This study was conducted during the academic year 2002-2003 in a municipality in Eastern Finland. It focuses on pre-school education assessing its quality factors from the parents', teachers' and children's points of view. Theoretically, the study focuses on analyses of the purposes of the national core curriculum and pedagogical issues that are…

A web conference "adds value by generating discussion among a diverse student group" (Skinner, 2004a, p. 12). Or does it? A significant concern is the extent to which learners construct knowledge and develop a learning community through online discussion. Critics argue that genuine knowledge construction is difficult to achieve. This study…

As the sophistication of technology has increased, so has public demand for quality. This expectation of quality has occurred across a broad range of products and systems, including education. To meet the demand for quality, many products and systems (including educational ones) have become increasingly complex. Within education there are also…

Since the introduction of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have been under increased pressure to demonstrate gains in academic achievement, primarily measured through test scores. Despite school day interventions designed to improve student achievement, many schools struggle to improve these outcomes. In addition, there is growing…

This article offers an analysis of religious education practice through the literature that informs it. It engages Derrida's critique of the "metaphysics of presence" (1982a) to develop a theoretical framework for a new look at the ways in which different approaches to religious education represent religion and racial difference. The…

Improving professional learning for educators is a crucial step in transforming schools and improving academic achievement. To meet federal requirements and public expectations for school and student performance, the nation needs to bolster teacher skills and knowledge to ensure that every teacher is able to teach increasingly diverse learners,…

Building on the promise of interactive, multimedia education, this evaluation study examines an alcohol abuse prevention program, AlcoholEdu, delivered through an interactive Web-based format for the purpose of reducing the harm associated with student alcohol abuse. The study uses a clustered, randomly assigned post-test only evaluation design…

Preparing youngsters for an aging society requires teachers who keep pace with health science research. The Stealth Gerontology [TM] program educates teachers regarding aging-related issues. The design and assessment of the program are reported in this paper. Teachers attended sessions including direct instruction and hands-on participation (e.g.,…

The aim of this paper is to articulate a new "post-liberal" paradigm for religious education in Britain. As criticisms of British religious education have mounted over the last few decades, it is becoming increasingly obvious that familiar inherited ways of conceptualising the nature and practice of religious education in schools are…

This study assesses the effectiveness of media literacy in the college classroom by comparing two modalities of learning, watching a video versus reading a text. The research questions guiding this project are: as teachers can we facilitate critical awareness among our students in order to alter the way women appropriate media images to evaluate…

Increasing interest in research on workplace learning and performance provides an ideal opportunity to examine how much research is actually published and to identify the focus of research in HRD. This study involved a content analysis of articles on workplace learning and performance published in the four AHRD journals. Results indicated studies…

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…

Using the collaborative efforts of a teacher educator and a classroom teacher, this study attempted to implement invitational education (a perceptually based, self-concept approach which is referred to as a theory of practice) in a special education classroom for six children with behavior problems. Four questions were used to systematically…

Course completion and student satisfaction is likely to be influenced by how realistic the expectations of students are when they enrol. This report explores the idea that students' expectations would be more realistic if students have well developed career management competencies. Appended are: (1) Participant Information and Interview Protocol;…

The integration of postmodernism in higher education is a widely debated issue. Critics of postmodernism in higher education hold the position that postmodernism breeds an unruliness of knowledge. Academicians in higher education often choose to educate students through means of prescription rather than implementing innovation in classroom…