Human performance technology (HPT), like other concepts, models, and frameworks that we use to describe the world in which we live and the way we organize ourselves to accomplish valuable activities, is built from paradigms that were fresh and relevant at the time it was conceived and from the fields of study from which it grew. However, when the…

To some, discussing the demise of the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system is tantamount to blasphemy, while to others it is a discussion long overdue (no pun intended). The author was asked, as an educator of librarians, to present her thoughts on the issue. Her conclusions are based not on thorough scientifically sound research, but rather…

Keeping a uniform, basic arrangement of the school library is essential if students are to be comfortable finding resources in other libraries. Two questions that must be answered if a new system were to be devised are: Who would decide on the particulars of that system? What criteria would be used to make the decision to ensure that use of the…

In this article St. Vrain Valley (CO) School District (SVVSD) librarian, Holli Buchter describes what took place in the school libraries in the district when the newest elementary school, Red Hawk, opened its doors. Red Hawk asked and answered the question: "Is the Dewey Decimal Classification system still the best way for students to locate…

As educational partnerships and collaboratives have become more popular in the last several decades, researchers and practitioners have sought to understand why these arrangements flourish or flounder. Taking into consideration the contextual factors affecting partnerships, we have conceptualized a framework of the types of partnerships that can…

On November 7, 2010, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO) hosted a national executive forum during its annual strategic enrollment management conference. Titled "The College Rankings Debate and Future Implications: Assessing the Value of an Institution's Undergraduate Experience," the…

This paper discusses three central issues relating to quality and standards: clarity, comparability and responsibility. The issue of clarity is that we have reached a point of disjunction between the questions being asked by the public and the answers being provided by quality assurance professionals. The issue of comparability comes in two forms:…

Exploring the critical role of school choice in the future of education reform, Grover (Russ) Whitehurst introduces the Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI), an interactive web application that scores large school districts based on thirteen categories of policy and practice. The intent of the ECCI is to create public awareness of the…

"Why Rural Matters 2011-12" is the sixth in a series of biennial reports analyzing the contexts and conditions of rural education in each of the 50 states and calling attention to the need for policymakers to address rural education issues in their respective states. While it is the sixth in a series, this report is not simply an…

The taxonomy outlined in this paper provides a framework for the classification of performance objectives. The taxonomy has three levels: (1) demonstration of cognitive mastery; (2) demonstration of a task in isolation; and (3) demonstration of a task in context. As one moves up the taxonomy, the student's performance requires a longer period of…

Discusses knowledge management that seeks to minimize information overload in order to enhance performance. Highlights include the differences between data, information, and knowledge; the relationship between learning, knowledge, and performance; the use of focus groups; documenting results; and knowledge classification. (LRW)

Describes connectionist model showing exclusivity asymmetries when categorizing visual stimuli, similar to pattern shown by infants. Examines asymmetries in terms of an associative learning mechanism, distributed internal representations, and statistics of feature distributions in the stimuli. Details test of model with infants, finding that…

Differences in performance with various stimulus-response mappings are among the most prevalent findings for binary choice reaction tasks. The authors show that perceptual or conceptual similarity is not necessary to obtain mapping effects; a type of structural similarity is sufficient. Specifically, stimulus and response alternatives are coded as…

In this article I describe a number of ways in which non-western cultures have adopted and used western educational approaches, forming an illustrative typology of these adaptations. I provide an illustration(s) of each category in the typology, briefly presenting the history of the category, detailing its modern state, and discussing selected…

Discusses access to digital libraries on the World Wide Web via Web browsers and describes the design of a language-independent document classification system to help users of the Florida Center for Library Automation analyze search query results. Highlights include similarity scores, clustering, graphical representation of document similarity,…