Defines case methods, a potentially valuable instructional tool for encouraging authentic, active learning. Describes an approach to the design and use of instructional design (ID) cases, and reports on the design and use of a Web-based ID case in a team case competition involving six universities. Team collaboration and competition were noted as…

Maintains that a proper understanding of the Augustin Cournot model of imperfect competition and strategic interactions among firms in various contexts is essential for economics education. Although most models rely on complicated algebra, this one requires nothing more than high school level geometry. Includes a graphical analysis. (MJP)

Some want schools reformed to produce high-performing future leaders. Others desire schools that teach students how to live, share, and serve others. Competition and high performance need not substitute for happiness, love, and service-values that counter America's culture of hyper-individualism, isolationism, and declining social/political…

Superintendents, principals, and teachers can no longer work in isolation or on parallel tracks. Leaders must be role models, engage in meaningful dialogue about children, and create new learning opportunities for the adults teaching them. Schools must cultivate talented leaders, not managers, to create what does not exist. (MLH)

During their elementary school years, many students develop a dislike for school. Their alienation is due partly to the school environment and discouraging educator behaviors. Children sense they are overly assessed and classified, arbitrarily promoted, confined to large groups, and bound to a routine work schedule that values competition and…

A University of Florida instructional improvement program includes these features: competitive awards in the form of base faculty salary increases, three-year cycle for competition, focus on undergraduate teaching, and use of measures of both quantity (contact/credit hours) and quality (portfolios) of instruction. The program evolved from a…

Society must reconceptualize the public school as any nonprofit entity willing to be accountable for educating our children. The new system should emphasize common standards and school choice. Charter experiments in Moses Lake, Washington; Milwaukee; and Harlem demonstrate the power of choice and transformational leadership. (Contains 11…

Explores both the strengths that minority-serving institutions have brought to serving the educational needs of racial and ethnic minority students and the divergent perspectives that have tended to generate competition among them for scarce resources. Potential integrative policy directions include information sharing, collaboration for entry…

Internet-based master's programs in business administration (M.B.A.s) serve a market that could bring significant revenues to business schools, providing new access to mid- to upper-level managers who want degrees to advance their careers but who cannot take time from work, or to young executives whose bosses offer to pay for the degree but not…

One answer to the question of why government organizations don't perform better - common in academic "public choice" literature but also in folk wisdom--is that resources come too easily, independent of performance. Some business management literature suggests that a crisis in resource flows can force successful change--"necessity is the mother of…

In this article, the author discusses the idea of "Pell Grants for Kids," a plan that would provide a $500 scholarship to each middle- and low-income child in America. Children could use these scholarships at any public or private school or for any educational program, such as private tutoring. Homeschooled children would also be…

This chapter describes the evolution of the workforce development mission and its current crisis in the face of changing training demands, shriveling government support, and rising competition. Two alternative future paths are outlined: a baccalaureate degree-oriented new vocationalism and a renewed emphasis on serving the training needs of…

This article questions the assumption that increasing competition among higher education institutions is the best method of achieving a strong higher education sector in developing countries. It notes that there has been increasing emphasis on the importance of higher education institutions for sustainable development, particularly because of…

This article presents a design of educational software employing group competition using a large interactive electronic whiteboard, and a report on its experimental use. Group competition and collaboration are useful methods to cultivate originality and communication skills. To share the same space, the same large screen, and face-to-face…

This article describes two emerging technologies--Skype and podcasting. Both Skype and podcasting can be considered "disruptive technologies" in that they allow for new and different ways of doing familiar tasks, and in the process, may threaten traditional industries. Skype, the "people's telephone," is a free, Internet-based alternative to…