One composition teacher's experiences with the pluralistic student body of a two-year college led him to question the value of higher education, in particular writing and literature. Most current literature teachers were trained in the principles and methods of New Criticism, and most have found that these approaches are not adequate for their…

Focusing particularly on communication as a discipline, this paper is a review and synthesis of literature about scholarly communication in the social sciences. Drawing from literature about ferment in the communication discipline, from information science, the sociology of knowledge, and the philosophy of social science, the paper argues that…

Traditionally, educational technologists have not been concerned with social or philosophical questions, and the field does not have a basic educational philosophy. Instead, it is dominated by a viewpoint characterized as "technical rationality" or "technicism"; the most important assumption of this viewpoint is that science…

This paper describes prominent cognitive psychology techniques and considers the extent to which these techniques are being used in instructional research studies reported in publications of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT). Four techniques from cognitive psychology are described: secondary task techniques,…

When researcher and teacher are united in a common goal of increased understanding, it is a mutally dependent and mutually beneficial endeavour. This paper reports on the methodology used in a recent classroom investigation of teachers' expressed beliefs in which each of the two participating teachers was engaged as co-researcher involved in the…

The best evidence available today shows that children who are taught phonics get off to a better start than those who are not taught phonics. Research indicates that children should learn phonics early, that children should be taught only the most important and regular of letter-to-sound relationships, and that children should read words within…

This chapter presents Hutchinson's Metamethodology, which is a methodology for building methodologies. The methodology is composed of a set of rules and procedures that, when followed and applied to any problem area, will result in a systematic set of procedures for dealing with that problem area. The following major processes of the methodology…

This book explores the implications and consequences, both theoretically and practically, of four propositions: (1) discourse is produced in context; (2) discourse is primarily a reaction to a precedent action; (3) social interactions in which language is used to construct reality are performed in a variety of roles; and (4) the features of…

The primary goal of special educators must always be to optimize the instruction given to low-performing students. The amount of teacher-directed instruction that low-performing students receive is directly related to their achievement. To maximize the amount of teacher-directed instruction, small and large group instruction is recommended.…

Intended to review the recent professional developments in public relations as they are documented in the literature and to explore the implications of these developments for public relations education in Canada at the university level, this thesis is in six chapters, as follows: (1) Introduction; (2) Defining Public Relations; (3) Current Public…

Research indicates that the use of children's literature can have a positive effect on both reading achievement and reading attitudes. The overemphasis on skills and the exclusive use of the basal reader does not appear to motivate students to become readers. Educators should be exposing children to worthwhile literature in order to motivate them…

Many in the research community no longer believe that a naturalistic social science is possible. A social science based on the model of the physical sciences seems unattainable. Relativistic views are becoming common; it is often said that what is true depends on what different theoretical frameworks will be confronted by different realities. A…

This document describes a program for custodial parents which was designed to facilitate children's adjustment after parental divorce. Four steps in the development of the program are described: (1) examining existing literature for theoretical frameworks and empirical studies on the development of adjustment problems in children of divorce; (2)…

The transfer of theory to practice in education is discussed, with attention to how new knowledge and innovative practices can be communicated to schools. Practices of Ramapo College of New Jersey are described as illustration. The importance of systematic relationships between colleges and schools is addressed. It is suggested that educational…

This paper examines, through reviews of research and current literature, the teacher pupil control ideology within the social context of school. An orientation to curriculum change is presented, and the concept of pupil control ideology is introduced. Pupil control ideology is examined in relation to teacher orientation to curriculum change, and…