A chasm is growing between our rapidly rising aspirations for our educational systems and what schools can routinely accomplish. Education needs an improvement paradigm--one that recognizes the complexity of the work of education and the wide variability in outcomes that our systems currently produce. This article sketches out such a paradigm. It…

Compares Dewey and Vygotsky on three conceptual issues that relate directly to educational processes and goals: the roles of social history, experience/culture, and human inquiry in the educational process. The differences in their approaches are illustrated by examining the educational models of the zone of proximal development and long-term…

Discusses anchored instruction, a teaching technique using videodisc-based problem-solving environments, and describes two research projects involving anchored instruction. Argues that anchored instruction provides a way to recreate and improve upon some of the advantages of situated cognition. (FMW)

Discusses the generalizability of critical thinking and the disposition to think critically. Argues that verbal reports of examinees' thinking on multiple-choice tests can explain the reasoning behind their answers and, thus, can be used to assess the inability to make credibility judgments. (FMW)

Explores possible reasons for the gender differences in mathematics problem-solving strategies found in primary-grade students in the study by E. Fennema and others and considers implications of the findings for mathematics instruction. (SLD)

Considers implications of the findings of the study by E. Fennema and others that boys in the primary grades use different mathematics problem-solving strategies than girls and suggests that equitable mathematics instruction may require specific attention to gender differences and underachieving groups. (SLD)

Argues that reform in curriculum and instruction should be based on students resolving problems rather than mastering skills and applying them. An alternative is proposed that builds on John Dewey's "reflective inquiry," arguing that this approach would facilitate students' understanding. This proposal is compared with other views on the…

Argues for a reconceptualization of teaching expertise based on psychological similarities of expert teachers to one another. The authors offer a prototype-based categorization model, drawn from psychological research, on which the family resemblance among expert teachers may be founded. The authors discuss several implications of the prototype…

Suggests that an explanation for the differences in mathematics problem-solving strategies found in the study by E. Fennema and others may be simply that the girls in the study population are less interested in mathematics than the boys and explores some implications of this explanation. (SLD)

Suggests that the instructional methods used with the subjects in the study by E. Fennema and others may have allowed teachers' gender stereotypes to be activated more than traditional instructional methods do, resulting in differences in primary-grade students' problem-solving strategies. (SLD)