Professional Experience is a key component of teacher education programs, bringing together the different disciplines of Education into a real-world setting. Helping pre-service teachers see theory in practice and begin to put theory into practice requires a close and explicit linkage between the coursework and practicum. A shared discourse that…

Over the past several decades, researchers, politicians, and corporate leaders have focused reform efforts on the size of educational contexts. Hundreds of billions of public and private dollars have been invested to reduce the size and scope of both classrooms and schools (Lee & Ready, 2007). Unlike many education reforms, these downsizing…

Recent work integrating Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) with Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) forms a basis for systematizing action research in higher education. This basis strengthens what are often otherwise its methodological weaknesses, namely, the disconnection between analysis and subsequent plans for action and the…

This study looks at the curricula for mathematics, science and literacy, comparing England's curricula with those of other countries based on performance in international comparative surveys. The main objective was to answer the question: How does the content of the Primary Curriculum in England at Key stage 2 compare in literacy, math and science…

This report presents findings from a review of the best evidence on narrowing the gap in outcomes across the five Every Child Matters (ECM) areas for vulnerable groups in the context of improving outcomes for all. The review was commissioned to prepare the ground for work on "Narrowing the Gap" with participating local authorities (LAs).…

This article focuses on the theory and practice of teamwork in "top management teams" in UK higher education institutions. It is informed by some of the key findings from a recent two-year research project sponsored by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education that investigated the different ways in which UK higher education…

This article, inspired in part by the Levine report that criticizes teacher education programs in the United States for being out of touch with practices that work in real classrooms, is a self-study that explores the rift between educational theory, particularly theory that pushes for social constructionist, child-centered approaches to teaching,…

The article reports on the findings of a comparative case study of six projects that operated in Israel between 1980 and 2000. The study findings identify characteristics of the programs, the host organizations, and the social and political environment, which differentiated programs that are sustained from those that are not. The findings reaffirm…

There is a growing consensus that traditional instruction in basic science courses, in institutions of higher learning, do not lead to the desired results. Most of the students who complete these courses do not gain deep knowledge about the basic concepts and develop a negative approach to the sciences. In order to deal with this problem, a…

A new child has the potential for adding dimension and enrichment to the parents' and acquaintances' lives. Simulation development metaphorically mirrors pregnancy, birth, parental guidance, and maturation. An individual begins with a desire for enjoyment and future possibilities. Nurturers of simulation are aided by setting the following broad…

A view of situated instructional development (ID) is presented which incorporates a constructivist, situated view of learning and expertise, while at the same time viewing the ID process itself in situated terms. The purposes of this paper are to offer several reflections about the relationship between design and implementation of learning…

Alliances between members of the visual communication division of the Association for Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) can be strengthened without sacrificing the basic liberal arts principles promoted by R. O. Blanchard and W. G. Christ in their book "Media Education and the…

Joseph Harris, in his article, "The Rhetoric of Theory," talks about theory, or more appropriately, theorizing, problem-posing rather than problem-solving. In other words, the act of theorizing is more useful and meaningful when viewed and enacted as an activity that attempts to continuously interrogate and to suggest relationships and…

An anonymous 12-item, multiple-choice questionnaire was administered to 218 southern college, introductory zoology students prior to and following a study of evolutionary theory to assess their understanding and acceptance of the credibility of the evidence supporting the theory. Key topics addressed were the history of evolutionary thought, basic…

There have been ongoing debates among educational researchers over the appropriateness of various research methods. This paper begins with the contention that these differences in methodological orientation are in large part reflections of the broader ideological and value convictions of the researchers themselves. A critical point to be made,…