The growing interest in youth development, prevention, and assessment has challenged professional practices relative to the design, implementation, and evaluation of youth development programs. This article sheds light on the need for continuous training and staff development in the areas of program development and documentation, using the…

This chapter introduces the concepts of the human capital economy and the changing demography of the United States; it explores federal, state, and institutional policy choices relative to them. It points out consistent failures to address the imperatives of these concepts.

There is a common predicament faced by educational designers, that is, the lack of learning design tools for nontraditional pedagogies of learning. Because of this lack of alternatives, educational designers often use traditional design tools (such as task analysis) in contexts where nontraditional learning activities (such as collaborative…

This qualitative, multi-case research study examines how leaders use data to inform decisions related to technology use, including how they use enGauge program evaluation data, identifies leadership practices and related contextual factors present in four K-12 public school districts. This research study examines the questions: What are the…

Financial aid programs are supposed to improve access and affordability in higher education. The effectiveness of these programs is increasingly being questioned as college attainment figures stagnate and the financial burden on students and families continues to climb year after year. This report identifies the main culprit for this…

The increased use of constructed-response items, like essays, creates a need for tools to score these responses automatically in part or as a whole. This study explores one approach to analyzing essay-length natural language constructed-responses. A decision model for scoring essays was developed and evaluated. The decision model uses…

Parliamentary debate, while not a new format, has proliferated to all regions of the country. New and growing debate formats, while valuable for students and programs, must maintain sound pedagogical foundations if they are to be considered viable forensic alternatives. A reading of the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) rules as…

The categorization of evidence through an "inverse inference" model is a preliminary attempt to organize the manner in which the ordinary language user perceives the use of evidence. While discussions on the nature of evidence have an important place in the realm of the theoretician and methodologist, this model attempts to explain how…

This paper addresses the question of whether instruction is a product or a practice and the relationship of these two concepts to instructional design. The points of view presented are based on the framework articulated by Habermas for dealing with different types of relationships between theory and practice and Grundy's application of these ideas…

Although research on argumentativeness appears to confirm the centuries-old "commonsense knowledge" that successful arguers enjoy arguing and are adept at remaining "cool and rational" during an argument, the empirical research itself is based on normative assumptions that underlie this Cartesian "commonsense…

Addresses the challenges of communication research and calls for scholars to evaluate their theories in the crucible of applied communication settings by testing and scholarship. (NKA)

Attempts to bring Elsey's methodology in "Social Perspectives on Adult Education" to bear on aspects related to adult education policy and development work. Concludes that social theory perspectives help identify policy issues for adult education in Australia as it moves from random provision to a coherent system. (CH)

Defines action learning as it has been set forth by Revans. Argues against several points of action learning theory, including (1) the nature of group process, (2) the role of outsiders, (3) the inability to teach spontaneous questioning, and (4) the learning process. (CH)

Annotates 44 references focused on the theories behind writing-across-the-curriculum programs and on how these theories are implemented in actual practice. Excludes discussions of specific classroom techniques and uses of writing in particular disciplines. (RAE)

Responds to Hernando Gonzalez' criticisms (this issue). Suggests two strategies for the definition of communication as a discipline: to give theoretical substance to the central concepts of the field, or to foster an anarchy in central concepts and yet to insist on the intellectual vitality of that anarchy. (MS)