This article discusses the directions being taken in gifted education in New Zealand. It examines current policies regarding gifted education and outlines key educational principles. Recommendations are made in the areas of national leadership, local policies, increased resources, assessment, professional development, parental involvement,…

This article provides 20 principles to enable educators to identify meaningful creative activities for gifted students and avoid the superfluous "whistles". Activities should: value creative thinking, make children more sensitive to environmental stimuli, encourage manipulation of objects and ideas, develop tolerance for new ideas, and teach how…

Discussion of ethics in special education focuses on four challenges: (1) examination of special education's history within an ethical framework; (2) articulation of character morality as well as choice morality in special education ethical dilemmas; (3) examination of special education in a liberal democracy; and (4) development of an ethical…

American Catholic universities and colleges are a large component of the global strength in Christian higher education and scholarship, but they currently do not participate in international collaboration in proportion to their capacity. The Roman Catholic hierarchy looks to the numerical, structural, and curricular strength of Catholic…

In this article, the author profiles the Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School in Devens, Massachusetts. Parker School opened its doors in September 1995 after a year of planning by its founders and prospective members of the community. It began with 120 students in grades seven and eight, and now, ten years later, enrolls 368 students in…

This article analyzes the traces and configuration of three syntagmatic interpretation models in the educational text produced by Israel's state religious educational system: the "modus", the "hermetic" and the "gnostic" models, which together add up to a fourth, and unique one: "the messianic nationalist"…

Setting goals and developing a sound set of principles will provide a great deal of stability and confidence as educators face teaching challenges. The authors of this article have a simple set of goals and principles that guide them in their efforts to teach. These goals worked for them, and they have had a positive effect on the students they…

Geography as a discipline has a long and healthy history in South Australia. Due to the passion of individual educators and the activities of the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia (GTASA) since its foundation in 1936, South Australia has experienced ongoing curriculum development and indeed innovation in the geographical studies in…

The advantages of computer-assisted grammar teaching and more recently, web-based grammar teaching, include the possibility, for the instructor, of devoting class time to teaching communication skills, and the capacity of individualizing the course work. Several websites have been created for these very reasons. However, most of these sites…

In this paper, we argue that reflecting upon our personal experiences and the origins of our ethical and political beliefs can be useful to see that, as much as society has a strong influence on us, each of us has the capacity to influence society. Also we suggest that there exist intimate links between personhood and pedagogy. As such, through…

Instructors have many tools to consider when offering online courses: chat rooms, discussion boards, and interactive Web environments, to name a few. The selection of applications for instructional purposes can be a complicated task as the number available grows. Not only must the application work, but it also must have a pedagogical purpose or…

This paper discusses current thinking and practice about the use of popular culture in the primary school to teach literacy. It attempts to question the methods that attempt to galvanise children's interest in popular texts to teach the current literacy curriculum. It argues that there is an incompatibility between the pleasures and practices of…

e-Learning research is an expanding and diversifying field of study. Specialist research units and departments proliferate. Postgraduate courses recruit well in the UK and overseas, with an increasing focus on critical and research-based aspects of the field, as well as the more obvious professional development requirements. Following this year's…

There are a number of cross-curricular educational fields today that have as their focus the need to create a better world. These range from peace education and global education to education for sustainability and futures education. This paper is concerned with the first and last of these fields, and in particular the contribution that futures…

The purpose of this study is to defend the view that education should be evaluated in terms of the capability to achieve valued functionings, rather than mental satisfaction or resources. In keeping with Amartya Sen's capabilities approach we argue that mental satisfaction provides an inaccurate metric of well-being because of the phenomenon of…