In this article, the author compares the potential academic and attitudinal gains of a gifted and talented population using different instructional methods. It has been found that instruction for identified high-achieving students must be different than that of general education students. Gifted and talented students cannot maximize learning…

Draws on experiences of the researcher and a previous study of curricular change in 15 institutions to reflect on the meaning of change in higher education. Suggests that the best way to achieve general education reform is to see change as a continuing effort in which each iteration improves on some aspect of the curriculum. (SLD)

Objective: The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) determined that declines in the psychiatrist-researcher workforce are harming public needs and that significant steps are necessary to alter current trends. Method: The NIMH commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to examine the undersupply and recommend solutions. The NIMH…

Today, there are critics of teacher education who believe that the system itself is archaic. These critics say that "schools of education" are by their very nature incapable of educating teachers. They say there is nothing worth preserving in them. In this paper, the author proposes that teacher education should engender a set of…

Increasingly, researchers in the social sciences are joining education scholars and studying basic issues in learning, including how children can be actively engaged in learning, effects of educational setting, and assessment of learning. The interest is prompted by availability of funding for applied research and by broader intellectual trends.…

Cambourne and Turbill trace the growth, change and finally marginalisation of progressive approaches to literacy education by examining whole language philosophy in Australia from the 1960s to the present. Using a critical lens, Cambourne and Turbill describe how whole language has been positioned throughout the last nearly 50 years in terms of…

The supportive role of the research supervisor in an action research study is explored. This critical account of a relationship between a research supervisor and a postgraduate research student was prompted by a sense of disquiet and lack of harmony that developed during a year-long action research study. In the role of a teacher-researcher with a…

The urban has been studied by students of geography, politics, aesthetics/culture, architects and politicians. Educational researchers in defining the urban as a field of research and practice have looked at schooling and its institutionalized role in cities. A wider discussion of the very character of urban experience and its relevance for…

This paper documents the journey of a researcher into the teacher effectiveness movement and efforts to find missing links to show the correlations between teacher behavior and student learning. The paper also considers how the forces within education tend to consume embryonic ideas in teacher education, rather than nurture them in an effort to…

In this paper, we argue that teacher-researchers, especially those in politically contested school communities, should be encouraged to conduct critical action research that is contextually bound. Such a research methodology includes tenets of critical action research, postmodern and feminist theory, and attention to how oppression manifests in…

Today's engineering graduates will solve tomorrow's problems in a world that is advancing faster and facing more critical challenges than ever before. This situation creates significant demand for engineering education to evolve in order to effectively prepare a diverse community of engineers for these challenges. Such concerns have led to the…

Using "visual narrative" theoretically and practically, this paper explores issues of inclusive education, during a period of curriculum reform and renewal in Australia. In Australia, the middle years of schooling, Years 5 to 9, are well researched and known as a period when students disengage with learning and participation in…

This article explores the concept of community of enquiry through an examination of 3 case studies: (a) a school-based community of enquiry involving pupils, teachers, and researchers; (b) a community of enquiry involving teachers from around 100 different schools in a Scottish local authority, together with policy advisers and researchers; and…

Numerous scholars have promoted "practitioner research" or "teacher-research" as a way of facilitating professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers, promoting change and reform in K-12 settings, and giving voice to teachers" personal and professional knowledge. In this article, the authors consider what…

Discusses why educational researchers need to rethink their roles, methods, texts, and contexts to bring about meaningful educational reform. In particular, researchers must rethink their audience and their relationships with that audience. (SLD)