This book is designed to provide practical information about planning and operating virtual, or online, schools. It discusses and illustrates promising practices and successful models and approaches; provides planning resources for implementation; presents costs and benefits of launching virtual schools; offers preventive strategies that help…

There are a number of more meaningful ways of examining differences in achievement scores than by making comparisons, however complex, simply on the basis of national boundaries. Past methodological schemes may have been analytically convenient, but the results are hardly clear or convincing. (BRR)

States that 99 percent of India's education budget is spent on formal education, which is not relevant to the needs of most Indians whose many languages and socioeconomic conditions require the traditional nonformal methods. Sharply criticizes others' emphasis on "elitist" imposition of uneconomic, one-language, formal educational…

Describes the Occupational Versatility program in industrial arts, involving a self-instructional school shop in which the learning system is student-managed, nongraded, upgraded, and team taught. This federally funded learning method has also been successfully applied to home economics and art education. Information sources for the teacher are…

Presents the results of a chemistry program held at Purdue University from July 31-August 4, 1988. Topics reported include: chemistry's past, present, and future; new directions in chemical education, demonstrations and laboratories; and instructional strategies. Lists the 391 papers given at the conference and the 22 workshops. (MVL)

Describes hypermedia and its potential uses in learning and teaching. Highlights include storage and manipulation of information; levels of learner control; the roles of teachers and learners and the interactions between them; theoretical and technical problems; instructional difficulties; and evaluation principles for hypermedia. (LRW)

Presents a study conducted to determine the opinions of educational technology professionals and students about the future of the field. Topics include educational technology and learning theory, instructional design models, technology and individualized instruction, advances in technology, educational technology and schools, and employment and…

Examines the power of performance assessment to influence learning and to effect change in the educational system. A vision of education in the near future is presented that addresses standards, the impact of constructivist psychology, administrative organization of education, student and program assessment, a community of learners model of…

Recommends music teachers setting up management systems that delegate some tasks to others in order to accomplish their myriad duties and avoid burnout. Contains numerous examples of delegated tasks, including student self-governing systems and home practice systems. Describes how some tasks can be handled by student organizations. (MJP)

The 4MAT system of instructional change is described. The 4MAT system is an eight-step cycle of instruction that capitalizes on individual learning styles and brain-dominance processing preference. Four major learning styles are recognized: (1) imaginative; (2) analytic; (3) common sense; and (4) dynamic. Because in each style there are people…

Traditional methods for task analysis have been largely based on the Instructional Systems Development (ISD) model, which is widely used throughout industry and the military. The first part of this document gives an overview of cognitive task analysis, which is conducted within the first phase of ISD. The following steps of cognitive task analysis…

A study was conducted in the teacher training program at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington to explore the degree to which novice teachers apply the concepts, principles, and attitudes of ISD (instructional systems development) in their instructional planning and their beliefs regarding the efficacy of ISD principles for planning and…

This guide is intended to assist basic skills and/or literacy instructors, administrators, and tutors in selecting appropriate educational software, hardware, and instructional systems. Discussed first are the software evaluation process on which the guide is based, the evaluation form used, and the guide's organization. Section 2 lists the more…

Continuing education systems can improve the performance of health workers in countries around the world and support the functioning of district health systems. Continuing education guides health personnel toward the principles and methods of primary health care and improves their work with the community and family to attain an adequate level of…

Leaders in the field of early care and education identified five main problems in the training of early care and education providers. These problems were: (1) a shortage of trainees: (2) limited access to training; (3) lack of agreement on the content of the training; (4) lack of consistent certification standards and models of professional…