Discusses the transition for faculty from teaching traditional classes to online courses, including new pedagogical approaches, assessment practices, group interaction, and student/teacher dialog. Describes a systems change approach being implemented at Southern Cross University (Australia) that includes a collaborative action learning model for…

Examines current academic culture and how it affects growth in nontraditional and distant student populations. Characteristics examined include goal ambiguity, limited flexibility in adapting academic programs to students' needs, low faculty interdependence, and high vulnerability because of decreased funding and societal demands. Examples of…

Two pilot programs designed to improve and maintain quality in European higher education are described and compared: an audit of universities' procedures for quality assurance; and an assessment of programs of study, including teaching and learning, student characteristics, staff, facilities, and quality management. Both include institutional…

This article examines the debate over reform of doctoral education in biomedicine and concludes that the two solutions most advocated are flawed, and that the broad nonscientific education some would like to see in the graduate curriculum is most appropriate in the undergraduate years. More rigorous graduate education, not job-related training, is…

Describes the efforts of the Centre on Collaborative Research at Brock University (Ontario) to understand the processes of collaboration by participating in school-university collaborative research. Explores professional interrelationships and attitudes involved in collaboration and the necessary time-consuming commitment to relational processes.…

Universities worldwide are being confronted simultaneously with three forces of change: new student populations; new technologies; and new ideas regarding teaching, learning, and what it means to be educated. Technology can assist higher education in successfully dealing with the first two challenges. However, new approaches and attitudes toward…

Educators should jettison organization-theory definitions of technology as "neutral." Technology helps steer institutions' organizational assumptions, and should be co-opted to educational ends. Outlining specific strategies, a case study suggests how a professional-development unit might provide leadership in a "knowledge…

This study followed up teachers two years after they had attended a summer institute on gifted education to identify changes teachers made in their classrooms. It identified factors that either supported (student success, personal challenge, and increasing self confidence) or impeded (feelings of isolation, school bureaucracy, large class size,…

Elements aiding block-scheduling implementation at an Ohio Catholic school include a supportive principal, systems thinking, adequate time and resources, benchmarks for quality, responsible faculty decision making, readiness-based staff development, democratic process, process/content coordination, a nonthreatening learning environment, and…

This article discusses the outcomes of a project that used a community development framework to implement change in early care and intervention services in two culturally diverse communities. It describes how community forums and parent leadership training assisted in change efforts and lessons learned from implementation and evaluating reforms.…

Identifies five interlinked and interdependent issues characterizing institutional transformation in South African higher education: (1) democratizing institutional governance structures; (2) increasing access for educationally and financially disadvantaged students; (3) restructuring the curriculum; (4) focusing on developmental needs in research…

Reviews key literature on rural education, 1974-98. Describes characteristics of rural schools and communities. Discusses the results of 100 years of efforts to urbanize and homogenize rural schools, and the question of whose interests should be served by rural schools. Examines ideas about the nature of appropriate rural school improvement, and…

Describes the Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico Rural Systemic Initiative (UCAN RSI), which aims to improve and integrate science, mathematics, and technology education for the primarily Native American and Hispanic students of the Four Corners region. Discusses UCAN RSI's focus on community engagement, cultural sensitivity and relevance, and…

A thorough review and revision of curriculum at San Jose State University (California) illustrates that the modern university can achieve major internal academic reforms when two important conditions are met: legitimacy and energy. These two concepts are defined and practical illustrations are drawn from the institution's recent experience in…

Despite pessimistic predictions that America is re-segregating, there is evidence that America is continuing to become a more integrated society. However, recent trends in higher education paint a bleak picture for institutionalized integration, particularly in the most competitive institutions, and the end of affirmative action has reduced the…