Reviews five books on child poverty and welfare reform: (1) "Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America"; (2) "Welfare System Reform: Coordinating Federal, State and Local Public Assistance Programs"; (3) "Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America"; (4) "Rethinking Social Policy: Race, Poverty and the Underclass"; and (5)…

Describes the alternatives used by the Penn State University libraries to respond to the challenge of providing access to the many different kinds of databases. Approaches include development of a generic interface based on the Z39.50 protocol; staff support, including instruction, reliable documentation, and staff involvement; and better user…

Discusses the development of electronic libraries at Cornell University's (New York) Mann Library and elsewhere and presents an overview of changes in services and staff responsibilities needed to address user needs. Sidebar articles discuss Internet access to government information; changing staff roles; geographic information systems; the Mann…

A discussion of the current crisis in African higher education looks at linkages between African and U.S. institutions and the urgent need for assistance in policy analysis and planning, management development and leadership training, funding, a search for new educational approaches, professional training, information technology, government…

A framework for developing teachers' reflective decision making ability is provided along with specific staff development activities that promote teacher reflection. Strategies include conducting personal histories, video/audio self-assessment, journal writing, cognitive coaching, cases, role playing, and problem framing/action research. (SM)

Describes the higher education reform discussion in Austria which led to major system reorganization in 1993. It is noted that a previous academic oligarchy played a central role because a high proportion of university faculty also served in the parliament. Research on higher education played little part in reform because few studies were…

Looks at the trend toward the early-start semester calendar in American colleges and universities, and examines administrative, pedagogical, and fiscal considerations in making the change from a quarter system. Topics discussed include the impact on the curriculum and instruction, summer session, access, enrollment management, and institutional…

Describes library reorganization at the University of Arizona resulting from fiscal challenges and the need for current technology. Highlights include: the restructuring process and customer focus; team functioning and the learning organization, including training issues, communication, empowerment, and evaluation/assessment; current challenges,…

A year-long third-year medical school course at the University of California, Los Angeles, integrates underrepresented topics into the clinical curriculum. One day every two weeks, students visit community-based clinical sites and engage in small-group sessions, following and managing simulated patients during the year and examining the…

Lessons learned while reforming the core curriculum at the College of Saint Catherine (Minnesota) are outlined, including: broad ownership of the curriculum by faculty is essential; sometimes curriculum issues are more about faculty than students; a means for arriving at consensus must be devised; planning should take the curriculum through its…

An increase in nontraditional students in traditionally white South African universities suggests the need for a new learning environment. Semistructured interviews with six Rand Afrikaans University students focus on this transformation process and the various ways to manage it, with implications for the university discussed. The interview…

This article discusses some important aspects of a three-year educational project (1997-2000) that took place in an Athenian primary school where a high percentage (60%) of pupils did not have Greek as their mother tongue. The principal objective of the project was to create, through a variety of approaches, conditions that would allow the…

The federal government has, on the whole, has done an excellent job, especially since 1996, in fostering the use of technology in K-12 public schools in the United States. The Department of Education's focus on getting computers and Internet access to low-income schools and communities is the right approach. This paper measures the impact of the…

Schoolwide positive behavior support (SWPBS) exemplifies a longitudinal research program originating in the fields of special education and school psychology that has produced an extensive national database encompassing an evidence-based set of practices applicable to general education as well as special education students including those with…

This paper examines changing research practices in the digital environment and draws out implications for research evaluation and the development of research infrastructure. Reviews of the literature, quantitative indicators of research activities and our own field research in Australia suggest that a new mode of knowledge production is emerging,…