Examines the distribution of bibliographic records in online bibliographic databases using 14 different search topics on DIALOG. Discusses the presence of duplicate records and problems with lexical ambiguity, and concludes that the number of databases needed for searches with varying complexities of search strategies is much more topic dependent…

Focuses on the ideal future of evaluation as a discipline, including evaluation in the nonacademic world and evaluation as it applies to elementary, secondary, and higher education. In the ideal future, evaluation will be fully accepted as a key discipline and will be fully used in rational discourse and policy decisions. (SLD)

Explores the negative reputation of evaluation outside the evaluation profession, considering evaluator credibility, evaluation costs, undesirable consequences of evaluation, and the frequent doubts about evaluation in the academic community. To improve both reputation and practice, evaluation must become known as a helping profession. Evaluators…

Describes the directory published by ARL (Association of Research Libraries) that has tracked the development of Internet publishing since 1991. Explores trends in format, distribution, and content of electronic serials; reviews electronic conferences; and discusses peer-reviewed titles, fee-based titles, and subject distribution. (Author/LRW)

Explores the possibilities of expanding the historical descriptions of the origin story of organizational communication as an academic discipline beyond the W. Charles Redding legacy. Considers S. Deetz's recent challenge to the legacy of G. Burrell and G. Morgan's metatheoretical model and discusses whether Deetz's model integrates or segregates,…

Describes research at the Naval Postgraduate School that investigated student attitudes toward various aspects of Web-based instruction. Results of a survey, which were analyzed using a variety of multivariate and univariate statistical techniques, showed significantly different attitudes toward different dimensions of Web-based education…

Seeks to understand school physical education praxis in light of the human development theories of Lev Vygotsky. Develops a methodology of teaching and a conception of learning that enables students to recognize physical education as a school discipline connected to a dynamic curriculum. (BT)

Finnish early childhood education can be defined as practical educational activity, as a discipline, or as a field of science. This study focuses on the academic connections of early childhood education and concentrates on the identification of actors according to Bourdieu's field theory. The roots of academic early childhood education go back…

Over the past two decades, the rising number of outlets for communication through cable networks and electronic broadcasting (not to mention self-promoting Web "blogs") has stimulated the demand for economic commentary. Only the academic economist, as "public intellectual," can provide this commentary in a coherent and rigorous way via the three…

Use of government information by social sciences researchers has not increased since the 1980's. This article argues that academic libraries must begin to focus less on government organization and function and begin to collect government information and offer reference and instruction services within the context of disciplines. Subject librarians…

Beliefs that individuals hold about knowledge and knowing, or what has been termed ''personal epistemology'', are related to learning and achievement in complex ways. These beliefs are also differentiated by discipline (e.g., math, science, history) as well as by judgment domains (e.g., personal taste, morality, meaning). This commentary on five…

Benedictus Pererius (1535-1610) published in 1576 his most successful book "De principiis," after he had taught philosophy at the Roman College of the Jesuits. It will be shown that parts of this book are actually based on his lectures. But the printed version was intended as a contribution to the debate within his Order on how science should be…

In "Making Science" (1992) I make the distinction between two types of knowledge: research frontier knowledge and core knowledge. Core knowledge is the small body of knowledge for which the entire scientific community treats as indisputable facts. The research frontier is all new knowledge which makes claim to being facts but in practice there is…

This study investigates Braxton and Hargens' (1996, Variations among academic disciplines: Analytical frameworks and research. "Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research." Vol. XI, pp. 1-45) assertion of the profound and extensive effects of academic discipline as it might pertain to administrative work. Academic deans in research and…

This paper distinguishes among "contextualizing", "conceptualizing", and "problem-centring" as three basic approaches to interdisciplinary curriculum. This typology is based on the type of inquiry that takes place in the classroom. For example, if the guiding epistemology in the interdisciplinary work is that of the humanities, the mode of…