Expresses doubts about whether the evidence presented by M. Wang, G. Haertel, and H. Walberg provides robust and consistent findings that could, or should, be used to inform educational policy and practice. Discusses five questions about the methodology of the study, and indicates that basing educational policy on their findings would be merely an…

Explores the role and purpose of research synthesis, and defends the conclusions drawn about school learning. The selection of the broad outcome "school learning" was an attempt to show that educational research and development can answer important questions about schooling. (SLD)

Three "Handbook" chapters on school leadership responsibilities conclude that educational administration is a field where people can make a difference. Research provides firm indications of what administrators should or should not do. Constructivist teaching, teacher development, and school improvement are part of the larger challenge of…

Organizations are complex, socially created systems embodying people's individual and shared expectations. This view challenges administrators to become visionary leaders. Using chaos theory, leaders can open people's minds to unconventional organizational patterns. Change is implemented by studying a system's self-renewing and self-transcending…

Calls for a new vision of citizenship education, in which both the school and the communities it serves are equal partners in educating each new generation of citizens. Asserts that citizen education must be multi-dimensional and must embrace many interconnected dimensions. Identifies four categories of citizenship attributes. Contains 21…

Revisits and reviews Imre Lakatos' ideas on "Falsification and the Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes." Suggests that Lakatos' framework offers an insightful way of looking at the relationship between theory and research that is relevant not only for evaluating research programs in theoretical physics, but in the social…

This article summarizes and analyzes 43 pieces of professional literature pertaining to paraprofessional supports for students with disabilities published between 1991 and 2000. The findings identify topical gaps in the literature, review the major data based findings, and present implications for the field. Suggestions for future research stress…

This article introduces this special issue on functional assessment methods and their application to children and youth with autism. It traces the 30-year history of functional assessment and briefly summarizes each of the following articles, noting the common emphasis on social validity and using the science and technology of functional…

An ongoing study has found that the "basics" in contemporary educational theory are actually the smallest, most easily isolated and most easily testable fragments of knowledge in a discipline--abstractions produced by complex analysis. The project is exploring an alternative version of "basicness" in which the complex, often ambiguous realm of a…

Therapeutic adventure with families is a promising integration of adventure therapy and family therapy. Issues that must be addressed to legitimize the field include licensure and legal scope of practice, developing minimum standards for practitioners, incorporating family development and family therapy theories into practice, and conducting more…

Discusses the analytical processes and outcomes of a doctoral study in environmental education that investigated teachers' thinking and practice regarding the contributions of geography teaching to students' environmental education. (Contains 33 references.) (DDR)

Despite an increasingly diverse student population with many English language learners, Reynolds School District (Oregon) has successfully implemented rigorous academic standards. At Glenfair Elementary School, a schoolwide improvement model helps teachers and administrators use educational research to guide decision making about the best ways to…

Content analysis of 23 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Master Series tapes was used to determine how well feminist behaviors have been incorporated into ideal family therapy practice. Feminist behaviors were infrequent, being evident in fewer than 3% of time blocks in event sampling and 10 of 39 feminist behaviors of the…

Humor and fun, although essential factors to emotional health, are two of the most neglected aspects of human service practice and education. This article is an attempt to provide human service professionals and educators with an understanding of and some practical guidelines for the uses of humor and fun. (Author/BF)

Describes the current nature of the English education(EE)/rhetoric and composition (RC) split (as evidenced in two discussion threads on two different listservs). Notes that many listserv participants fell into the trap of labeling EE faculty as practitioners and RC faculty as theorists. Suggests ways that this gap might be narrowed to allow for…