Includes two columns that discuss comprehensive systems design in education, including the design architecture and the dynamics of design; and the use of metaphors in explaining teacher planning and classroom interactions, including mental planning and imagery and the relationships between metaphor and practice. (Contains 22 references.) (LRW)

This commentary on C. Addison Stone's paper on the scaffolding metaphor for the learning disabilities field identifies issues in the metaphor's use and concludes that effective special education has been inhibited by isolation of interventions from theory and by the way teacher education is structured. Use of the scaffolding metaphor to refocus…

Describes a study which examined personal teaching metaphors developed by secondary teachers in a graduate course for improving understanding of relationships between teaching theory and practice and factors like school context, subject matter domain, personal history, and teaching experience. Case studies found several themes confirming prior…