Despite improvements in educational indicators, such as enrolment, significant challenges remain with regard to the delivery of quality education in developing countries, particularly in rural and remote regions. In the attempt to find viable solutions to these challenges, much hope has been placed in new information and communication technologies…

A conference on research to practice in adult, continuing and community education included the following papers: "Education as a Community Intervention Strategy" (Ashcraft, Andrews); "Assessing Educational Needs of Adults: An Ohio Extension Example" (Bratkovich, Miller); "Questions and Issues Related to a Lack of…

Articles in this bibliography represent holdings of the Test Center of the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in the area of assessment alternatives in mathematics. Articles are included to stimulate thinking and provide new ideas. Some of the entries describe formal assessments, intended mainly for the classroom. The 134 annotations center…

In Australian educational policy debate, advocacy of choice and diversity has come to be linked to support for educational markets and therefore with educational reform and restructuring associated with "economic rationalism." This paper argues that choice and diversity are better conceived within a framework of democratic educational…

A Total Quality Management (TQM)-based benchmarking study looked at the leadership of universities and colleges to identify, understand, and disseminate their best practices. The study found that outstanding leaders encouraged and promoted innovation. This spurred the development of novel programs and methods, even when to do so was extremely…

Four rural teachers are honored for their work in technology in the classroom. In the process of developing their programs, these teachers worked with students to integrate technology into the curriculum; inspired other teachers to be more intrigued by technology; and included the community, inviting their input and ideas. Portfolios in narrative…

A fourth-grade teacher developed a unit on writing designed to help his students go from oral to written text after finding that only 4 of the 22 in his classroom had the organizational and writing skills to get their ideas on paper. The basis of the unit was a unique problem which the teacher himself was trying to solve in real life; namely, how…

This paper discusses the challenges and difficulties of adopting new "authentic" methods of instruction that help students not only learn but also develop habits that enable them to use their knowledge more effectively. "Authentic" methods of instruction are defined as those that require students to produce (not just reproduce) knowledge relevant…

Some school reform programs, such as the "Copernican Plan," advocate long blocks of classroom instruction time to allow greater instructional flexibility and active student participation in classroom work. This study investigated the effectiveness of this strategy by examining the perceptions of high school teachers who were entering or…

In 1992, the English Department of Florence-Darlington Technical College, in South Carolina, initiated a freshman composition program utilizing computer word processing in a full-term writing workshop format. The program includes 12 to 16 sections of English 101 taught in classrooms containing 22 networked computers, while software consists of…

This paper describes an agenda for expanding interest and motivation among sixth-grade foreign language students in a middle-class suburban community located in northeastern Illinois. The problem was originally noted by the teaching staff/researchers who found students unable to focus and maintain attention during class. Administration of surveys…

This paper discusses the importance of teachers moving out of managerial roles into leadership roles. As this transformation occurs, real educational change and the empowerment of teacher leaders will take place. Managerial style teachers traditionally have clear expectations and set standards for their students. Activities, outcomes, and…

The expression "site-based management" (SBM) has become part of the rhetoric of reform of U.S. public schools. The United States has been involved in school reform efforts for many years now, including attempts at SBM. The case of the Toledo (Ohio) public schools serves as a prime example of an urban school district that, like many…

Information about innovative projects in education in Bahrain is presented in a series of program descriptions collected for the INNODATA Databank of the International Bureau of Education (Geneva), a program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. The 36 programs are grouped into the following categories: (1)…

Teaching at Essex Community College in Maryland has offered several English instructors endless possibilities for program development. Two such public programs developed by one instructor are "The Why of Sports" and the Creative Writing Forum. The former involved six programs and an art exhibit showing the connections between sports and…