The reported failure of urban schools has been well documented by various government commissions. To remedy this situation, quality and equality of education must be insured. Research and development on disadvantaged populations has increased in an effort to reverse the effects of traditional pedagogical methods. Numerous programs for early…

The Durham Education Improvement Program (EIP) seeks to develop new organizational patterns and instructional systems in ongoing classrooms which would foster the educational and social development of disadvantaged North Carolina children. A small-scale model school system (consisting of three schools in target areas and a laboratory school) was…

This report presents the objectives and accomplishments of the Center from April 1, 1968, to October 31, 1968. The four program areas discussed are 1) the environment for teaching; 2) heuristic teaching; 3) teaching the disadvantaged; 4) nonprogrammatic research. Each program is composed of a number of projects. The current state of each project…

The four goals of this project are outlined in some detail. First, a unit programed for self-instruction in nursing, entitled "An Introduction to Radiation Therapy" was revised and rewritten on the basis of knowledge gained from controlled use. The revised unit took less time, showed a decreased error rate and indicated greater learning. A second…

In contrast to evolutionary or natural change and homeostatic or adjustive change, a planned program of change designed to move education in a new direction, and accordingly called "neomobilistic change," provides for the realistic achievement of educational improvement. The two primary criteria of this model are relevance and impact. Reasons why…

As the major instrument for the discovery and training of talent, the school in contemporary technological society plays an increasingly deterministic role in the selection of individuals for particular occupations and, hence, particular positions in the social hierarchy. The Netherlands was chosen as a research site because the consequences of…

The fifth in a series of teacher education units emphasizes the specific problems of teaching disadvantaged students. Discussed are research and its relationship to classroom teachers, the need for research about pupils, the teacher-pupil relationship, and the instructional program. One section of the document is devoted to ways in which teachers…

The following research projects are described in this annual report: (1) "Concept Learning in Discrimination Tasks," which indicates that kindergarten children are able to discriminate the letters "b,""d,""p," and "q"; (2) "Discrimination of Letter-like Forms," indicating that nursery…

"Contemporary Education" is a magazine, published six times a year, which seeks to present competent discussions of contemporary trends and problems in education. This issue concentrates on the computer's role in education, with the conviction that the computer will transform education and eventually inform and pervade all areas of human activity,…

The extended school year is based on the needs to economize, to improve teacher status, to deal with the teacher shortage, to improve and enrich education for all pupils, to achieve pupil acceleration, and to keep youth busy and off the streets during the summer months. In spite of these claimed advantages, experimentation and adoption of extended…

The definition of evaluation as the collection and interpretation of systematic information about the effectiveness of alternative educational practices suggests several functions of evaluation in education, including: (1) Assessment of the needs of learners, (2) evaluation of program plans, (3) assessment of congruence between plans and actual…

Logic and mathematics are used to gain some insight into the effective and efficient application of instruction. A pupil's state of knowledge is represented by the degree of confidence he possesses in the subject matter. A cost, gain, and return from instruction are associated with each possible initial degree of confidence and each instructional…

Research evidence from linguistic studies of American English orthography and from neurophysiological and psychological research in ways that children learn indicates that the content and instructional practices of current spelling instruction programs should be drastically revised. Initial spelling instruction should encourage children to analyze…

Embracing studies by graduate students and academic staff as well as by provincial departments of education and other organizations, this annotated bibliography lists about 625 different Canadian studies in education, with cross references bringing the total number of listings to over 700. Works done in English or in French are reported in their…

The College Discovery Program in New York City's Community Colleges was established to facilitate higher education for high school graduates who could no t afford college and who, though having the necessary intellectual ability, had low high school scholastic averages. The Program was to enable students to complete two years at a community…