Human capital development is one of the emerging areas of study with regard to social science theory, practice, and research. A relatively new concept, human capital is described in terms of individual knowledge skills and experience. It is currently expressed as a function of education as well as a measure of economic activity. Little theory…

There has been considerable debate on the nature of scholarship over the past two decades. A key contribution to this debate is a seminal work in which Boyer (1990) articulates an expanded notion of scholarship. One of the four functions of scholarship that Boyer identifies in this expanded view of scholarship is the scholarship of integration. In…

Quality of life (QoL) is increasingly becoming a concept researched empirically and theoretically in the field of economics. In urban economics in particular, this increasing interest stems mainly from the fact that QoL affects urban competitiveness and urban growth: research shows that when households and businesses decide where to locate, QoL…

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Act of 1950 stipulates that NSF must maintain a program for determining the total amount of money for scientific and engineering research received from federal agencies by each educational institution and appropriate nonprofit organization and to report these data annually to Congress and the President. NSF…

This document describes the work planned by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE), University of California, Berkeley, for 1990. Part I provides research project descriptions in six issue areas as follows: (1) context, goals, planning, and evaluation; (2) curriculum and instructional methods; (3) vocational education for…

The changing role of research in curriculum development since the late 1950's is reviewed. Factors are discussed that have affected the prevailing attitudes toward research and its value, including its role in fields other than education and the mixed success with which various research and development models have met in education. Particular…

The Technical and Further Education (TAFE) National Centre for Research and Development is a national education research and development organization. The center was established in June 1980 as a company limited by guarantee, and its members are the ministers responsible for TAFE in all of Australia's states and territories and in the…

This introduction to a special issue on the work of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (housed at the universities of Connecticut, Georgia, and Virginia and Yale University) stresses the center's mission as conducting research that is directly relevant to the teacher/practitioner and information dissemination aimed at…

This paper presents facts and figures of the international higher education. Facts reveal that the UK sells more brainpower per capita than anywhere else in the world. The UK has 1% of the world's population but undertakes 5% of the world's scientific research and produces 14% of the world's most highly cited papers (Universities UK 2010). More…

Critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) provide the essential services that support basic elements of American society. Compromise of these CIKR could disrupt key government and industry activities, facilities, and systems, producing cascading effects throughout the Nation's economy and society and profoundly affecting the national…

Is the United States in danger of losing its competitive edge in science and technology (S&T)? This concern has been raised repeatedly since the end of the Cold War, most recently in a wave of reports in the mid-2000s suggesting that globalization and the growing strength of other nations in S&T, coupled with inadequate U.S. investments in…

In the early days of computer technology, few, if any, school districts had chief information officers (CIOs). Information Technology (IT) was handled by computer or technology coordinators, many of whom were classroom teachers with passing interests in computers and associated high-tech gadgets and gizmos. As districts began embracing CIOs, the…

This project uses a narrative view of identity to interrogate how individuals construct notions of ability and disability within their families. Participants include children with disabilities from diverse ethnic backgrounds, their parents, siblings, and extended family members. Interactions within four families are explored as well as…

In the first phase of the research project Nanotechnologies for Tomorrow's Society (www.nanosoc.be), the research consortium explored a variety of futuristic visions or technoscientific imaginaries. This exploration took the form of a Policy Delphi, adapted to the particular objective of jointly constructing nano-imaginaries, taking participants'…

This article argues that advances in nanotechnology in general, and lab-on-chip technology in particular, have the potential to benefit the developing world in its quest to control risks to human health and the environment. Based on the "risk society" thesis of Ulrich Beck, it is argued that the developed world must realign its science and…