According to this author, a quiet revolution is picking up steam in the nation's private secondary schools, with broad implications for college admissions and for teaching and learning on both sides of the transition from high school to college. About 50 of the nation's leading college-preparatory schools have opted out of the College Board's…

Shifts in the expectations of the public, in the practice of medicine, and in the state of the art of health education call for an examination of the nature of the relationship between the health education and medical professions. This article examines a number of issues related to these shifts and discusses the potential and pitfalls of this…

The author argues that, for many teacher actions, personal reasons are subordinate to external standards and that the scope of these actions is broader than assumed. People in a professional role must ask whether their actions and general dispositions conform to given standards and goals. (MT)

Charter schools grant significantly more autonomy to their principals than do traditional public schools. This report examines how eight Massachusetts charter-school principals deal with autonomy in five areas: teacher hiring, budgetary control, instruction and curriculum, organizational design, and accountability. The freedom to hire their own…

A survey of 15 nurse practitioners initially prepared as clinical nurse specialists found that their post-master's training broadened knowledge and skills in patient data collection and increased role autonomy and clinical decision making. Results verified the practice domains in the curriculum guidelines of the National Association of Nurse…

Describes how risk, responsibility, and love of creative teaching precipitate one teacher's educational experiences, asserting that as a culture, it is important to develop a genuine respect for the art of teaching and a demand for high quality creative teaching. Suggests that it is risky to encourage the notion that teachers are interchangeable…

A group of nurses at a rural, psychiatric hospital used participatory action research to explore issues of autonomy and found that they could successfully challenge institutional norms and ideas that limit nurses' autonomy. (Author/JOW)

To be more effective instructional leaders, principals must be granted four conditions: sufficient autonomy, responsibility for operating their buildings, authority commensurate with their responsibility, and central office and board support. This path will pay dividends in school climate, staff morale, student achievement, and community…

In samples of 42 elementary and 45 secondary schools, effects of administrative control mechanisms (supervision, routinization, and participation) on teacher role ambiguity were examined. Multiple control mechanisms are likely to coexist, reinforcing, offsetting, or mediating each other's effects on ambiguity. (SK)

Examines the overlay of maintaining a high degree of professional knowledge and autonomy with the additive and generative stages of professional development for midmanagement student affairs staff. Discusses rethinking professional autonomy and describes a focus group on professionalism in student affairs. (ABL)

Textbooks cannot define curriculum. In a curriculum vacuum, textbooks have made content coverage an end in itself, made didactic treatment of fact-level information the standard teaching method, and overwhelmed learners with too much information. Textbook content is indifferent to educational goals, is unselective, ignores instructional pace,…

Presents a scale to measure teacher sense of work autonomy with evidence for its score replicability. Results of replicability analyses (cross validation and validity generalization) involving 156 Israeli elementary school teachers and 650 Israeli elementary and secondary school teachers suggest four areas of functioning pertinent to teachers'…

Argues conventional academic freedom in higher education is a state of regulated autonomy wherein faculty freedom in teaching and research is necessary to discharge of normal functions, but exercised within boundaries controlled by government, and management. Market competition extends the terrain of this regulated autonomy, while highlighting…

Examines articles in the Journal of Mental Health Counseling (JMHC) as an indicator of mental-health counselors' professional identity development. Content analysis of the first 15 volumes reveals a decline in the percentage of research articles published over this 15-year period, suggesting that the field has matured. (RJM)

A survey of 502 nurse practitioners found that more than half had written research proposals or participated in research projects recently; nearly 50% wrote their own job descriptions; 93% belonged to the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners; and maintaining certification was the motivation for some professional behaviors. (Contains 29…