In the early 1990s, university faculty members, early childhood educators, and preschool teachers in South Korea created a new paradigm for education. Eco-early childhood education uses an ecological point of view to reform existing child-centered education. This perspective proposes moving from child- to life-centered, individual- to…

Patterns of reasoning indigenous to American Indians and Alaska Natives are based upon a fluid holistic mindset, born out of intimate observation of the natural world and predicated on the understanding that nothing exists in isolation. All action has consequence and all interaction is significant. Just as American Indians themselves have been…

This chapter presents a philosophical reflection on ecological mindfulness as it relates to curriculum integration, mathematics education, and experiential education. The chapter's title refers to a collection of poems that are full of "particulars"--the meticulous details of memory and reverie--and that show how lives are always lived…

The basic purpose of the Educative Leadership Project (ELP), first launched in Australia in 1986, was to define excellence in educational leadership, with a focus on the questions of how to decide what is important and how to know what is morally right. An introductory chapter by the editors describes the ELP project in detail, including its…

In a public hearing to decide which plan of reading instruction should be emphasized in a school district, six university professors with expertise in reading took turns presenting their philosophies and plans of reading instruction. Professor A was a strong advocate of a thorough program of phonics instruction for primary grades pupils in…

Therapy provides a useful model for teaching critical thinking by placing thinking processes in the context of the whole person. Critical thinking is grounded in the language skills of the student as the student attempts to construct a structure of reality that is well-adapted to the student's relational contexts. The didactic model of teaching…

The degree to which modifications to the format of the scoring rubric and the associated training procedures affect the technical quality of the resulting scores was studied, and the perceived utility of each scoring method for influencing a teacher's instructional decisions positively was investigated. Two different methods were used to score…

The concept of systemic school change as a comprehensive approach to raising academic achievement and preventing school dropouts in Massachusetts is summarized in this report. Following a description of systemic school change, reasons for adopting a systemic change approach are offered. Nine princples of systemic school change are provided,…

Replicating earlier research, a study examined parental expectations for their children in speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Subjects, 88 parents approached as they were leaving the supermarket, were asked whether they thought their children would learn how to speak, listen, read, and write. Interviews were conducted by 21 preservice…

The characteristics and elements of situated learning are described, along with some approaches that use this perspective. Situated cognition proposes a radically different explanation of learning that conceives of it largely as a social phenomenon rather than a process occurring within the mind of the individual. Situated learning requires…

The complexity of the optimization algorithm for staff utilization in any medium to large organization can cause major problems in meeting schedules while still keeping all of the work force in full employment, working at a level appropriate to their experience, and also giving staff an opportunity to develop new skills and experiences that will…

A study of the holistic evaluation of writing compared holistic rating and the rating for "conformity to correct prose" technique, a technique based on error counting, of five essays representing five ability levels. The essays were produced in a college English-as-a-Second-Language program. The two scoring methods produced the same ranking of…

The Burlington County (New Jersey) Special Services School District provides comprehensive services and programs to 700 severely impaired students from the ages of 3 to 21. To provide these students with a high quality education, the district has built modern, state-of-the-art facilities designed with the needs of the handicapped specifically in…

Effective writing assessment involves judging how well a writer is encouraged by the classroom's social context to pull together ideas and to bring experience to bear on abstractions. Four main points can be made to justify this view. First, assessment by standardized test determines a teach-and-test model of instruction. But a curriculum that…

A holistic approach to planning the preretirement education of active duty noncommissioned officers was formulated on the basis of Sample and Kaufman's Organizational Elements Model. The approach stresses removing the responsibility for education and employment of veterans from the state and Federal level and placing it on the individual soldier.…