This study explores adult education practice by using an expressive research method based on using the metaphor of an exhibition as a vehicle for presenting and reflecting on seven episodes in the researcher's two decades of teaching at various locations throughout Australia. In accordance with the metaphor, the study report contains the following…

This dissertation reports on the trend toward an increased emphasis on learning in two-year colleges. The author reviewed the mission statements and current resource development plans of the 106 California community colleges. More than one-third stated that being a learning-centered college was part of their mission, vision, or goals. The study…

The goal of this book is to increase the usefulness and relevance of research to educational practice, particularly in the area of improving student learning. It proposes and describes an experiment: the establishment of a Strategic Education Research Program (SERP). The SERP plan calls for a large-scale and sharply defined program of research,…

This book is an attempt to describe an ethic of excellence in schools and to share strategies for building and sustaining a school culture predicated on this ethic. It discusses a broad notion of excellence that includes excellence in academics, arts and creativity, and character. It recognizes that schools play a major role in shaping the values…

A 2-year study of small Chicago schools found that small schools, especially small high schools, help students succeed. The study focused on about 150 small schools founded in Chicago during 1990-97 and their progress through 1999. Elementary schools had fewer than 350 students; high schools fewer than 400 students. Quantitative analyses covered…

Concerned with the intrusion of corporate interests into American classrooms, this book presents a case against the business model of educational administration. In each of its seven chapters the book explores how and why the school-business model does not and cannot work. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the expectations currently placed on…

The Montana Behavioral Initiative (MBI) was developed in 1995 in response to increased incidents of student behavior problems. The intent of MBI is to improve educational environments to meet the needs of all students, including those with behavioral challenges. Each participating school conducts needs assessments and develops site-specific goals…

This study explored the possibility of linking the Luna (1999) student flow matrix model with institutional planning at a comprehensive state institution, investigating how student flow environments were associated with student characteristics such as race, gender, citizenship, class level, entry type, and cumulative grade point average. The study…

This document, which is based on 3 years of research on 14 school-to-work programs across the United States, outlines pedagogical strategies for work-based learning. Pedagogy is defined as the organization of the social activities, organizational structures, and cultural practices by which newcomers, such as student interns, come to acquire and…

This self-study training manual for teachers of young children with autism contains nine modules on behavior modification techniques. The modules address: (1) the ABC's of behavior, which discusses discriminating among words that describe feelings and words that describe behaviors, identification of examples of learned behavior, and defining and…

This paper examines some theories and approaches for better integrating minority students into college environments for creating a good "fit" for an increasingly diverse student body, and thereby increasing student retention. Several factors are found to affect diversity: an increased proportion of minorities; an increase in the average age of…

Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are learning management software systems that synthesize the functionality of computer-mediated communications software and online methods of delivering course materials. This report focuses on how to evaluate the properties, capabilities and orientation of different systems from an educational perspective, and…

The goals of this study were to investigate problem-solving in a context that requires a rich interaction among social, motivational, and cognitive processes and to compare the effects of the mediated and discovery models of learning on students' problem-solving processes in the complex technology-based learning environment. Subjects were 88…

Intended for readers in the business world and in nonprofit and higher education settings, this guide offers a framework for informed mentoring practice. It combines discussion and exercises. Chapter 1 grounds the mentor's work in a learner-centered approach to mentoring and presents a mentoring paradigm consistent with andragogical principles and…

This monograph, the first in a series of three, on campus diversity issues is the result of a collaboration of scholars and evaluators who consulted on five campus diversity initiatives. It uses research findings that chart college and university efforts to move from the rhetoric of inclusion to the practice of equity, arguing that the current…