Argues that understanding, in history or other domains, entails being able to use mental representations in order to engage in culturally meaningful performances such as creating products, solving problems, or building explanations. Examines challenges and possibilities for a performance-based view of understanding through the analysis of examples…

Discusses the development of the concept of context within the field of culture and cognition, focusing on work in the cultural-historical tradition. Some of the failure of educational innovations in everyday classrooms can be attributed to the separation of context and cognition in educational innovations. (SLD)

Reviews instructional practices in the classroom environment and science teaching in special education. Recommends science-technology-society (STS) as a way of teaching science to meet the academic and social needs of disabled students. Contains 32 references. (DDR)

Wageningen University's extension science program shifted from a positivist to a constructivist foundation. Participatory methodologies and interactive policies are being developed, and the program's name has been changed to Communication and Innovation Studies. (SK)

States that figures help students understand mathematical concepts and provide important clues for solving problems. Introduces some visual images that are effective in promoting mathematics learning. Describes the roles and characteristics of visual images and concludes that visual images can cultivate students' imagination and make them think…

Reports the results of a pilot study in a senior paper science and engineering class of an innovative instructional method designed to foster student problem solving and in-depth learning of material, namely student peer teaching. Reviews literature focusing on active learning methods and describes the method for student peer teaching. (Author/SAH)

Discusses several practices in Bulgarian kindergartens. Profiles one activity that integrated subjects across the curriculum. In this activity, children built a city out of blocks, using mathematical and scientific concepts, language, and architectural drawings, while listening to music. Discusses the priority given to early childhood education in…

This article presents a list of 51 influential persons in special education history, selected from a pool of 162 nominees. Brief notations are included by each name to highlight one or two illustrations among the many significant contributions that these influential persons have made to special education and society. (CR)

Describes the development and structure of Soka University of America, located near Laguna Beach, California. Planners' vision for the university is a humanistic, democratic, non-hierarchical institution infused with Buddhist values. Unusual elements include no tenure or advancement in rank and no separate administrative building. (EV)

Asserting that an effective information technology (IT) planning process helps leaders determine appropriate roles for IT in learning, teaching, research, outreach, and management and predict how these might change over time, this article offers suggestions for such planning. Examples are: (1) set a general direction and broad objectives; and (2)…

Introduces a collection of essays on both policy initiatives and innovative teacher education practices underway in California and nationally. The essays are written by university researchers, teacher education practitioners, and representatives from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the California Department of Education. (SM)

Describes the Lynchburg College Symposium Readings Program as a model for faculty development. The program encourages faculty collaboration, innovative classroom practices, and services as well as new areas of faculty scholarship. Also describes methods for assessing faculty work in the context of the goals of the program. (Author/SLD)

Summarizes what language testers have learned about test impact in the last decade and discusses what one model of educational innovation has revealed about how tests interact with other factors in the testing situation. Concludes with a set of recommendations about the steps future tests developers might take in order to assess the amount of risk…

Describes how the Copenhagen Business School (CBS) has increased its capacity for change through strategic management and management for quality. Focuses on the development of an environment for innovative learning, experimentalism, and evaluation and benchmarking to make CBS a "learning university." (SLD)

During the first half of the 20th century, Emmy Walser of Switzerland helped to incorporate John Dewey's "free working method" into German-language kindergartens. The kindergartens were previously organized around a rigid interpretation of Friedrich Froebel's educational principles, characterized by constant guiding of the child's…