The success of Britain's Open University in some ways inhibited change in the mainstream postsecondary sector. As social and political pressures on the sector grew, higher education providers were forced to innovate and the distinction between distance and face-to-face delivery rapidly eroded. However, barriers still remain to a more radical…

Suggests an economic perspective for defining and measuring academic diversity in terms of program innovation, not only in teaching, research, and public service activities, but also in the processes of production and markets served. Such a perspective would also provide valuable theoretical frameworks for exploring important questions of how…

Online case studies on disease prevention were used in a nurse practitioner education program. Benefits included accessibility, flexibility, group interaction, and opportunity for self-direction. Primary challenges involved hardware and access problems. (SK)

Examines Austria's practice firm educational concept that helps reduce entrepreneurial risks by providing hands-on training for business students. The organization, international scope, and benefits of practice firms are discussed. (GR)

Describes trends in technologies for electronic learning: developments in wireless that enable mobile learning, virtual universities, and simulations that involve emotionally charged situations. (SK)

Outlines contemporary theories of self-regulation and presents a four-phase model of self-regulation. Builds on this theory to describe features of CoNoteS2 ( a prototype electronic notebook) that support self-regulation through tacit and explicit scaffolding. Discusses how learning theory can be used to drive instructional innovation and…

Explores the deliberative process involved in the conceptualization and implementation of a new and innovative program in a high school. After introducing the concept of deliberation, the case study focuses on the communal deliberative process that occurred in the school. Draws implications for administrative practice. (Contains 20 references.)…

One of the most rapidly developing areas of educational innovation involves the texts available to young readers and their teachers, leading to a host of new issues regarding the characteristics and roles of text that support young children's learning. This article describes research conducted by investigators at the Center for the Improvement of…

A feature article in the "Chronicle of Higher Education" reported a campus controversy over an innovative general education program that received praise and attention nationally. In this essay, two administrators, prompted by that article, both tell the story of institutional change and raise theoretical questions about what the…

Information technology has had a striking impact on learners and learning. The world of learning technology today is radically different from that of just a decade ago, and the world of learning technology a decade from now will be radically different from that of today. Learning technologies are in a state of "interpretive flexibility": the…

Globalization in higher education and the replacement of state funding of universities with ''revenue substitution'' strategies in western countries have resulted in an increasing number of universities in these countries participating in what has come to be known as transnational knowledge transfer without being better informed about the cultural…

The onetime head of the U.S. Department of Education's research and development efforts challenges the department's new Office of Innovation and Improvement to support well-designed, promising improvements in American educational practice without frittering away federal funds on one-shot hot ideas and hucksters. (MLF)

In this reaction, the author concentrates on evaluating the study's broader interpretive claims. He states that the articles reviewed have the following three purposes: (1) to explore the ways in which a variety of factors shape school change over time; (2) to show how the five factors combine at key points in the story to create what Ivor…

In 1995, PEB published a case study on the United Kingdom's Leith Academy. The following article examines the Academy's original design, how the facilities have served over the 13 years since their construction and their influence on subsequent designs.

This article aims at discussing the six papers included in this special issue on innovations in Problem-based learning (PBL). The papers address different aspects related to the implementation and the development of PBL. This discussion article highlights the relevance of the theme explored by each of the papers, the contributions emerging from…