Provides a method for helping young poets shape their poems by arranging lines and inventing poetic patterns. Shows how using odd geometrical shapes can be used to help students determine the arrangement of words in poems and to encourage a vital interaction between the visual form and the words inside it. (HB)

Gaming is discussed against a background of rationalist and historicist traditions of reality; trivial and nontrivial machine models of problem solving; and rigid-rule and free-form games. (JKP)

John Dewey and the National Research Council NRC both discuss the problem of translating scientific research into contexts of schooling, but differ about the proper solution to the problem. The NRC would solve it by empirical investigation. Dewey finds value in that approach, but also wants educational theorists to construct general heuristics to…

This paper presents comments on Kassin's review, (see record 2005-03019-002) of the psychology of false confessions. The authors note that Kassin's review makes a compelling argument for the need for legal reform in police interrogation practices. Because his work strikes at the heart of the American criminal justice system--its fairness--the…

This article takes a critical look at administrative decision making in schools and the extent to which complex decisions conform to normative models and common expectations of rationality. An alternative framework for administrative decision making is presented that is informed, but not driven, by theories of rationality. The framework assumes…

Writing-to-learn techniques can enhance learning, yet a need remains for more empirical research on the quality of learning that results from engaging in particular writing tasks with description of the instructional support for writing situated in context. This report builds on past research linking inquiry, social negotiation, and writing…

Multiple (external) representations can provide unique benefits when people are learning complex new ideas. Unfortunately, many studies have shown this promise is not always achieved. The DeFT (Design, Functions, Tasks) framework for learning with multiple representations integrates research on learning, the cognitive science of representation and…

Recent research demonstrates that videogames enhance literacy, attention, reaction time, and higher-level thinking. Several scholars have suggested that massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) such as "Everquest" and "Second Life" have educational potential, but we have little data about what happens when such tools are introduced in the…

Very few elementary public school teachers in the United States expose their students to religion and spirituality in an in-depth way. Even when they have the necessary knowledge base, they shy away from so dangerous an enterprise. They might fear provoking a challenge from parents who are irreligious and are shocked to find religion being…

Reform-oriented efforts geared toward transformative education and equal educational opportunities for all U.S. school children (regardless of race, gender, or cultural/linguistic background) are underway and advocacy is emerging as an important topic of discussion and debate among language-in-education specialists, applied linguists included. …

The central feature of doctoral training in the humanities, according to this author, must remain the organization of curricula to support the mastery of disciplines, the development of rich conceptual frameworks, and a demonstrable attainment of research skills. The work of transmitting these capacities is only partially done by the curriculum. A…

This paper presents a new heuristic approach to interactive test assembly that is called the successive item replacement algorithm. This approach builds on the work of W. J. van der Linden (1987) and W. J. van der Linden and E. Boekkooi-Timminga (1989) in which methods of mathematical optimization are combined with item response theory to…

It is incorrect to say "the test is reliable" because reliability is a function not only of the test itself, but of many factors. The present paper explains how different factors affect classical reliability estimates such as test-retest, interrater, internal consistency, and equivalent forms coefficients. Furthermore, the limits of classical test…

Various realizations have led to less frequent use of the "OVA" methods (analysis of variance--ANOVA--among others) and to more frequent use of general linear model approaches such as regression. However, too few researchers understand all the various coefficients produced in regression. This paper explains these coefficients and their…

In classical Greece, there was a close tie between rhetoric and the practice and theory of public policy. Gradually, however, rhetoric became increasingly concerned with style and literary criticism, while philosophers began to debate political issues apart from the practical affairs of the polis. Because rhetoric provides a model that can still…