Presents the selective synthesis of instructional research with children and adolescents with learning disabilities, analyzing studies across instructional domain, sample characteristics, intervention parameters, and sampling procedures. Synthesis indicates that reading is the most researched domain, and intervention studies that produce the…

Based on analysis of a computer corpus of 80 research articles and interviews with experienced writers, this study investigates the contextual variability of citations in eight disciplines and suggests how textual conventions point to distinctions in ways knowledge is negotiated and confirmed within different academic communities. (Author/VWL)

This pilot study looked at the British lay public's evaluation of 20 different disciplines by asking them to rank-order them. In a cutting-saving exercise those departments (disciplines) thought most worthy of saving were English, mathematics, and computer science; those rated as least important were anthropology, film and media studies, and…

Reviews the opportunities available in the field of agriculture for African American students and notes efforts of the 136 colleges of agriculture to publicize their offerings and recruit students. Profiles six black leaders in agriculture, highlighting their achievements in research and aid to developing countries. A table provides data on annual…

Offers an autoethnographic essay which follows one individual throughout his day to explore how evaluation functions as a fundamental orientation of a scholar's academic life. Questions the individual's relationship to criticism and its presence in the ongoing process of doing one's job and of living one's life. (SR)

Describes a partially ethnographic study of written discourse based on texts produced on three floors of an academic building, each containing a different academic community. It is proposed that such an approach can be used to study text-community associations, explore inhabitants' textual careers, piece together group-specific sets and systems of…

Language teachers are faced with a paradox: if they do not exert autonomy or respond flexibly to the teaching context, they can not produce significant results, and the language teaching field is criticized as inept and ill-informed; if they do exercise autonomy and flexibility to ensure learning, the field is criticized for lack of unity and…

Describes the nature of school effects on academic achievement for different groups of students based on performance in selected subjects. Uses a "value added" approach, controlling for students' backgrounds. Indicates that schools that are more or less effective for one group of students are likely to be similarly effective for all…

Discusses use of the Internet by teachers for teacher mailing lists on particular academic subjects. Reports the results of email enquiries that investigated the adoption of use of the lists and then the levels of participation, and concludes that participation is very unequal and questions the cooperative character of these lists. (Author/LRW)

Examined the correlates of within school socioeconomic gaps in academic achievement corresponding to subject areas across schools using data for 6,883 students from 148 New Brunswick, Canada, schools. Results show that within-school socioeconomic gaps were similar between reading and writing as well as between mathematics and science.…

Describes the Internet-based Electronic Emissary Project that helps teachers locate other Internet account holders who are subject matter experts in different disciplines for the purpose of setting up curriculum-based electronic exchanges among experts and elementary and secondary students and teachers. (Author/LRW)

Traditional education is irrelevant to current human experience. Displaying reality in disjointed pieces, it denies the essential oneness of things. Students must learn that everything is interconnected, and school reform should start with the reorganization of knowledge. (SK)

Responds to a previous article that suggests the second-language-acquisition acquisition field has failed to realize academic respectability. Offers an overview of some of the more positive advances in the discipline. Concludes by calling for a whole systems approach to the study of second language acquisition. (Author/JL)

Discusses the challenges faced at Western Illinois University to develop a general education assessment framework in the humanities. Stresses the importance of interpretation in all the humanities, assessment goals that focus on students' understanding of humanistic discourse, and ability to use at least one discipline's mode of interpretation and…

Discusses current issues in quality assessment in higher education in the United Kingdom especially the development of discipline based generic threshold standards to ensure that graduates have the requisite levels of skills. Considers the necessary characteristics of such standards and suggests that standards should be part of quality assessment.…