Immersion programs for teacher candidates are intended to start the process of teacher development by exposing candidates to realities and tensions of schools while giving them opportunities to create viable responses to the issues they face. Two immersion programs in Massachusetts--180 Days in Springfield and Bridges to the Future--provide new…

The article posits a paradigm for school development (SD) in the context of a developing country, which is somewhat different from the dominant SD and school improvement (SI) paradigm in the West. Within this paradigm the norm of a school-parent engagement over pedagogical issues as in the West is replaced by imperatives based on full community…

The University of West Georgia implemented a successful research-based initiative, Project DEW (Developing eCore Winners) to improve retention in its eCore courses. eCore courses are those offered through a collaborative University System of Georgia program, and includes courses required to complete the first two years of an undergraduate degree.…

China started up pilot projects for the evaluation of teaching work at regular higher education institutions (HEIs) in 1994, and, beginning in 2003, the Ministry of Education (MOE) formally set up a system of cyclical teaching evaluation. Among the 592 undergraduate colleges and universities that were listed in the plan for the first round of…

This article presents a reflective report on a project aiming to strengthen educators and improve early childhood education in Guinea-Bissau--one of the poorest countries on the African continent, where preschool teachers have no training and have to face several ongoing difficulties. Helping these Guinea-Bissau teachers to focus on curriculum…

The topic of diagnostic error is a relatively new one in the academic arena and lacks an organized research agenda. Participants at "Diagnostic Error in Medicine-2008" formally considered this issue and provided initial suggestions. Recommendations were made to standardize taxonomies and definitions, especially in regard to what constitutes a…

The ADVANCE Institutional Transformation projects are remarkably diverse in their theories of action and choice of strategies. However, faculty development plays a role in many, and it was the central change strategy chosen by Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP), the 2002-2008 ADVANCE project at the University of Colorado at…

Outdoor education continues to play an important role in helping to deliver the school curriculum. Recent UK government initiatives have encouraged schools to deliver more of the curriculum outside the classroom. However, teacher confidence in taking pupils outside has been negatively affected by many factors in recent years. The Hampshire…

This article argues that the focus within much normative education policy is with in-school effects which has sidelined the impact of structural and material factors in respect of the urban primary school. Educational reforms intended to improve schools are less likely to make much impact unless these contextualizing matters are directly…

Professional preparatory health programmes generally involve clinical placements with a focus on integration of theory into real life practice. Reflective writing is often included in the assessment requirements for clinical placement courses. However enabling students to engage in deeper levels of reflective writing in action, on action and for…

In this paper we will briefly review recent trends in employment outcomes for disadvantaged youth, focusing specifically on those who have become "disconnected" from school and the labor market, and why these trends have occurred. We then review a range of policy prescriptions that might improve those outcomes. These policies include: 1)…

Individual performers, work teams, and organizations may be considered complex adaptive systems, while most current human performance technologies appear to assume simple determinism. This article explores the apparent mismatch and speculates on future efforts to enhance performance if complexity rather than simplicity is assumed. Included are…

A third-party national evaluation of the basic grants section of the Adult Education Act was conducted in September 1990. Although clients eligible for adult secondary education (ASE) constituted the largest segment of the target population, enrollments were highest in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) programs and most programs primarily served…

This report presents a summary of the work of Minnesota's State Council on Vocational Technical Education for the biennium ending June 30, 1995. Part 1 summarizes the council's research and development activities. It describes the following: trends in the distribution of state and federal funds for vocational education; conclusions of the Perkins…

In August 1993, a third-party evaluator examined tech prep system development and implementation in Texas public schools and institutions of higher education. The second year of the evaluation focused on the following aspects of Texas' tech prep system: current status of statewide implementation, secondary school counseling, professional…