Character is defined broadly by leading authorities, including concepts such as practicing apt behavior and teaching right from wrong. Virtue and moral undertones tend to pervade most experts' use of character, although in secular settings, the notion of ethics is more prominent. Overall, developing in students a desire for the good is how most…

This article presents a speech delivered by the author for the Kent M. Christiansen Memorial Lecture series in April 2008 at Arizona State University. The author discusses why he thinks that approaches to academic advising theory and research that arises out of the humanities can be of great value to practitioners in the field of academic…

This commentary responds to the papers in the special issue "Accomplishing identity in bilingual interaction" and particularly to the use of Bucholtz and Hall's (2004a, 2004b, 2005) framework for the linguistic analysis of identities in interaction. The commentary focuses on the relationship between theory and empirical work, with attention to the…

When governments and pressure groups attend only to research that suits their political purposes, it makes a mockery of the idea of evidence-informed policy and practice. In this article, the author cites examples of research that picked up weak and misleading evidence for political purposes. The author argues that researchers are tied in to the…

This article describes an empirical study concerning the mastering of the chemical equilibrium concept by prospective physical sciences teachers. The main objective was to check whether the concept of chemical equilibrium had become an integrating and unifying concept for them, that is to say an operational and functional knowledge to explain and…

In "Psychology in its place" (2008), John Radford considers "what is or should be the "place" of Psychology in education, more particularly Higher Education". In this article, the author looks at the possible inclusion of coaching psychology within undergraduate psychology programmes. Coaching psychology as an applied…

Technical terms such as "meta-analysis," research synthesis," and "effect size" may sound alien to practitioners in the field of education. Due to limited knowledge on meta-analysis among educators, the results of meta-analyses seldom translate from research to classroom practice--even though meta-analyses may provide valuable information on how…

When reflecting critically on issues of education in society it is necessary to consider the following question: in what scientific paradigm should educational theory and practice be located in order to address issues of education in society in an educationally responsible manner? In this essay, I argue that for education theory and practice to…

This article defines how the message systems of international schools and the mechanisms of learning and control can be located in a trajectory from colonialism to global civil society. A discussion of Bernstein's message systems introduces how practice in international schools can be defined. The practice of international schools is framed…

This is an article in a series illustrating the way scholars in communication have pursued translating their research into practice. The translational nature of communication accommodation theory and examples of its application are the focus of this contribution.

This article examines the discrepancy between newly qualified nurses' and physicians' assessment of acquired knowledge in education and their assessment of the knowledge demands in occupational practice. Knowledge learned in educational institutions is traditionally conceived as general and decontextualised with great potential for transmission…

This article aims to outline key factors to be considered in the development of communities of enquiry in an educational context and to establish a conceptual and theoretical framework within which much needed empirical work can be carried out. The literature surveyed considers both different types of community and different theoretical positions…

This article reviews "John Dewey and Our Educational Prospect, A Critical Engagement with Dewey's Democracy and Education," edited and spearheaded by David T. Hansen, with contributions by Gert Biesta, Reba N. Page, Larry A. Hickman, Naoko Saito, Gary D. Fenstermacher, Herbert M. Kliebard, Sharon Fieman-Nemser and Elizabeth Minnich. This…

Teacher identity is defined in its relations, on the one hand, to curriculum and, on the other, to students: to be identified as a teacher is to be taken by the latter as a bearer of the former. In this essay, I consider some variations on theorising teacher identity within these relational terms. Beginning with the educational task of cultivating…

Physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty and physical education specialists have oversimplified and, consequently, made false some of the collective beliefs in their field. This article compares the "many faces of PETE" that are becoming more apparent in today's PETE programs and considers whether physical education teacher education…