By focusing on education and the development of four moral virtues (friendship, honesty, courage, and justice), this book presumes that the exercise of these virtues is an integral part of good educational practice and that anyone concerned with promoting excellence in education must also be committed to promoting these virtues. Part 1,…

This document provides a background for understanding the conflicts surrounding educational reform and the reactions of the religious right, and it outlines critical implications for policymakers, educators, business leaders, and other interested citizens in North Carolina. Both educational reformers and the religious right agree on the need to…

This paper examines the philosophical approaches to knowledge that have governed education and concludes that a new paradigm is needed for the new millennium. Education is subdivided into a three-level hierarchy, including: (1) the accumulation of factoids as knowledge; (2) the development of knowledge into theories and models for the purpose of…

The idea that changes in school organization can improve teaching and enhance learning has heavily influenced educational reform over the past decade. With a goal of enabling teachers to promote students' construction of knowledge--so-called "constructivist" teaching--school restructuring has tended to focus on changing: (1) how schools group…

This study examined the relationship among beliefs about grades and teaching goals of college faculty, along with the extent to which there exist systematic differences among the academic disciplines with respect to these beliefs and goals. A national sample of 442 undergraduate teaching faculty responded to a survey asking them to rate the…

The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) achieved the following objectives in 1996-97: (1) sought and obtained the agreement of the Ministerial Council to make the National Training Framework more flexible and usable by training providers and their major clients (businesses and individual learners); (2) obtained in principle agreement to…

For years many educators have advocated school conditions that maximize human intellectual and creative potential, yet today's schools can be intellectually depressing. After identifying and describing factors that influence teachers' attitudes and experiences in education, this document explores three school climate conditions that facilitate the…

This issue os Spectrum contains six articles devoted to the theme of helping teachers develop multicultural teaching methods by examining the relationship of art, culture, and art education. In "Multi-cultural Art: A Learning Process," Linda Kreft addresses the problem of cultural biases that children acquire over time. Patricia Stuhr in…

The simultaneous restructuring of K-12 schools and teacher education programs located in rural regions is of primary importance. This paper explores the philosophical and theoretical rationales for the establishment of partnerships between a regional institution of higher education (IHE) and the local schools in the rural region served by the IHE.…

The purpose of this study was to test the feasibility of using a model adapted from the instructional design and technology (ID&T) taxonomy model proposed by the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology Committee to build an ID&T knowledge base. The model was tested by mapping a random…

If the principles of feminism are to be enacted and nurtured in their development, then there must be an understanding of: (1) psychological, social, economic, legal, and cultural obstacles confronting women; and (2) assumption and expectations surrounding the feminist perspective. The classroom offers a unique context for developing these…

While America's two-year colleges are diverse in function, mission, clientele, and organizational structure, they share a common identity in their commitment to a developmental philosophy. A rarely used, but nonetheless tenable and cost-saving path to development involves exploring strategies which simultaneously contribute to faculty, student,…

Reviewing the history of rural education reform, this paper argues for a policy of improving rural schools on their strengths, rather than a policy of consolidation. Since the late 1970's, rural school reform has placed greater emphasis on developing policies and educational strategies that allow rural schools to be different from urban schools…

This book presents a theory of how adults learn by making meaning of their experiences. Chapter 1 gives an overview of an emerging transformation theory of adult learning, compares it with other theories of adult learning, and describes the dynamics of the process through which one makes meaning of one's experience. Chapter 2 examines the way…

The writings by the novelist James A. Michener that have appeared in publications of the National Council for the Social Studies from 1938 to 1987 are presented as a collected work. The titles of the included articles are: "Music and the Social Studies"; "Participation in Community Surveys as Social Education"; "The…