Considers educational change, school restructuring, and the role of technology. Topics addressed include instructional technology and a history of educational reform, including competency-based education, teacher education, efficiency and effectiveness of teachers, the role of teachers, administrators, students, business, and government, and…

Teaching conformity through coercion limits students' willingness to take risks and make decisions regarding their learning. In contrast, a Foxfire classroom environment that meets psychological needs empowers students to make choices about their learning, eliminates fear of failure, allows students to establish their own standards of achievement,…

Current reform movement is stuck in a worsening negative cycle that bruises human spirit. Teacher-centered reform movement is needed. Challenging dominant assumptions about professional educators and students is necessary to generate a new sense of purpose. Metaphor for tomorrow's schools should be the successful home guided by mature, caring…

Research has suggested that many adults choose not to participate in available literacy programs because they equate literacy education with school. Two new directions in adult literacy program development are being explored in an effort to make programs more appealing to nonparticipants. The first is connected to program content and the second…

The Adaptive Dimension refers to the concept of making adjustments in approved educational programs to accommodate diversity in student learning needs, and to practices undertaken to make the approved core curriculum, instruction, and the learning environment meaningful and appropriate for each student. Adaptation takes into account the shift away…

The issues of public participation in schools and school-community relations are surveyed, the findings of a two-year research program conducted in five secondary schools examined, and some suggestions made for policy in the areas of local participation in schools and the planning of change in schools. The schools are described as (1) a large…

Recent West German surveys reveal five indicators (recruitment, age, marital and family status, jobs, and housing) that suggest the university is losing its central role in student life. (MSE)

This booklet explores the nature of participation, representation and decision-making in school governance in South Africa based on a collective case-study of six schools in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) that was undertaken between 2002 and 2004. The different types of schools were compared by the following criteria: their interpretation of the…

Illustrated are the roles of teachers, learners, administrators, and a research unit in changing policies and practices on assessment in a university. A case study is used and organizational theory and the participant-observer approach are drawn upon. The Australian National University is the subject. (MSE)

Describes a restructured elementary school in Washington state that emphasizes lifelong learning and the use of technology in every aspect of the school. Highlights include the changing roles of teachers, students, administrators, and parents; open classrooms; cooperative and traditional learning; cross-age grouping; cultural barriers; and the…

The emergence of open education at the level of graduate study, characterized by more individualized study, distance education, and increased use of technology, is changing the roles and relationship of teacher and student. It will become increasingly important to acknowledge these changed physical boundaries and adjust teaching accordingly. (MSE)

Based on observation and experience, analysis translates into a proposal for reform. Eight essays explore in personal terms several troubling educational issues undergirded by the fundamental belief that the purpose of public education is the cultivation of civic virtue. The first essay addresses the widespread loss of faith in public schooling.…

A theoretical framework for mapping school political life is developed which distinguishes elite, bureaucratic, coalitional, and participant types of school political organizations. The framework provides tools for analyzing and comparing patterns of political behavior within and across school political behavior settings. Definitions and…

Discusses structural reforms needed to improve the present public education system and presents a strategy for effecting the needed changes. Highlights include changing educational needs in an information-oriented society; the teacher's role; learning laboratories; developmental levels; students' roles; district organization and administration;…

This article presents the traditional view of schooling as a barrier to reform; it explicates the learner-centered vision of schooling as an alternative, identifies the underpinnings of the learner-centered approach to schooling, and explores how this vision of schools as learner-centered environments might be enacted. (SM)