Describes some developments in the academic field of communication since 1983 (including accelerating fragmentation and departmental specialization). Suggests what these changes may imply for the prospects of the field in the years just ahead. (SR)

This discussion sees child prodigy as a distinct form of giftedness characterized by a more focused, specialized, and domain-specific form of giftedness than seen in other gifted children. The child prodigy phenomenon demonstrates the complex relationships between psychometric intelligence in the traditional sense and expression of talent within…

Professional planners (281 of 770) identified currently popular specializations and skill needs in the field. Data from 47 urban planning students in cooperative education indicated the value of different types of placement experiences in early, middle, and late stages of the college career. (SK)

Considers the need for specialization in library and information science education as opposed to a more generalized entry degree, and presents two case studies to further discuss the issue, one in archival science and one in information systems and technology. Convergence and divergence is also discussed. (LRW)

Provides an overview of standards development, accreditation, and credentialing with particular attention to specialties. Considers a number of unresolved issues, and presents the pros and cons of specialties in the professionalization of counseling. (JPS)

Although the regulation of the counseling profession has been sought and accomplished in most states, it is questionable whether the public is best protected by state regulation. Offers an alternative to governmental regulation of specialties. (JPS)

Summarizes the national standards for addictions counseling of four different professional groups or boards. The new addictions specialty certification standards that are being developed jointly by the National Board for Certified Counselors and the International Associations of Addictions and Offender Counselors are compared with the standards of…

Discusses the need for recognition and respect of counseling credentials, and suggests that the profession of counseling will be strengthened if all counselors have a minimum foundation of counseling knowledge and build accepted specializations on that foundation. The counseling profession must distinguish among work settings, professional…

The pathway through graduate school is challenging and difficult. Nearly everyone, at one point or another, confronts the existential question of whether they want to drop out or to continue. Several challenges emerge as key to graduate students' success in progressing through their programs. The first is moving from the secure but sometimes…

The integration of higher education systems in the Western world has led both to development of overall strategies for the organization of higher education institutions by public authorities, as well as to strategies by higher education institutions aiming to position themselves within emerging higher education systems. This article first asks…

The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education was established by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 1967 to study and make recommendations regarding the major issues facing U.S. higher education. The commission soon confronted a problem: no extant classification system differentiated colleges and universities along the…

How specialized is the teaching of the group of learners with disabilities and difficulties? This is one of the most basic and perplexing questions in the education of this group. This is a highly significant question in the context of current education policy and practice. There has been a growing awareness of the need for universalizing…

Introduction: National health care concerns have led to the emergence of maintenance of certification (MOC) as a means to ensure the competence of practicing physicians. Little is known about physician perceptions of the barriers and/or benefits of MOC or proportions of physicians who participate in MOC programs. The purposes of this study were to…

This monograph consists of a paper outlining current trends in education and discussing issues related to the dissemination of knowledge, and a selected ERIC bibliography on this subject. Trends highlighted in the paper include: (1) the expansion of information; (2) the increasing pace of specialization; (3) the tendency of groups interested in…

The field of pediatric psychology is a relatively new and emerging specialty, with medical center departments of pediatrics increasingly employing child-oriented psychologists. Since there are no doctoral programs in pediatric psychology, school psychologists with specialized internship training in pediatric psychology are well qualified for these…