Educational reform should be viewed less as the replacement of old with new and more as a process of renewal; the triumph of reform lies in its never succeeding. School reform intended to repair, once and for all, a broken institution will inevitably be frustrated. Schools depend ultimately on motivation. (RDN)

Educational research has changed greatly in recent years, is more sophisticated, and is based on more appropriate theories than behaviorism was, with more direct relevance to practice. A new system of education using constructivist theories of learning such as Piaget's would promote the development of powerful learning strategies. (MSE)

Demonstrates that the whole of an anthropological study (from deciding who, what, and where to study to publicizing results) can be termed an "ethnographic process". Within this process, four major components can be identified: research conditions, research design, research implementation, and product creation. Discusses each part of…

Reviews four hypotheses that describe the disconnection between educational research and practice. These hypotheses claim that research needs to be more authoritative, relevant, and accessible; and that the educational system is often unable to adequately reply to research findings. The historical thought behind each hypothesis and the place for…

Describes current perspectives on evidence-based practices in psychology, medicine, and education; discusses challenges in the implementation and dissemination of research-based findings into schools; describes differences between current models of organizational behavior as studied in children's mental health services and in education; and…

While those involved in staff development often seek new or further information or research on effective successful staff development, they often overlook or do not know how to use the voluminous amount of literature that already exists regarding conditions, processes, adaptations, motivation, and strategies for effective educational change. (CB)

The balance between college teaching and faculty scholarship is examined in the context of growing economic concern over the education of an internationally competitive workforce. "Aggregative scholarship," the effort to integrate and interpret highly specialized research findings for interconnections and trends, for both specialists and…

A research and development approach to performance monitoring in public agencies involves establishing objectives, selecting indicators, establishing criteria for comparison, and using information. Examples from Virginia education agencies indicate that performance monitoring requires commitment, patience, openness to ideas, and risk taking. (SK)

Knowledge work today is entirely different, and knowledge professionals such as faculty must be allowed to engage in scholarship, teaching, and service cyclically, not simultaneously. Institutional mechanisms must support social integration of knowledge as they now support research and teaching. (SK)

Indicators that the prospects for meaningful curricular reform are not optimistic are developed in this paper. The first premise is that research on curricular reform has been limited in its applicability to practitioner concerns. Another dilemma in the translation of research on curricular reform for practitioners is the continuing wide gap in…

One cannot begin considering the topic of this colloquium without asking, why twenty years? Why not two hundred? Two hundred years ago, Silvestre Franois Lacroix was about to be named chief officer of the Commission Executive de L'Instruction Publique. Out of that experience, together with his long career in instruction, especially as professor of…

Recent commission and task force reports calling for significant improvements in American education are considered in this set of three papers, and methods for implementing the recommendations are suggested. In his paper, Glen Harvey reviews the reports, noting the extent to which they fail to consider change implementation research and commenting…

Using a framework that draws upon current organizational theory and assumptions about knowledge utilization and school improvement this report examines the process of change at the school level. The model developed attempts both to categorize the "strategies" employed by the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program/projects and…

Based on two papers presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting in 1981, this report provides an overview and major outcomes of a three-year study of the Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. The RDU program tested and assessed a comprehensive model for assisting schools to use results of educational research…