Knowledge production and learning in engineering is a local, situated, negotiated, and thoroughly social process. Although engineering work entails the construal, production, and application of artifacts and technical devices belonging to the "object world," the process of designing is a process of achieving consensus among real or…

This paper reports on an experimental multimedia project in a preservice teacher education course at the University of Guam. The multimedia project was aligned with the critical pedagogy in cultivating transformative intellectuals. Participants of the project investigated critical issues in their communities and presented their projects by using a…

The history of industrial arts (IA) and technology education (TE) was examined to identify those points in the history of industrial education in the United States that have been interpreted in multiple ways or that are contradicted by other historical information. The evolution of IA was traced from the time period leading up to the 1920s, with…

The prediction of academic success of undergraduate students using an item response theory partial credit model adjusted grade point average (IRTGPA) is presented and its results are compared to those from an unweighted grade point average (GPA). The sample included 2,444 freshmen admitted in the fall of 1987 to 681 courses at a large midwestern…

This paper reports on three studies within a 6-year longitudinal study which explored the use of Piagetian sensori-motor substages as a curriculum base for individuals with profound mental retardation (MR). In the first study, a simple observational inventory, the Cognitive Marker Natural Observational Tool (CM-NOT), was developed and evaluated…

This study developed and validated a conceptual framework to explore the link between faculty receptivity and resistance to innovation and change, and organizational effectiveness. The study also sought to clearly delineate the difference between receptivity, which is defined as an internal or cognitive orientation toward change, and resistance,…

This paper presents the views of a member of the committee of the Council for Exceptional Children/Council on Education of the Deaf on professional standards. It addresses the professional challenges suggested by these new standards, including collaboration among university programs, state agencies, and local districts to establish compatible…

The basic premise of the book, "Demographic Factors in Adult and Continuing Education," (on which this keynote address is based) is that adult and continuing education are irrelevant, immaterial, and inconsequential unless grounded in social reality. The book identifies more than 1 million demographic factors in the 8 Mountain Plains…

In order to assess the feasibility of a technologically enhanced education delivery, a Canadian community college offered an online course on HTML authoring. The instructor designed a Web site, which functioned as the "textbook", and updated it periodically according to lesson plans and student feedback. An electronic mailing list…

Changes to the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) that will be introduced in the 1993-94 academic year are reviewed, with attention to edumetric factors such as relationship of curriculum and instructional practice to test design and the impact of the changes. The new SAT will put increased emphasis on critical reading skills to reflect developments…

A teacher educator took over a high school physics teachers' class for a semester in exchange for the physics teacher taking over his university physics methods classes. The paper presents the perceptions of people involved in the experience. Students at both schools accepted the situation well. University students, invited to observe their…

Research on the major computerized adaptive testing (CAT) strategies is reviewed, and some findings are reported that examine effects of examinee demographic and psychological characteristics on CAT strategies. In fixed branching strategies, all examinees respond to a common routing test, the score of which is used to assign examinees to a…

A growing trend in social science research is to reject those modes that treat individuals as objects of research and to accept the role of catalyst in helping the people to do their own research. Also, there is an increasing demand that results of social research must serve in a timely way to improve the situation of those involved. Participatory…

Student socioeconomic status (SES) and the perceptions of students' and teachers' expectations and attributions of responsibility for learning and their relationships to achievement were studied using linear structural equation modeling. Two models were developed and tested. One model included student expectations and attributions of…

This report describes a problem-solving approach to grievance settling and negotiations developed in the Brighton, Michigan, school district and inspired by the book, "Getting To Yes," by Roger Fisher and William Ury. In this approach teachers and administrators come to the table not with fixed positions but with problems both sides want…