Defining "democracy" and determining compatible education practice is critical to school success. This article examines four definitions and articulates a fifth definition advocating a participatory, community-oriented democracy achieved through school and classroom structures and activities. Educators should develop their own working definitions…

Democracy rightly holds a critical significance in any context in which relatively small elites have subjugated majorities. When a democracy has been established in a societal context that encompasses minority subgroups along with a dominant majority, minority groups are in danger. Democracy is not equity, nor any guarantee of equity. (MLH)

Highlights a number of recommended best-teaching practices, selectively reviews the research literature on teacher interactions in classrooms for students with emotional and behavioral disorders, provides a possible interpretative framework for the apparent discrepancies between research and practice, and makes recommendations for future research.…

Reports on research that investigates the effect of teachers' sociological understanding of science on their design and implementation of curriculum innovations. Contains 26 references. (DDR)

Addresses the mismatch between educational research methodologies and its application to generic features of practice and proposes a problem-based methodology that better links research with problem solving. Implications of this methodology are discussed from recent research on school tracking. (GR)

Explores the political and historical origins of the new qualification for headteachers, the National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH). Discusses several characteristics of the program: conceptual pluralism, separation of leadership from management, emphasis on process and practical application, separation of the training and…

Focuses on how teachers understand the place of the laboratory and laboratory work in their practice. Observations are based on interviews conducted with secondary science teachers in England. Contains 27 references. (DDR)

Presents the results of a two-year teacher/researcher collaboration between Liz, an experienced high school English teacher, and David, a university researcher in writing across the curriculum. Describes the experience of the school studied and presents some reactions of teachers to the experience. (SG)

Describes how the authors use a broad-based, client-centered model to teach an introductory course in public relations, integrating writing assignments for "clients" into course topics, which include history, ethics, theory, research, program planning, publicity, crisis management, and evaluation methods. Discusses course objectives, and notes…

Instead of presenting a body of research attesting to constructivism's effectiveness, Lynn Chrenka cites a litany of "supportive" comments from dead geniuses. The teacher as expert and lecturer is anathema to constructivist doctrine. Sages who speak passionately and authoritatively about a subject they love are increasingly rare in public schools.…

Ideally, school leadership should be shared among staff. However, the extent of justifiable sharing in actual practice depends on diverse contexts and consequent risks for headteachers. Research on management teams at four British primary schools shows how principals variably shared leadership by setting parameters for teamwork. (Contains 42…

Evaluates the characteristics of Yes/No tests as a measure for receptive vocabulary size in a second language (L2). The evaluation was conducted both on theoretical grounds as well as on the basis of a large corpus of data collected with French learners of Dutch. Focuses on the internal qualities of the format in comparison with other more…

Interviewed 12 computer studies faculty in Hong Kong about their perspectives on teaching computer programming; organized data into themes. Concluded that teachers rely on a "mind as container" understanding of knowledge and learning that would be better replaced with a connectionist view of the mind. (EV)

Argues that although Gardner's conception of human cognition, characterized by a set of multiple and distinct cognitive capabilities, is an advance over the narrow conception of IQ, it runs into fundamental difficulties of a methodological kind and is based on a discredited empiricist theory of knowledge which work with artificial neural networks…

Replies to "The Theory of Multiple Intelligences: A Case of Missing Cognitive Matter," also in this issue. Disagrees about the role theory of knowledge plays in the context of justification of multiple intelligences. Specifically, asserts that the article's criticisms based on philosophy of science claims and work with artificial neural…