Discusses topological aspects of theoretical information retrieval, including retrieval topology; similarity topology; pseudo-metric topology; document spaces as topological spaces; Boolean information retrieval as a subsystem of any topological system; and proofs of theorems. (LRW)

Discusses 14 challenges to the use of individualized instruction in corrections. Emphasizes a systems approach, motivational tools, programmed instructional materials, and approaches such as Direct Instruction and Precision Teaching. (SK)

Discusses obstacles teachers face in learning about and integrating new technology into the classroom, including lack of time, availability of resources, and lack of incentives. Recommends a systems approach to overcome obstacles and provide viable professional development to motivated teachers that will influence their ability and willingness to…

Suggests that technology education standards will initiate changes and are a first step in guiding the improvement of educational programs and classroom practices. (JOW)

Complexity theory is used to describe how workplace leaning occurs within a system of interactions and relationships. The learning system of a school-as-workplace is examined to understand the relationships, disequilibrium, and engagement that occur in a learning community. (SK)

As a commentary on the Special Issue, this paper discusses recent advances in the study of change across several time scales. It points out the importance of specifying time scales and putative patterns of change when characterizing problem behavior over developmental time scales. Methods for studying risk and protective mechanisms through…

Until the early 1980s, most researchers paid little attention to sibling relationships. Studies of mothers dominated the research agenda, to the almost total exclusion of fathers, extended families, and siblings. Although in early classic studies of families of children with disabilities, investigators embraced a family systems approach that…

Traditional approaches to cognitive development concentrate on the stability of cognition and explain that stability via concepts segregated from perceiving acting. A dynamic systems approach in contrast focuses on the self-organization of behavior in tasks. This article uses recent results concerning the embodiment of cognition to argue for a…

Within the last 20 years, transitions in the conceptualization of emotion and its development have given rise to calls for an explanatory framework that captures emotional development in all its organizational complexity and variability. Recent attempts have been made to couch emotional development in terms of a dynamical systems approach through…

Career development is regarded as a lifespan process; however, the career development of children has received little theoretical and research attention. This article reflects on the breadth and depth of understandings about children's career development from the metatheoretical perspective of the Systems Theory Framework of career development…

The author writes that for too many low-income students the open door to American higher education has become a revolving door. In examining what can be done, he recognizes the centrality of the classroom to student success.

"Leading indicators"--indicators that provide early signals of progress toward academic achievement--enable education leaders, especially at the central office level in a school district, to make more strategic and less reactive decisions about services and supports to improve student learning. These indicators are a way of viewing and…

In a time of constant change, sometimes it is worthwhile to ruminate on the future and how things ought to be. "Journal of Electronic Resources Librarianship" wanted to capture some of these ruminations from around the field in a new column called "E-Opinions from the Field" where readers are asked to send in their thoughts on a topic and respond…

The school-aged population continues to diversify, yet the student body at small liberal arts teacher preparation programs generally does not. To help prepare our socioculturally homogeneous students to teach a more diverse student body, we developed a three-tiered approach that includes a diversity model integrated across the curriculum, an…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the key aspects of transformation of universities towards sustainability, such as the ideal characteristics of the "sustainable university", and the drivers and barriers in the transformation, by comparing the strategies of seven universities world-wide. Design/methodology/approach: A…