The Irish educational system in the period following Irish independence was heavily influenced by the Rev. Timothy J. Corcoran. Rejecting any sort of child-influenced curriculum, he called for a rigid classics-based education based on Catholic dogma with maximum emphasis on memorization and repetition rather than on inquiry. (IS)

The relationships among cooperation-competition, perceptions of locus of control in social situations, and locus of control in intellectual-academic situations were compared among fourth- and fifth-graders in traditional and open classrooms. Open education children were more cooperative, and traditional students displayed higher internality for…

Focuses on a comparison of the academic achievement of groups of children in formal and informal classrooms of primary schools, the CPQ profiles of 43 pairs of children matched for sex and IQ level during their fourth academic year, and the relationship between second-order factors and selected measures of achievement in the two schools.…

Four creativity tests were administered to 264 Sudanese students (ages 15-20) to investigate the differing effects upon creativity of traditional and modern education. Those receiving a modern education performed better on two tests measuring cognitive ability, while the traditionally educated group performed better on an Egyptian test measuring…

Reports on research that examined 15 studies from the last decade to compare achievement efforts of students in year- round education versus students in traditional calendar education over a period of 1-4 or more years. Results suggest that, overall, year-round education produces a positive but very small effect. (SM)

All educational thinking springs from three ancient theories: education should provide skills to succeed in society; education should stimulate the search for truth through academic excellence; and education should give students opportunities to develop their potential. But these ideas are incompatible, and mixing them together has created a…

Two competing theories of "both ways" (dominant culture access and minority culture maintenance) education are examined: Harris' culture domain separation theory and Kemmis'"negotiated meaning" approach. Analysis along three dimensions (view of culture, language, and epistomology/ontology) suggests Harris' theory is based on a…

Although the traditionalists prefer a mandated curriculum and rigid top-down regulations, the outcome-based proponents are vague about the means for students to achieve compulsory end results. Neither approach is appropriate, since each is based on a coercive model. One Christian academy balances a traditionalist approach in the affective domain…

Brain research must be carefully examined before the implications for education emerge. Getting new neuroscientific information into schools and shifting from traditional educational models is an almost impossible feat. A direct extrapolation of brain research to current educational practice is inappropriate. Also, superseded mental models of…

Highlights significance of adult literacy programs in Botswana and Zimbabwe. Concludes that the traditional approach to adult literacy is dominant in both countries, despite differences in national contexts and despite the fact that this traditional approach is largely ineffective. (Contains 51 references.) (NB)

Canada's public schools may be neglecting average students by failing to give them the structure and care their parents think desirable. A "soft" form of school choice, such as British Columbia's traditional schools option, allows greater parental influence. As parents gain more influence in schools, they must take more responsibility…

Effects of inclusive school settings for students in six Indiana school corporations were investigated. Results reveal that students without disabilities educated in inclusive settings made significantly greater academic progress in mathematics and reading. For students with disabilities, there were no significant differences in reading and math…

Lave and Wenger have proposed that learning is situated and occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation within a community of practice, in contrast with conventional schools which are based upon the assumption that knowledge can be decontextualized. I argue that their perspective is inappropriate for science teaching, because a newcomer…

This working paper discusses safety in urban charter schools relative to other urban public schools, using several indicators from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is the nation's most extensive sample survey of elementary and secondary schools and the teachers and administrators who staff them. The indicators measure the frequency of…

Positioned in relationship to reform literature calling for small schools "by design" and interpreting data from a case study of a high performing but low-SES district in a Midwestern state, this paper provides a basis for making sense of the apparent divergence in policies governing schooling structures in rural and urban places. Its…