bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Toward Assessment of Cognitive and Conative Structures in Learning
Authors: Snow Richard E.
Published: June 2007

New conceptions of aptitude, learning, development, and achievement, both cognitive and conative, are identified and some new ideas about their assessment are reviewed. A rough table of these constructs is provided. It is argued that much construct validational research is needed to understand the new constructs and place them in a reasonable and useful network. Also needed is a recognition that different purposes for educational assessment require different levels and models of assessment. A plea for research on teacher understanding and use is included, because no improvements in school level assessment can be reached without it.
Can We Test Validly for Critical Thinking?
Authors: Norris Stephen P
Published: June 2007

This paper focuses first on two questions: (a) Is critical thinking generalizable? and (b) What is a critical thinking disposition? It is argued that the controversial nature of these questions limits the ability to judge the validity of critical thinking testing. Following this discussion, the paper outlines a series of procedures that can help increase the validity of one fundamental aspect of critical thinking testing–multiple-choice testing of credibility judgment. The procedures rely on verbal reports of examinees’ thinking on items to gain direct evidence on the reasons for their answer choices. It is recognized that multiple-choice tests cannot test all important aspects of critical thinking, but that improving multiple-choice tests where they are applicable can have important practical and scientific implications.
Parallels Between Research on Child Care and Research on School Effects
Authors: McCartney Kathleen , Jordan Elizabeth
Published: June 2007

The study of child-care effects and the study of school effects have each developed through three parallel phases of research questions. Perhaps as a consequence, there have been striking similarities in the methodological and conceptual advances in both areas. For this reason, it is argued that child-care researchers and school-effects researchers would benefit by monitoring progress in one another's field as they assess what matters for which types of children.
The Situation of Black Educational Researchers: Continuation of a Crisis
Authors: Frierson Henry T.
Published: June 2007

The numbers and proportions of Blacks gaining doctorates and entering academe have continuously declined. This decline is seen in all fields including education, particularly educational research. Coupled with this downward trend is the fact that, psychologically, Black faculty often find themselves in work environments that are not fully supportive. Prejudice and discrimination remain as obstacles, and for many the lack of mentoring, at any level, is a reality. The situation for many Black faculty in education can be described best as a predicament. For black educational researchers and the nation, this situation has long been of crisis proportions, and it demands to be addressed directly, for it relates to the common good for American education. As never before, more involvement and more Black educational researchers are needed in the efforts to address the myriad problems that beset U.S. education. Related issues and recommendations are discussed in this article.
Conceptions of Educational Achievement
Authors: Cole Nancy S
Published: June 2007

Two major conceptions of educational achievement are characterized: achievement as basic skills, and facts versus achievement as higher order skills and advanced knowledge. The impact of such conceptions on the topics pursued by researchers, the ways teachers think about their teaching, and the public's view of educational goals are noted. In addition, the author argues that present dominant conceptions are inadequate given the importance they have. More adequate conceptions need to (a) integrate divergent views of achievement, (b) carry clear instructional implications, and (c) focus on long-term goals of education
Anchored Instruction and Its Relationship to Situated Cognition
Authors:   The Cognition And Technology Group At Vanderbilt
Published: June 2007

In a recent Educational Researcher article, Brown, Collins, and Duguid (January-February 1989) discussed the concept of situated cognition. We explore relationships between this concept and our Technology Center’s work on anchored instruction. In the latter, instruction is anchored (situated) in videodisc-based, problem-solving environments that teachers and students can explore.

We argue that situated cognition provides a broad, useful framework that emphasizes the importance of focusing on everyday cognition, authentic tasks, and the value of in-context apprenticeship training. Anchored instruction provides a way to recreate some of the advantages of apprenticeship training in formal educational settings involving groups of students. In addition, some of the principles of anchored instruction may make it possible to create learning experiences that are more effective than many that occur in traditional apprenticeship training. Together, the situated cognition and anchored instruction perspectives suggest ways to think differently about instruction, and they suggest important issues for future research.
Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: Anonymity Versus Visibility in Case Studies of Teachers
Authors: Shulman Judith H.
Published: June 2007

Many teachers, in collaborative relationships with researchers, no longer want anonymity. They seek recognition for their contributions to the studies in which they engage. Yet revealing the names of the people, schools, and districts participating in research raises a new set of problems about the conduct of such inquiries. Difficulties arising from the need for anonymity and the desire for visibility in collaborative studies are the subject of this paper.
Whole Language: A Research Agenda for the Nineties
Authors: McKenna Michael C. , Miller John W. , Robinson Richard D.
Published: June 2007

This article examines the current rift in perspective between whole language arts and traditional language arts instruction by analyzing the basis of each view in research and theory. Suggestions are made regarding research developments that might alleviate the present impasse. These include not only hypotheses to be tested but also explain the need for a variety of designs, improved instrumentation, and collaborative investigations
The Rand Change Agent Study Revisited: Macro Perspectives and Micro Realities
Authors: McLaughlin Milbrey W.
Published: June 2007

The Rand Change Agent study, undertaken from 1973–1978, indicated a significant shift in the ways people thought about affecting planned change in education. Rand found that effective projects were characterized by a process of mutual adaptation rather than uniform implementation, and that local factors (rather than federal program guidelines or project methods) dominated project outcomes. Revisiting these findings in light of today's changed practices and understandings reinforces some of Rand's findings and suggests modifications in others. This reconsideration also underscores the essential contribution of teachers' perspectives as informant and as a guide to policy and suggests that the challenge lies in understanding how policy can enable and facilitate effective practice.
The Value of Ideas: The Immersion Approach to the Development of Thinking
Authors: PRAWAT RICHARD S.
Published: June 2007

In this paper I examine three approaches to fostering higher level thinking in students: the stand-alone approach, in which thinking skills are taught separately from subject matter content; the embedding approach, in which these skills are explicitly taught in the context of subject matter content; and the immersion approach. Advocates of this third approach argue that it is counter-productive to devote too much attention to the explicit teaching of thinking; they believe that it develops naturally in classrooms where students are engaged, as members of a discourse community, in the pursuit of common understanding. The immersion approach is treated in greater depth in the present article. It represents an important alternative view within cognitive psychology because it assigns an active role to perception, thus downplaying the importance of information-processing skills in the development of thought and understanding.
Implications of Connectionism for Thinking about Rules
Authors: BEREITER CARL
Published: June 2007

Although the “new connectionism” is causing a great stir in cognitive science and artificial intelligence, it has been difficult for people outside these fields to grasp. Through use of a concrete analogy, this article attempts to provide a nontechnical explanation of what connectionism is like and to show how it constitutes a radical alternative to the classical view of cognition based on implicit rules.
A Developmental Perspective on Standardized Achievement Testing
Authors: Paris Scott G. , Lawton Theresa A. , Turner Julianne C. , Roth Jodie L.
Published: June 2007

Throughout the 1980s there was a proliferation of achievement testing in America to promote and assure the effectiveness of educational reforms. However, both traditional innovative forms of assessment failed to consider the cumulative impact of repeated testing on students” attitudes and motivation. Our surveys of students in Grades 2–11 revealed that by adolescence many students become suspicious and cynical about tests. A large number of students, especially low achievers, become anxious about tests, cheat, try half-heartedly, or use poor test-taking strategies. These reactions may preserve students’ feeling of competence when they receive low test scores, but they undermine the validity of the test scores and discourage genuine learning. A developmental perspective on testing may prevent students’ counterproductive reactions and may help to guide reforms in educational assessment.
Psychometricians’ Beliefs About Learning
Authors: Shepard Lorrie A.
Published: June 2007

The author contends that disputes within the measurement community about what constitutes legitimate test preparation and whether “teaching to the test” is good or bad for student learning can be explained by differences in measurement specialists beliefs about learning. Qualitative analysis of interview data from a nationally representative sample of 50 district testing directors revealed that approximately half of the measurement specialists operate from implicit learning theories that advocate, first, close alignment of tests with curriculum and, second, judicious teaching of tested content. Historical quotations are used to show that these beliefs, associated with criterion-referenced testing, derive from behaviorist learning theory, which requires sequential mastery of constituent skills and explicit testing of each learning step. The sequential, facts-before-thinking model of learning is contradicted, however, by a substantial body of evidence from cognitive psychology. Implicit beliefs should be made explicit because an understanding of learning theory assumptions is fundamental to evaluating evidence of testing effects and therfore to framing validity investigations.
Local Knowledge, Research Knowledge, and Educational Change: A Case Study of Early Spanish Reading Improvement
Authors: GOLDENBERG CLAUDE , GALLIMORE RONALD
Published: June 2007

Reforming schools depends on the interplay between research and local knowledge. This article uses examples from a multiyear project to improve reading achievement of Spanish-speaking children. Achieving changes was partially dependent on local action and understanding of the local school culture. It could not be done exclusively through reference to research knowledge, no matter how compellingly documented in the national literature.
One- Versus Two-Tailed Hypothesis Tests in Contemporary Educational Research
Authors: Pillemer David B.
Published: June 2007

The choice of a one- rather than a two-tailed hypothesis testing strategy can influence research outcomes, but information about the type of test conducted is rarely reported in articles appearing in educational and psychological journals. Because unambiguous standards for using one- and two-tailed tests do not exist, complete reporting of hypothesis testing procedures is essential. In addition, educational researchers need to reevaluate the decision-oriented, “critical experiment” model of science that underlies the use of one-tailed tests. It is the adherence to the arbitrary .05 level of significance as a benchmark for publication decisions, rather than logical or methodological considerations, that largely accounts for the popularity of one-tailed tests. Effect size estimates, accompanied by confidence intervals or exact two-tailed probabilities, are generally more compatible with the growing meta-analytic view of social science as an incremental, cumulative, and shared enterprise.
Perspectives on Second-Language Development: Implications for Bilingual Education
Authors: Snow Catherine E.
Published: June 2007

This article provides a guide to basic research in second-language acquisition by characterizing distinct perspectives from foreign language teaching, first-language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and sociocultural factors. The research in these areas provides some answers to common questions about second-language acquisition, including those of optimum age, factors that facilitate learning, the consequences of bilingualism, individual differences, and assessment techniques. It is argued that the crucial insights of the sociocultural perspective must be introduced if we are to have adequate assessments of bilingual individuals or evaluation of bilingual programs.
Bilingual Classroom Studies and Community Analysis: Some Recent Trends
Authors: MOLL LUIS C.
Published: June 2007

The questions and issues that underlie bilingual education are constrained by deficit views about the abilities and experiences of language-minority students. In general, most research has emphasized how well students acquire English, assimilate into mainstream culture, and perform on tests of basic skills. Employing a sociocultural perspective that acknowledges the many resources that are available to children outside of the school, the author describes how research about children's communities can be used to enhance instruction. For this to work, researchers and teachers must redefine their roles so that they enter into collaborative working relationships that focus on ways of bringing about educational change.
Comparing American and Japanese Achievement: Is the United States Really a Low Achiever?
Authors: Westbury Ian
Published: June 2007

It is widely accepted that the Japanese educational system is more effective than the U.S. system and that this greater effectiveness produces across-the-board higher achievement. Using the data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA.) Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS), this paper examines both curriculum and achievement in Japan and the United States in grade 7/8 algebra and grade 12 elementary functions and analysis (calculus). The results suggest that overall, the lower achievement of the United States is the result of curricula that are not as well matched to the SIMS tests as are the curricula of Japan. Where the American curriculum is comparable to both the "curriculum" of the test and the curriculum of Japan, that is, in grade 8 algebra classes, U.S. achievement is similar to that of Japan. These findings suggest that the analytic methodology of cross-national achievement Studies like those of IEA or International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP) with their focus on the undifferentiated variable of "country" as a unit of analysis needs to be rethought. While the emphasis on comparative national standings that emerges from such studies may excite political and public interest, it cannot be regarded as a legitimate approach to comparative analysis.
The Text and Cultural Politics
Authors: Apple Michael W.
Published: June 2007

The school curriculum is not neutral knowledge. Rather, what counts as legitimate knowledge is the result of complex power relations, struggles, and compromises among identifiable class, race, gender, and religious groups. A good deal of conceptual and empirical progress has been made in the last 2 decades in answering the question of whose knowledge becomes socially legitimate in schools. Yet, little attention has actually been paid to that one arti-fact that plays such a major role in defining whose culture is taught–the textbook. In this article, I discuss ways of approaching texts as embodiments of a larger process of cultural politics. Analyses of them must focus on the complex power relationships involved in their production, contexts, use, and reading. I caution us against employing overly reductive kinds of perspectives and point to the importance of newer forms of textual analysis that stress the politics of how students actually create meanings around texts. Finally, I point to some of the implications of all this for our discussions of curriculum policy.
Purposeful Behavior as the Control of Perception
Authors: Cziko Gary
Published: June 2007

This article continues the discussion begun in my 1989 Educational Researcher essay on the problems posed by the unpredictability and indeterminism of human behavior for educational research and responds to criticisms of these arguments offered by Lehrer, Serlin, and Amundson (1990). In the course of this discussion, a theory of purposeful behavior known as perceptual control theory is presented which provides an explicit, working model of how individuals are able to produce repeatable outcomes via variable means. It is argued that the traditional "scientific" method of educational research, which attempts to find relationships between "independent" and "dependent" variables over groups of individuals, is in principle incapable of providing valid explanations of the how and why of purposeful human behavior.
The Goodness of Qualitative Research
Authors: PESHKIN ALAN
Published: June 2007

Research that is not theory d driven, hypothesis testing, or generalization producing may be dismissed as deficient or worse. This narrow conception does an injustice to the variety of contributions that qualitative research can make. In this article I draw upon studies conducted by means of qualitative research methods in order to demonstrate the breadth of desirable outcomes.
Prospects for an American-Style Youth Apprenticeship System
Authors: HAMILTON STEPHEN F.
Published: June 2007

Tom Bailey correctly identifies the greatest challenges to successfully transforming the idea of youth apprenticeship into reality. Although his cautions are well founded, they do not justify the turn toward alternative approaches that he recommends, especially not before demonstration projects that are just now being mounted have had time to yield results. Specific components can be built into an American-style youth apprenticeship system so that it avoids the pitfalls Bailey has identified and simultaneously serves the goals of education, equality, and prosperity.
Rethinking Psychometricians’ Beliefs About Learning
Authors: CIZEK GREGORY J.
Published: June 2007

A recent article by Shepard (1991) described psychometricians’ beliefs about learning. Shepard’ s work provided many defensible recommendations for improving testing practice. However, Shepard’ s model of the ways in which curriculum, teaching, and testing interact is misspecified and promotes several false conceptions about the relationship between psychometrics and testing practice. The errors have the potential to do great harm if educational reform efforts are unintentionally misdirected. In the following article, some of the mistakes in analysis and conclusions are explicated. I evaluate the positive contribution of Shepard’s work to educational practice, examine errors introduced in Shepard’s model, and suggest an alternative model that may provide a more fruitful research agenda.
Reconceptualizing Intelligence: Dysrationalia as an Intuition Pump
Authors: Stanovich Keith E.
Published: June 2007

The concept of intelligence is usually conceived of and operationalized in terms of cognitive capacities—relatively fixed information processing operations that determine the efficiency with which preestablished goals are achieved. Intelligence, as operationalized in standardized assessment instruments, has not included the measurement of dispositions toward rational thought and behavior (i.e., the thought processes that fix beliefs proportionately to evidence and that maintain consistency among beliefs). This contrasts with the vernacular use of the term intelligence, which does subsume dispositions toward rationality. It is argued that educational researchers and social scientists should begin to consider the consequences of the discrepancy between scientific/professional and vernacular concepts of intelligence. In order to provoke thought about the discrepancy and the effects that it has on educational practice and social policy, it is proposed that the field consider the implications of a new psychological concept, dysrationalia: the inability to think and behave rationally despite adequate intelligence.
What if the Construct of Dysrationalia Were an Example of Itself?
Authors: Sternberg Robert J.
Published: June 2007

The concept of dysrationalia is intriguing at a dysrational level—but the construct needs much better conceptualization and elaboration, a theory, operationalization, convergent and discriminant-validation, and safeguards against misuse.
Capturing Teachers' Knowledge: Performance Assessment
Authors: Delandshere Ginette , Petrosky Anthony R.
Published: June 2007

When we conceive of knowledge as what is created in discourse, the role of interpretation in the assessment of complex performances becomes critical. Since an assessment system is always defined within an ideology, we discuss the possibility of framing interpretations within that ideology to produce consistent judgments. We propose ways of structuring and formulating interpretations within a dimensional framework and of making them explicit and visible in the writing of interpretive summaries. The discussion in this article reflects the constant tension between the requirement to make assessment decisions and the fact that the performances and their assessment are considered to be acts of interpretation which do not easily accommodate the notion of correctness.
Incomplete Explanations: The Case of U.S. Performance in the International Assessments of Education
Authors: Stedman Lawrence C.
Published: June 2007

In the past few years, it has been argued that the international assessments are seriously flawed by sampling and test bias and that conclusions about U.S. educational inferiority are unwarranted. Alternatively, it has been argued that the differences in national performances are related to cultural differences, institutional arrangements such as curriculum and length of the school year, and ineffective pedagogy. To clarify these issues, I review the history of the assessments and evaluate the major explanations of the achievement differences. I examine, in depth, the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of curriculum-centered explanations because of their relevance to school reform ( Westbury, 1992 , 1993 ).
Continuing the Journey Toward Gender Equity
Authors: Klein Susan S. , Ortman Patricia E. , Campbell Patricia , Greenberg Selma , Hollingsworth Sandra , Jacobs Judith , Kachuck Beatrice , McClelland Averil , Pollard Diane , Sadker David , Sadker Myra , Schmuck Patricia , Scott Elois , Wiggins Joanne
Published: June 2007

Many contributors to this article started their journey to increase gender equity in education around 1972, when federal Title IX legislation was passed. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance. This article discusses progress and future possibilities for additional useful research. After reviewing relevant goals, we address equity issues in the areas of the education workforce; student educational attainment and career achievement; formal curricula (including content and testing); and informal curricula (including classroom interaction, single-sex environments, sexuality, and family and child care issues). Although there has been progress in attaining equity goals in some of these areas, we conclude that there are many continuing inequities that merit exploration and resolution by educational researchers and practitioners. Additionally, there is a need for more systematic development of a comprehensive research and development agenda and a supportive national infrastructure to fund, promote, deliver, and achieve gender equity in education.
The Public Curriculum of Orderly Images
Authors: Vallance Elizabeth
Published: June 2007

There is a public curriculum inherent in the orderly images, and in the order in which these images are presented and seen in art museums. This voluntary public-access “curriculum,” selected differently by each visitor, offers both interesting challenges and useful metaphors for educators working in more structured settings. School educators, like art museum educators, help to develop students' abilities to see and hear the stories visible and accessible in the world around them; at our best, we develop skills for a lifetime of learning, learning that is sometimes most effective when it is unexpected and informal.
How Shall We Study Comprehensive, Collaborative Services for Children and Families?
Authors: Knapp Michael S.
Published: June 2007

Researchers and evaluators confront difficult challenges in studying comprehensive, collaborative services for children and families. These challenges appear in the interaction of multiple professional perspectives, specification of independent and dependent variables, attribution of effects to causes, and sensitive nature of the programmatic treatment. Given limited knowledge about these complex interventions, they will best be understood through studies that are strongly conceptualized, descriptive, comparative, constructively skeptical, positioned from the bottom up, and (when appropriate) collaborative.
Performance-Based Assessment: Lessons From the Health Professions
Authors: Swanson David B. , Norman Geoffrey R. , Linn Robert L.
Published: June 2007

Performance-based assessment methods have been used in the health professions for centuries, and dozens of studies of their psychometric characteristics have been reported over the past several decades. During that period, the health professions have seen a variety of performance-based assessment methods come and go, and some hard lessons have been learned from the many studies and frequent missteps. This article shares some of those lessons, using four performance-based assessment methods as examples: written clinical simulations (more commonly termed patient management problems), computer-based clinical simulations, oral examinations, and standardized patients (“live” simulations).
Make a Difference With, Not For, Students: A Plea to Researchers and Reformers
Authors: Corbett Dick , Wilson Bruce
Published: June 2007

Student role redefinition is a critical, but overlooked, link between changes brought about by educational reforms and the realization of desired student results. Although the reform literature is well-stocked with ideas about what facilitates role change in adults, it is nearly silent with respect to students. This is surprising, given that most reforms maintain stringently that students' customary ways of acting will have to change for them to be prepared to assume a constructive place in the real world. If students do not receive training, assistance, and support from researchers and reformers as they make the transition between current expectations and future ones, they will be no more likely to embrace new roles than are adults under the same conditions.
Bounding the Case Within Its Context: A Constructivist Approach to Studying Detracking Reform
Authors: Wells Amy Stuart , Hirshberg Diane , Lipton Martin , Oakes Jeannie
Published: June 2007

This article presents the story of our research team's efforts to conduct a multisite case study of 10 racially mixed schools engaged in effort to reduce ability grouping or tracking. Although the politics of education research and our own theoretical frame work told us that detracking reform is strongly influenced by the politics and norms in the local school community, we were not sure how to study a school-level change while examining the broader context of that change. We learned over the course of our study to build outward from the school site into the local community, and co-construct the boundaries of our cases with the help of our respondents. As a result, we discovered that the boundaries of each case and the differences in the shape and size of each case are as much a finding as they are a methodological consideration.
Misreading Dewey: Reform, Projects, and the Language Game
Authors: Prawat Richard S.
Published: June 2007

Two serious misunderstandings of Dewey's pedagogical and philosophical views are discussed. The first, the erroneous assumption that Dewey favored an activity-oriented, child-centered approach to learning, relates to how Dewey thought about the role of experience in knowledge acquisition. The second misunderstanding relates to Dewey's stance on language. Viewing Dewey as an early supporter of the postmodernist linguistic turn in philosophy heralded by Rorty and others (i.e., that all knowledge is essentially linguistic) downplays Dewey's unique ontological solution to the mind/world dilemma. This article focuses on the practical and theoretical consequences that follow from accepting these two erroneous interpretations of Dewey.
Revisiting Voice
Authors: Hargreaves Andy
Published: June 2007

Drawing on case vignettes of teachers at work, this article revisits how to conceptualize and represent teachers' voices and the teacher's voice in educational research, and in dialogue about educational change more generally. Though the article argues that representing and sponsoring teachers' voices should remain an important research priority, it also criticizes how much of the literature in this area selects and portrays particular teacher voices as exemplary or generic voices. The literature on teachers' voices has tended to represent them in a decontextualized way—in isolation from other (dissimilar) teachers, from the contexts of teaching which give rise to those voices, and from other (nonteacher) voices that also have legitimate if sometimes discrepant things to say about teaching and learning The result has been that the teacher's voice has often been unduly romanticized. More comparative and contextualized studies of teachers' voices, and of other voices alongside them, it is argued, would avoid such dangers of romanticization.
Educational Research in an Era of Paradigm Proliferation: What's a Journal Editor to Do?
Authors: Donmoyer Robert
Published: June 2007

This editorial/essay functions on at least two levels. At the most obvious level, it is an attempt by theEducational Researcher's new Features Editor to figure out how to play the gatekeeper role at a time when there is little consensus in the field about what research is and what scholarly discourse should look like. Specific policies, procedures, and decision rules are articulated to guide the manuscript review process. The problems and issues confronting an editor of one of the field's major scholarly journals, however, can also be seen as representative of the types of problems and issues confronting others who play other sorts of roles in the field. Consequently, many of the issues discussed (e.g., the significance of discourse style, the inadequacy of the qualitative/quantitative distinction, the problems with the Balkanization response) and the principles articulated (e.g., the principle of pragmatic incommensurability) can be transferred to other situations beyond this particular case.
Confronting Counsels of Despair for the Behavioral Sciences
Authors: Gage N. L.
Published: June 2007

In recent decades, influential counsels of despair have asserted that the behavioral sciences, including much educational research, have failed to produce long-lasting generalizations. The failure, they say, is due to cultural and historical relativism and interaction effects. But those counsels rest more on logical possibilities than on empirical actualities. They depend on questionable assumptions about the spread and influence of knowledge, they involve contradictions, and they overemphasize the importance of interaction effects. In the last 20 years, moreover, meta-analysis has yielded knowledge concerning the impressive magnitude, consistency, and validity across contexts of many generalizations in the behavioral sciences and promising methods for quantifying and analyzing the generalizability of research results. These arguments, findings, and methods justify mitigating the despair and continuing the effort to build sciences of behavior.
Problem Solving as a Basis for Reform in Curriculum and Instruction: The Case of Mathematics
Authors: Hiebert James , Carpenter Thomas P , Fennema Elizabeth , Fuson Karen , Human Piet , Murray Hanlie , Olivier Alwyn , Wearne Diana
Published: June 2007

We argue that reform in curriculum and instruction should be based on allowing students to problematize the subject. Rather than mastering skills and applying them, students should be engaged in resolving problems. In mathematics, this principle fits under the umbrella of problem solving, but our interpretation is different from many problem-solving approaches. We first note that the history of problem solving in the curriculum has been infused with a distinction between acquiring knowledge and applying it. We then propose our alternative principle by building on John Dewey’s idea of “reflective inquiry,” argue that such an approach would facilitate students’ understanding, and compare our proposal with other views on the role of problem solving in the curriculum. We close by considering several common dichotomies that take on a different meaning from this perspective
Educational Researchers: Living With a Lesser Form of Knowledge
Authors: Labaree David F.
Published: June 2007

In this article, I argue that key characteristics of educational knowledge both constrain and enable the work of educational researchers, as producers of this knowledge, in distinctive ways. Educational knowledge is soft (vs. hard), applied (vs. Pure), and provides use value (vs. exchange value). As a result, knowledge production in education is organized in a manner that is structurally egalitarian and substantively divergent. Some consequences of this are negative. For example, educational researchers find themselves unable to speak authoritatively about their field and feel pressure to imitate unproductive forms of intellectual practice. Other consequences are positive: For example, they have the potential for speaking to a wide lay audience and for participating in a relatively open and unregulated mode of scholarly production.
The Interpretive Turn and the New Debate in Education
Authors: Howe Kenneth R.
Published: June 2007

Over the last several decades, positivist-behaviorist approaches to social and educational research have been on the decline, whereas interpretive approaches have been on the rise. As a result of this "interpretive turn" the old debate between positivism and interpretivism (and central to the quantitative-qualitative debate) has diminished in intensity only to be replaced by a new debate in terms of postmodernists- who would abandon the emancipatory project of modernity as fatally flawed –versus transformationists- who would modify this project and endeavor to see it through. Among the conclusions advanced is that the differences between these two general perspectives tend to be overdrawn, particularly when philosophical avowals are measured against the requirements of practice.
Cognitive and Situated Learning Perspectives in Theory and Practice
Authors: Cobb Paul , Bowers Janet
Published: June 2007

In their recent exchange, Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1996 Anderson, Reder, and Simon (1997) and Greeno (1997) frame the conflicts between cognitive theory and situated learning theory in terms of issues that are primarily of interest to educational psychologists. We attempt to broaden the debate by approaching this discussion of perspectives against the background of our concerns as educators who engage in classroom-based research and instructional design in collaboration with teachers. We first delineate the underlying differences between the two perspectives by distinguishing their central organizing metaphors. We then argue that the contrast between the two perspectives cannot be reduced to that of choosing between the individual and the social collective as the primary unit of analysis. Against this background, we compare the situated viewpoint we find useful in our work with the cognitive approach advocated by Anderson et al. by focusing on their treatments of meaning and instructional goals. Finally, we consider the potential contributions of the two perspectives to instructional practice by contrasting their differing formulations of the relationship between theory and practice.
The Problem of Underqualified Teachers in American Secondary Schools
Authors: Ingersoll Richard M.
Published: June 2007

This article presents the results of a research project on the phenomenon of out-of-field teaching in American high schools–teachers teaching subjects for which they have little education or training. Over the past couple of years, the problem of out-of-field teaching has become a prominent topic in the realm of educational policy and reform, and the results of this research have been widely reported and commented on both by education policymakers and the national media. But unfortunately, out-of-field teaching is a problem that remains largely misunderstood. My research utilizes nationally representative data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The purpose of this article is to summarize what my research has revealed about out-of-field teaching: how much of it goes on; to what extent it varies across different subjects, across different kinds of schools, and across different kinds of classrooms; and finally, the reasons for its prevalence in American schools. The data show that even using a minimal standard for qualified teachers — those holding a college minor in the fields in which they teach —the numbers of out-of-field teachers are striking. For example, a third of all secondary school teachers of mathematics have neither a major nor a minor in mathematics. My analyses have also shown that out-of-field teaching greatly varies across schools, teachers, and classrooms. The crucial question, however, and the source of great misunderstanding is why so many teachers are teaching subjects for which they have little background. 1 examine three widely believed explanations of out-of-field teaching — that out-of-field teaching is a result of either inadequate training on the part of teachers, inflexible teacher unions, or shortages of qualified teachers. My analysis shows that each of these views is seriously flawed. The article closes by offering an alternative explanation for out-of-field teaching—one focused on the organizational structure of schools and the occupational conditions and characteristics of teaching.
Linking Theory and Practice: Changing the Pedagogy of Teacher Education
Authors: Korthagen Fred A. J. , Kessels Jos P. A. M.
Published: June 2007

The pressure towards more school-based teacher education programs, visible in many countries, creates a need to rethink the relationship between theory and practice. The traditional application-of-theory model appears to be rather ineffective and is currently being replaced by other, more reflective approaches. However, until now the variety of different notions and assumptions underlying these new approaches have not provided a sound basis for further development. Two related theoretical bases are presented for a new paradigm in teacher education. The first uses the concepts of episteme and phronesis to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The second is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior, leading to a model of three levels in learning about teaching, the Gestalt level, the schema level and the theory level, which are illustrated by interview data. Building on these two theoretical, frameworks, a so-called “realistic approach” to teacher education is introduced. The teacher educator's role within this approach is analyzed as well as organizational consequences. First evaluative results are presented.
School Choice: An Examination of the Empirical Evidence on Achievement, Parental Decision Making, and Equity
Authors: Goldhaber Dan D.
Published: June 2007

Support for all forms of school choice—public school choice, charter schools, and public-private choice—has been growing in recent years. Arguments in favor of greater choice rest on two propositions: that choice would serve to give more control over educational decisions to parents who in turn would choose good schools for their children, and that competition between schools for students will help reduce inefficiencies in the delivery of education, and, in doing so, improve educational outcomes. This review focuses on quantitative assessments of the impact of choice on educational outcomes. Several questions are examined in detail. First, is there any evidence that the various alternatives to traditional public schools—magnet schools, charter schools, and private schools—are delivering education in a fundamentally different and more efficient fashion? In other words, after accounting for differences in the backgrounds of the students attending these schools, are they better at educating students? Second, what are the equity consequences and demographic implications of enhanced school choice? Third, how might enhanced choice affect support for traditional public schools?
The Denial of Change in Educational Change: Systems of Ideas in the Construction of National Policy and Evaluation
Authors: POPKEWITZ THOMAS S.
Published: June 2007

Our conventional assumptions about school policy and evaluation are that schools are known and stable entities, and that the objectives and purposes of evaluation are relatively straight-forward. Drawing initially on a Norwegian evaluation of Norway's educational system, this essay views the problems of policy studies and evaluation as related to social and cultural changes that produce ambiguity and uncertainty in the practices of education. Further, the object of inquiry in this essay is the structuring of educational knowledge. Central to this examination are the sociology of knowledge and postmodern political theories, asking about the categories, distinctions, and differentiations of schooling that govern problem-solving efforts to improve education. My concern is with a method of inquiry that examines the historical circumstances through which "reason" and "reasonable people" of schooling are constructed. I proceed in this manner to frame the study of policy research and evaluation in a problematic that does not take for granted its knowledge conditions. The focus on the systems of knowledge also enables a consideration of the patterns of social inclusion and exclusion produced in school practice. I argue that one of the major difficulties of contemporary policy studies is its nonreflexivity toward the ways in which its systems of knowledge change in historical circumstances. This lack of reflexivity about "reason" denies change and obscures the issues of power embedded in school practices.
Assessments and Accountability
Authors: LINN ROBERT L.
Published: June 2007

Use of tests and assessments as key elements in five waves of educational reform during the past 50 years are reviewed. These waves include the role of tests in tracking and selection emphasized in the 1950s, the use of tests for program accountability in the 1960s, minimum competency testing programs of the 1970s, school and district accountability of the 1980s, and the standards-based accountability systems of the 1990s. Questions regarding the impact, validity, and generalizability of reported gains, and the credibility of results in high-stakes accountability uses are discussed. Emphasis is given to three issues regarding currently popular accountability systems. These are (a) the role of content standards, (b) the dual goals of high performance standards and common standards for all students, and (c) the validity of accountability models. Some suggestions for dealing with the most severe limitations of accountability are provided.
But Sometimes You're Not Part of the Story: Oral Histories and Ways of Remembering and Telling
Authors: Errante Antoinette
Published: June 2007

Social science inquiry has increasingly focused on the intricate relations between biography and history. In educational inquiry, this focus has led to an explosion of interest in the personal narrative as an articulation of individual and collective experience with the social, political, and cultural worlds of education. This interest in the personal narrative has in turn given prominence to work in oral history as a research strategy. The growing intuitive appeal of personal narratives, however, has led to a certain methodological complacency. What does it mean to collect and analyze personal narratives? How do narrators voice their narratives and narrate their voice? What role do interviewers play in the unfolding of these narratives ? What do these questions mean in the context of oral histories, which are narratives where the interviewer-narrator dynamic is also mediated by the nature of memory? This paper examines what the author learned about oral histories from the narratives the author could–and could not–collect.
Beyond Fourth-Grade Science: Why Do U.S. and Japanese Students Diverge?
Authors: Linn Marcia C. , Lewis Catherine , Tsuchida Ineko , Songer Nancy Butler
Published: June 2007

Between 4th and 8th grade, American students fall behind on international norms, whereas Japanese students continue to perform well. This paper brings diverse perspectives to bear on japanese late-elementary science education, in order to elucidate its instructional features and the broader educational system features that enable deep, coherent instruction.
The Nature of Interpretation in Qualitative Research
Authors: PESHKIN ALAN
Published: June 2007

This paper addresses the process of interpretation from a study of the academic achievements of Native American youth. It illuminates the relationship of researcher subjectivity to the many decision points that each process of iizterpretation embodies. It also contains a counterpoint of problematics that reveals where alternative interpretive decisions could have been made.
Toward a New Classification of Nonexperimental Quantitative Research
Authors: Johnson Burke
Published: June 2007

A substantial proportion of quantitative educational research is non-experimental because many important variables of interest are not manipulable. Because nonexperimental research is an important methodology employed by many researchers, it is important to use a classification system of nonexperimental methods that is highly descriptive of what we do and also allows us to communicate effectively in an interdisciplinary research environment. In this paper, the present treatment of nonexperimental methods is reviewed and critiqued, and a new, two-dimensional classification of nonexperimental quantitative research is proposed. The first dimension is based on the primary “research objective” (i.e., description, prediction, and explanation), and the second dimension is called the “time” dimension (i.e., cross-sectional, longitudinal, and retrospective).