In this article, the author writes from the perspective of a community college research practitioner, an institutional researcher whose daily work is intended primarily to affect policies, procedures and understanding of student learning and institutional effectiveness. The audience for this work is composed of faculty, administrators, staff,…

Background: The term "distributed leadership" is now widely used among scholars and practitioners in the field of educational leadership. Major actors in the nonprofit sector promote and financially support the development of distributed leadership. Unfortunately, there is confusion and ambiguity about what "distributed leadership" means, and…

Practitioners and teachers should be able to justify their chosen techniques by taking into account research results: This is evidence-based practice (EBP). We argue that, specifically, statistical practice and statistics education should be guided by evidence, and we propose statistical cognition (SC) as an integration of theory, research, and…

The purpose of this paper is to present a theory of career development drawn from current work in the physical and biological sciences, specifically work that is associated with chaos and complexity theories. The paper includes specific suggestions for practice based upon the theory and reflections of career professionals on its use. The theory…

Career development is an inherently spiritual process. Yet many career development professionals and personal coaches shy away from any discussion of spirituality in their work. This places the career professional in a dilemma: How does one practice a spiritual occupation, but never discuss the central issue? To escape this dilemma, the author…

This column introduces issues in research and practice concerned with assistive technology for students with disabilities including delays in transferring research findings into practice and ways to integrate what is known about research, effective practice, teacher professional development, and change. (Contains 14 references.) (DB)

The hectic pace and rigid structures in many of today's schools make it difficult for educators to take time to reflect and learn. Experience is not enough. Reflection on experience is the pathway to improvement. Reflection provides a means for examining beliefs, assumptions, and practices. It can also result in the discovery of incongruities…

Suggests that instruction and research that combine the humanities and computer science should be conducted by people skilled in both fields. Argues against dividing such work between idea and technical people. Describes a neural network approach to the study of metaphor that reflects the connectionist method. (SG)

Discussion of applying strategies of cooperative learning offers five principles and reflections of one teacher. The principles are: (1) teach what you preach; (2) accountability counts; (3) mediation versus aggravation; (4) publish or perish; and (5) create or satiate. Suggestions for evaluation include encouraging student feedback and moving…

Calls for a new research agenda, one that makes explicit the connection between academics and the objects of their research. Argues that the research agenda itself must be scrutinized in the hope of expanding and sharpening an understanding of what questions to raise. (DB)

College instructors should focus their teaching not only on content but also on how to learn content in the context of particular courses. Students need practice with a variety of learning strategies before they can understand why particular ones are most effective or be helped to improve their efficiency in using them. (Author/MSE)

This collection of papers examines the role of research in efforts to reform art education. The essays include: "Arts Education Research: Issues, Constraints, and Opportunities" by David B. Pankratz; "Characterizing Civilization: Research Strategies, Findings, and Implications from the National Endowment for the Arts' Report on Arts Education" by…

Freeman and Richards agree about points raised regarding the overlap among categories of teaching and classroom practice but note that the categories might contribute to the analysis and understanding of teacher education programs and practices. (Contains nine references.) (LB)

This introductory article reviews trends in research in intellectual disability in Australia and reports on a workshop of the Research and Development Advisory Committee of the Department of Community Services and Health, that identified knowledge gaps and key issues. A coherent programmatic research agenda, characterized by interaction between…

Discusses the need for reference desk orientation for newly hired or reassigned librarians and presents an outline of a suggested orientation program. Orientation conducted by a supervisor is discussed, practical and philosophical aspects of reference service are addressed, and written materials that support the training are recommended. (nine…