific and technical jargon--specialized vocabulary, usually Latinate--plays a vital role in scientific and technical communication. But its proper use continues to be a point of discussion because of our concern with audience adaptation, rhetorical exigence, rhetorical purpose, and ethics. We've focused on teaching students--and on convincing…

This article presents the author's response to the article "The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning--Done by Sociologists: Let's Make That The Sociology of Higher Education" by Chad Hanson. The author says that Hanson points to critical limitations of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) in sociology, including insufficient attention…

This article reviews research related to the construct of interaction in the educational technology and distance education literature. The review is limited to higher education and includes theories and empirical research that inform the construct of online interactions. Conceptual and operational definitions of "interaction" are categorized from…

To contribute to the valuable and ongoing debate regarding the definition of global citizenship and global competency, this study proposes a definition developed through the use of a Delphi Technique involving human resource managers at top transnational corporations, senior international educators, United Nations officials, inter-cultural…

Purpose: Across mainstream educational leadership literature, the term vision has had two primary definitions: (a) a leader?s image of the future and (b) change goals. Translating vision into practice has become increasingly difficult, however, as educators have been bombarded with conflicting images and goals for schools. This article is…

Background: Children who have poor vocabulary knowledge are at risk of wider language weaknesses and reading comprehension difficulties, which will impact upon their educational achievement. The central question addressed in this paper is how best to teach new vocabulary items to these children. Aims: To investigate the effects of two different…

Canada is a country composed of 10 provinces and three territories with very limited federal control over the public K-12 education system. This lack of consistent direction has led to a range of diverse educational policies for educating students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD). This article investigates the current state of policies…

This paper provides an overview of the policies, process, and practice of special education in the People's Republic of China. Individual sections address the following topics: historical perspectives; legislative highlights (especially China's 1986 compulsory education law and the law on the protection of people with disabilities passed in 1991);…

The articles in this collection address various definitions, viewpoints, and treatments for youth at risk and youth offenders. Articles not only examine alternatives to incarceration, but also provide examples of value-forming experiences beneficial to all young people. The articles and authors are: (1) "Introduction" (Anthony Richards); (2) "The…