There is indeed a literacy crisis, but this crisis needs to be reconceived as a crisis in definition. Paulo Freire and Donaldo Macedo's book "Literacy: Reading the Word and the World" can be used to refute E. D. Hirsch's arguments as presented in his "Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know," but this kind of…

In a holistic approach to education, the various parts are related to the whole in such a way that education is no longer fragmented and unrelated to the larger society. Because it is difficult to define what is meant by the term "holistic," educators have been hesitant to use such an approach even though a growing body of literature supports the…

Emma Willard had an important impact on teaching social studies and on the education of women in general in the 19th century through her efforts in training teachers and through her writing. Willard's writing included both textbooks and books on educational philosophy. She began teaching at age 17 in a village school. After further education, she…

This paper examines the area of teachers' practical arguments (arugments consisting in the search for a plan of action), considering questions such as: How does rationality manifest itself in practice, and in specific human practices like teaching? Is practical reasoning in teaching moral? Do values of theoretical reasoning, such as universality,…

Views from the Middle Ages to the Modern Era are traced concerning the role of faculty in collegiate education, the curriculum, and desired learning outcomes. Previous educational thought concerning faculty, curricula, and mission provides a historical paradigm in which the ideological orientation of the 1985 Association of American Colleges'…

Perspectives on the 1985 Association of American Colleges' report, "Integrity in the College Curriculum," are presented, with attention to connections between the report and ideas from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Using quotes from philosophers and scholars, attention is directed to: why the report was written and what it is…

Educational theorists frequently use the term "model" to denote a simplified picture of the reality of a theoretical approach or a school of thought. In branches of empirical science, including education, experimental data are often correlated with mathematical symbols, which makes it possible to interconnect these symbols in an exact way. Models…

The rhetorical functions of history depend on the domain in which history is used, with no connotations of interpretive priority attaching to the social or the academic realm. The appropriation of history in support of social causes as radically opposed as socialism and fascism fuels the temptation to subsume history under ideology, with the…

The theoretical foundations of thinking skills models differ. One category of thinking skills programs uses the cognitive process approach on the premise that thinking abilities depend upon certain fundamental processes. Thinking skills programs that present a strategic approach to thinking are called heuristics-oriented programs, and focus on an…

Five case studies illustrate "good practice" in integrating handicapped secondary students. The articles focus on programs in Italy, the U.S., England, and Norway. Papers on the Scuola Di Rienzo on Rome and the Drayton School in Oxfordshire, England describe lower secondary schools. The Rome program was once a special school for…

This paper suggests that present-day curriculum, based on Newtonian thought, has been rendered obsolete by the holistic and interactive "post-modern" world view based on quantum physics, nonlinear mathematics, general systems theory, and Ilya Prigogine's nonequilibrium thermodynamics. The Newtonian world view, which is linear and…

The product of a year-long research process undertaken by a Task Force on Academic Standards at Tompkins Cortland Community College (TCCC) in 1980-81, this report provides background to the deliberations of the Task Force and a presentation of their position on academic standards at TCCC. The report establishes the Task Force's commitments to…

The major curriculum issue in Norway focuses on the form of learning as opposed to the content of learning. At the turn of the century the school program emphasized content; teaching centered around the acquisition and storage of knowledge. During the 1920s and 1930s, however, theorists stressed the form of the educational process. The process of…

Views on the place and power of the university, the church's role in the university, and the sciences and humanities are presented. The secularization of western universities raises fundamental criticisms from the Christian point of view that the university atmosphere is not congenial to Christian spiritual values, and that higher education…

Intended for administrators, program planners, teachers, paraprofessionals and other personnel involved in special education, the booklet provides guidelines for working with culturally diverse children. Three philosophical positions regarding the culturally different are separatism (which maintains that children should be separated from one…