bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Geographies of Difference: The Production of the East Side,West Side, and Central City School
Authors: Buendía Edward , Ares Nancy , Juarez Brenda G. , Peercy Megan
Published: June 2007

Citywide constructs such as “West Side” or “South Side” are spatial codes that result from more than the informal conversations of city residents. This article shows how elementary school educators in one U.S. metropolitan school district participated in the production of a local knowledge of the East Side and West Side space and individual. It demonstrates how educators used these codes to name race and class, as well as to obscure the codes’ meanings. The article maps the convergence of institutional technologies and local educational knowledge whereby this knowledge resisted change and buttressed the citywide East Side–West Side relations and knowledge. The disjunctures in this knowledge base are also identified, as educators attempted to produce a knowledge of a third space that they termed “Central City.”
Different Goals, Similar Practices: Making Sense of the Mathematics and Literacy Instruction in aStandards -Based Mathematics Classroom
Authors: Draper Roni Jo , Siebert Daniel
Published: June 2007

This article describes both the process and products of a cooperative inquiry project between two educational researchers—one from literacy education and one from mathematics education. The collaboration took place in an undergraduate, inquiry-based mathematics classroom in which the researchers sought to develop a shared vision of learning and literacy. The researchers discovered that they each used a different learning model to make sense of mathematics instruction, and that both of these models obscured important aspects of learning in a Standards-based mathematics classroom. An alternative model of learning and literacy in mathematics that takes into consideration both models is presented, as well as the process through which the researchers negotiated this shared perspective.
Critical Care: A Color(full) Analysis of Care Narratives in the Schooling Experiences of Puerto Rican Girls
Authors: Rolón-Dow Rosalie
Published: June 2007

In this article, the author explores the intersection between race/ethnicity and caring in the educational experiences of middle school Puerto Rican girls. Critical race theory and Latino/Latina critical theory are used as data analysis frameworks because of their emphasis on the roles of race/ethnicity and racism in shaping the circumstances of individuals and institutions. The author calls for a color(full) critical care praxis that is grounded in a historical understanding of students’ lives; translates race-conscious ideological and political orientations into pedagogical approaches that benefit Latino/a students; uses caring counternarratives to provide more intimate, caring connections between teachers and the Latino communities where they work; and pays attention to caring at both the individual and institutional levels.
The Importance of Presence: Immigrant Parents’ School Engagement Experiences
Authors: Carreón Gustavo Pérez , Drake Corey , Barton Angela Calabrese
Published: June 2007

The authors have been engaged in research focused on how parents in high-poverty urban communities negotiate understandings and build sustaining relationships with others in school settings. In this article, the authors draw upon ethnographic methodology to report on the stories of three working-class immigrant parents and their efforts to participate in their children’s formal education. Their stories are used as exemplars to illuminate the challenges immigrant parents face as they work to participate in their children’s schooling. In contrasting the three stories, the authors argue that parental engagement needs to be understood through parents’ presence in schooling, regardless of whether that presence is in a formal school space or in more personal, informal spaces, including those created by parents themselves.
Accelerating Mathematics Achievement Using Heterogeneous Grouping
Authors: Burris Carol Corbett , Heubert Jay P. , Levin Henry M.
Published: June 2007

This longitudinal study examined the effects of providing an accelerated mathematics curriculum in heterogeneously grouped middle school classes in a diverse suburban school district. A quasi-experimental cohort design was used to evaluate subsequent completion of advanced high school math courses as well as academic achievement. Results showed that probability of completion of advanced math courses increased significantly and markedly in all groups, including minority students, students of low socioeconomic status, and students at all initial achievement levels. Also, the performance of initial high achievers did not differ statistically in heterogeneous classes relative to previous homogeneous grouping, and rates of participation in advanced placement calculus and test scores improved.
Who May Be Literate? Disability and Resistance to the Cultural Denial of Competence
Authors: Kliewer Christopher , Biklen Douglas , Kasa-Hendrickson Christi
Published: June 2007

Through a critical interpretivist frame, the authors use ethnography and archives to examine themes associated with society’s ongoing denial of literate citizenship for people with perceived intellectual disabilities. They link this denial to the experiences of other devalued and marginalized groups to challenge the common perception that citizenship in the literate community is an organic impossibility for people defined as intellectually disabled. The authors present four themes of literate disconnection and, in the conclusion, ponder the moral shift necessary to craft a science of literacy for all.
Parent Involvement, Cultural Capital, and the Achievement Gap Among Elementary School Children
Authors: Lee Jung-Sook , Bowen Natasha K.
Published: June 2007

This study examined the level and impact of five types of parent involvement on elementary school children’s academic achievement by race/ethnicity, poverty, and parent educational attainment. The sample comprised 415 third through fifth graders who completed the Elementary School Success Profile. Hypotheses from Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital were assessed with t tests, chi-square statistics, and hierarchical regressions. Consistent with the theory, parents with different demographic characteristics exhibited different types of involvement, and the types of involvement exhibited by parents from dominant groups had the strongest association with achievement. However, contrary to theoretical expectations, members of dominant and nondominant groups benefited similarly from certain types of involvement and differently from others. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
The Repudiation of Single-Sex Education: Boys’ Schools in the Soviet Union, 1943–1954
Authors: Ewing E. Thomas
Published: June 2007

This article examines the 11-year Soviet experiment with boys’ schools as a way to cast new light on scholarly research and public debates about single-sex education. Drawing on archival and published materials by educators who described school conditions, identified problems, suggested reforms, and evaluated remedies, the author argues that separating boys from girls exacerbated the problems of coeducational schools while generating additional difficulties and dilemmas specific to sex-segregated schools. With the restoration of coeducation in 1954, single-sex schooling, and boys’ schools in particular, had been decisively repudiated. For educators, policymakers, and parents engaged in the current debate on sex-separated schooling, this case study involving more than a million male pupils can serve as a cautionary tale about the possible difficulties and potential consequences of a large-scale gender segregation policy.
School Sector and Academic Achievement: A Multilevel Analysis of NAEP Mathematics Data
Authors: Lubienski Sarah Theule , Lubienski Christopher
Published: June 2007

Using data from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Progress, this analysis compared mathematics achievement in public, charter, and major types of private schools to examine whether disparities in achievement are due to differences in school performance or student demographics in various sectors. Hierarchical linear models were used to control for student- and school-level demographic characteristics. The analysis indicated that the relatively high raw scores of private schools were more than accounted for by student demographics. In fact, after demographic differences had been controlled, the private school advantage disappeared and even reversed in most cases. These findings raise questions about the basis of reform models that seek remedies in parental choice, autonomy, competition, and other attributes associated with the private school sector.
The Impact of Science Knowledge, Reading Skill, and Reading Strategy Knowledge on More Traditional “High-Stakes” Measures of High School Students’ Science Achievement
Authors: O’Reilly Tenaha , McNamara Danielle S.
Published: June 2007

This study examined how well cognitive abilities predict high school students’ science achievement as measured by traditional content-based tests. Students (n = 1,651) from four high schools in three states were assessed on their science knowledge, reading skill, and reading strategy knowledge. The dependent variable, content-based science achievement, was measured in terms of students’ comprehension of a science passage, science course grade, and state science test scores. The cognitive variables reliably predicted all three measures of science achievement, and there were also significant gender differences. Reading skill helped the learner compensate for deficits in science knowledge for most measures of achievement and had a larger effect on achievement scores for higher knowledge than lower knowledge students. Implications for pedagogy and science assessment are discussed.
Literacy in English Gypsy Communities: Cultural Capital Manifested as Negative Assets
Authors: Levinson Martin P.
Published: June 2007

The attribution of low literacy levels among Gypsy children to difficulties of access to schools neglects underlying sociocultural explanations. There has been little analysis in reports/studies of Gypsy attitudes toward literacy, nor of outcomes of acquisition. Informed by new literacy theory and by the discourse of previous ethnographic studies, and by acculturation theories, this article draws on findings from an ethnographic study of English Gypsies (1996–2000), and data from a follow-up study, involving original and additional participants (2005–2006). The article explores attitudes across age groups, highlighting social reasons for resistance to literacy, and argues that policy makers should consider effects on group membership and ways in which formal literacy can constitute a mechanism for disempowerment.
“Expanding the Moral Community” or “Blaming the Victim”? The Politics of State Education Accountability Policy
Authors: McDermott Kathryn A.
Published: June 2007

Advocates of educational accountability policies say that the policies are intended to use the state’s authority to ensure equal educational opportunity. Opponents make essentially the opposite claim: that expanded state power is intended to disempower local communities and to single them out for blame, in response to larger political and economic imperatives. This article analyzes the enactment of educational accountability policies in four U.S. states, drawing upon legislative documents, hearing and debate transcripts where available, and press coverage. The analysis concludes that policy makers did intend to make the public education system more equitable. However, the results of the policies as implemented show a significant gap between aspirations and results. This gap increases the accountability-policy critics’ credibility.
Dissipative Structures: New Metaphors for Becoming in Education
Authors: SAWADA DAIYO , CALEY MICHAEL T.
Published: June 2007

In today’s schools, turbulence is identified with disorder and disarray. A turbulent classroom would be seen as noisy, disorganized, and undesirable. Only recently in science has it been discovered that turbulence is also a source of order. New theories, based on the construct of “order through fluctuations,” have arisen and lead to new understanding of the emergence of creativity from turbulence both in the universe and in education. We capture this creativity in new metaphors for becoming in education.
Computer Literacy and Book Literacy: Parallels and Contrasts
Authors: CALFEE ROBERT
Published: June 2007

The computer, the most significant technological advance for handling information, is rapidly becoming an important tool for the literate person. The book, an equally significant device for thinking and communication, has long been the focus of formal instruction. The paper explores the role of the school in promoting book literacy and inquires into the lessons to be learned from the long history of reading instruction.
Two Dogmas of Educational Research
Authors: HOWE KENNETH R.
Published: June 2007

Educational researchers rightly puzzle about the relative merits of qualitative versus quantitative research methods and about the role that value judgments should play in the conduct of research. Unfortunately, discussions of these issues are often unproductive because they assume (albeit unwittingly) a positivistic epistemological framework. The aim of this paper is to show how rigid epistemological distinctions between quantitative and qualitative methods and between factual and value judgments rest on positivistic dogmas, and how post-positivistic thought eliminates the intractable problem engendered by positivistic epistemology of a forced choice between value-laden/qualitative and value-free/quantitative research methods. The paper also briefly suggests general criteria for evaluating educational research once the positivist-inspired quantitative-qualitative and fact-value dogmas are set aside.
Research on Sex Equity in Education: An Agenda for the Divisions, SIGs, and AERA
Authors: TITTLE CAROL KEHR
Published: June 2007

AERA has an established commitment to equity as evidenced by Association policy and standing committees. An agenda for research on sex equity in education is proposed here and the division structure is used to cluster research areas. Research-related activities at the Association level are also proposed, with the goal of furthering the development of sex equity as an important dimension for all research in education. Both the activities and research agenda are intended to advance a dialogue that will assist in defining the research area of sex equity. Epistemological equality, concepts and definitions of sex equity, and methodology are identified as fundamental concerns to be addressed in research on sex equity.
Staff Development and the Process of Teacher Change
Authors: GUSKEY THOMAS R.
Published: June 2007

This article presents a model that describes the process of teacher change, particularly through staff development programs. The model suggests a temporal sequence of events that is hypothesized to typify the process front staff development to enduring change in teachers’ perceptions and attitudes. Research evidence supporting the model is summarized and the conditions under which change might be facilitated are described. Several principles for enhancing the change process to improve staff development efforts are also outlined.
Families and Schools
Authors: Coleman James S.
Published: June 2007

Families at all economic levels are becoming increasingly ill-equipped to provide the setting that schools are designed to complement and augment in preparing the next generation. This paper describes the sources of this deficiency and indicates just what elements have come to be missing from home and community. These are conceptualized generally as social capital which is now in short supply for children and youth. A general approach to increasing the social capital available to the next generation is indicated
Meaning in Method: The Rhetoric of Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Authors: FIRESTONE WILLIAM A.
Published: June 2007

The current debate about quantitative and qualitative methods focuses on whether there is a necessary connection between method-type and research paradigm that makes the different approaches incompatible. This paper argues that part of the connection is rhetorical. Quantitative methods express the assumptions of a positvisit paradigm which holds that behavior can be explained through objective facts. Design and instrumentation persuade by showing how bias and error are eliminated. Qualitative methods express the assumptions of a phenomenological paradigm that there are multiple realities that are socially defined. Rich description persuades by showing that the researcher was immersed in the setting and giving the reader enough detail to “make sense” of the situation. While rhetorically different, the results of the two methodologies can be complementary. Examples are drawn from two studies using different methodologies to study the same problem.
Instructional Alignment: Searching for a Magic Bullet
Authors: COHEN S. ALAN
Published: June 2007

When critical features of instructional stimuli match those of assessment, effect sizes routinely reach 1.2 to 3 sigma. An instructional psychologist recasts this classic problem of stimulus control as instructional alignment. This paper describes results of alignment studies that have dramatic Implications for researchers and practitioners. One implication embraces the obvious validity of teaching to the test, but poses what is worth testing as instructional design’s most awesome challenge.
The Self-Fulfillment of the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Authors: Wineburg Samuel S.
Published: June 2007

Few ideas have influenced educational research and practice as much as the notion of the self-fulfilling prophecy. Yet despite the impact of the "educational self-fulfilling prophecy," the empirical status of the construct, as applied to the effect of teacher expectations on student IQ, remains equivocal. Lack of evidence was apparent even in the now-classic "Pygmalion Study" (Rosenthal & Jacobson, 1968), which claimed to show that teachers" expectations affect student intelligence. Despite criticism of the study and failure to replicate the effect in different settings, Pygmalion became one of the most cited studies in education. What made the educational self-fulfilling prophecy so durable when many other ideas in education have a fleeting half-life? How was research that was much contested in scholarly circles used by the courts and portrayed in the media? This paper examines these questions.
Clarifying Qualitative Research: A Focus on Traditions
Authors: Jacob Evelyn
Published: June 2007

There is considerable confusion in the educational literature about the nature of qualitative research. In this article I argue that a major source of the confusion arises from discussing qualitative research as if it is one approach. The discussion in the educational literature concerning qualitative research can be clarified by recognizing that qualitative research comes in many different varieties, which can be more clearly identified and understood by using the notion of research traditions. To apply this concept to the discussion of qualitative research, I describe briefly and compare six traditions from the disciplines of psychology, anthropology, and sociology. These traditions are human ethology, ecological psychology, holistic ethnography, cognitive anthropology, ethnography of communication, and symbolic interactionism. I conclude that we may increase our understanding of qualitative research by focusing our discussions at the level of traditions.
Asking the Right Questions About Teacher Preparation: Contributions of Research on Teacher Thinking
Authors: Clark Christopher M.
Published: June 2007

Research on teacher thinking has established a place for itself within the international educational research enterprise. What is not so clear is how studies of teacher thinking may be of use in improving the quality of teacher preparation programs. This paper promotes a consultant role for researchers on teacher thinking in relation to teacher educators. The current state of knowledge about teacher thinking is summarized under three headings: Preconceptions and Implicit Theories, Planning and Reflection, and Dilemmas and Uncertainty. After each summary, a list of questions is offered as food for thought in the pursuit of understanding and improving learning to teach. The author claims that research on teacher thinking can improve teacher preparation by encouraging thoughtful teacher educators to ask better questions of themselves and of their arts.
Implications for Teacher Supply and Methodological Lessons for Research
Authors: Murnane Richard J. , Singer Judith D. , Willett John B.
Published: June 2007

Attempts to determine whether enough qualified teachers will be available to staff the nation's schools in the coming years have been hampered by methodological difficulties that are inherent in the study of teacher career patterns. In this article, we have applied an analytic technique rarely used in educational research, proportional hazards modeling, to resolve these problems and to investigate the relationship between teachers' background characteristics and their career durations. We find that teacher demographic characteristics and subject specialty are important predictors of length of stay in teaching. Our results call into question several assumptions about teacher career persistence implicit in the national teacher supply and demand model. We also argue that proportional hazards modeling has wide applicability to many educational research questions.
Work or Learning Implications of Classroom Metaphors
Authors: Marshall Hermine H.
Published: June 2007

The workplace metaphor has often been used to drive research as well as teaching models. Conceptualizing the classroom as a work setting, however, neglects the unique qualities of the classroom that create a “learning setting.” After some of the benefits and limitations of using the workplace metaphor in classroom research are noted, some characteristics that differentiate learning settings from work and recreational settings are described. Suggestions for the development of a model of the classroom as a learning setting based on cognitive approaches to learning and on classroom research are outlined. Implications of this model are presented.
The Carroll Model
Authors: Carroll John B.
Published: June 2007

The Model of School Learning, first published 25 years ago, has taken its place as a useful guide in research on teaching and learning in schools. The model accounts for variations in school learning with five classes of variables, three, of which can be expressed in terms of time, the other two in terms of achievement. Most aspects of the model have been confirmed, although details remain to be filled out by further research. Ways that the model might be used to address current problems in education are considered. The model's emphasis on aptitude as a determinant of time needed for learning suggests that increased efforts be placed on predicting student potentialities and designing instruction appropriate to those potentialities, if ideals of equal opportunity to learn are to be achieved within a diversity of educational objectives.
Critical Thinking and Subject Specificity: Clarification and Needed Research
Authors: Ennis Robert H.
Published: June 2007

The claim that critical thinking is subject specific appears, to be of practical importance and theoretical interest. Its meaning is unclear, however, and discussions of its are often confusing and at cross purposes. In an attempt to clarify the topic, Ennis offers a number of distinctions, including a distinction among three versions of subject specificity: domain, epistemological, and conceptual subject specificity. He holds that the first two versions contain valuable insights, but that all three suffer from excessive vagueness of their basic concept (domain, field, and subject, respectively). If the proposed clarification and critique are appropriate, then a number of avenues of research—at both practical and theoretical levels—need to be pursued, some of which are outlined in this essay
Unpredictability and Indeterminism in Human Behavior: Arguments and Implications for Educational Research
Authors: Cziko Gary A
Published: June 2007

This essay presents arguments for the view that complex human behavior of the type that interests educational researchers is by its nature unpredictable if not indeterminate, a view that raises serious questions about the validity of a quantitative, experimental, positivist approach to educational research. The arguments are based on (a) individual differences, (b) chaos, (c) the evolutionary nature of learning and development, (d) the role of consciousness and free will in human behavior, and (e) the implications of quantum mechanics. Consequently it is argued that educational research that attempts to predict and control educational outcomes cannot be successful and that educational research should focus on providing descriptions and interpretations of educational phenomena to provide findings that can be used to improve our understanding of learning, development, and education and to facilitate their evolution.
Validity and Teacher Inference
Authors: House Ernest R. , Mathison Sandra , McTaggart Robin
Published: June 2007

The authors examine inferences made by a beginning teacher and illustrate that traditional notions of validity as presented by Cronbach and Cook and Campbell are inadequate for judging their validity. These traditional notions of validity depend on a regularity theory of causation, although Cronbach's and Cook and Campbell's particular conceptions are quite different. The relationships between causation and validity are discussed. A different theory of causation, an intentional theory of causation, is explicated. Such a view runs counter to the principles of the regularity theory but makes intuitive sense and seems particularly sensible in understanding teachers' causal inferences. The authors advocate an expanded, pluralistic conception of validity that allows that inferences made in a variety of ways can be valid.
Research on Teaching and Teacher Research: The Issues That Divide
Authors: Cochran-Smith Marilyn , Lytle Susan L.
Published: June 2007

Neither interpretive nor process-product classroom research has foregrounded the teacher's role in the generation of knowledge about teaching. What is missing from the knowledge base for teaching, therefore, are the voices of the teachers themselves, the questions teachers ask, the ways teachers use writing and intentional talk in their work lives, and the interpretive frames teachers use to understand and improve their own classroom practices. Limiting the official knowledge base for teaching to what academics have chosen to study and write about has contributed to a number of problems, including discontinuity between what is taught in universities and what is taught in classrooms, teachers' ambivalence about the claims of academic research, and a general lack of information about classroom life from a truly emic perspective. This article proposes that teacher research has the potential to provide this perspective; however, several critical issues divide teacher research from research on teaching and make it difficult for the university-based community to acknowledge its potential. The article also proposes that in order to encourage teacher research, the educational community will need to address incentives for teachers, the creation and maintenance of supportive networks, the reform of organizational patterns in schools, and the hierarchical power relationships that characterize much of schooling.
Capturing Craft Knowledge in Teaching
Authors: Leinhardt Gaea
Published: June 2007

This exploration raises some problems and poses some solutions in identifying the craft knowledge of teaching. Craft knowledge, or wisdom of practice, is one important component in the design and validation of new national teacher assessments. The prototype assessment exercises for national board certification are one site in which such craft knowledge has been used. From that experience and others, some guides for inspecting exercises are suggested.
Opportunities for Research on the Organizational Impact of School Computers
Authors: Newman Denis
Published: June 2007

As computers are acquired in greater numbers in schools, their impact on the social organization of instruction increasingly becomes an issue for research. Developments in the cognitive science of instruction, drawing on the sociohistorical theory, provide researchers with an appropriate theoretical approach to cultural tools and cognitive change, while developments in the technology of computer-supported cooperative work provide researchers with models for organizational impact outside of education. The concept of a formative experiment in which schools are supported in the appropriation of new technology is illustrated by a project that implements local area network technology in an elementary school. The concept of appropriation derived from sociohistorical theory highlights how schools can make use of technology for goals not anticipated by the researcher.
Standards for Qualitative (and Quantitative) Research: A Prolegomenon
Authors: Howe Kenneth , Eisenhart Margaret
Published: June 2007

The proliferation of qualitative methods in educational research has led to considerable controversy about standards for the design and conduct of research. This controversy has been playing itself out over the last several decades largely in terms of the quantitative-qualitative debate. In this paper we argue that framing the issue of standards in terms of quantitative-qualitative debate is misguided. We argue instead that the problem of standards—for qualitative and quantitative research—is best framed in terms of the “logics in use” associated with various research methodologies. In particular, rather than being judged in terms of qualitative versus quantitative paradigms, logics in use, which are often drawn from other academic disciplines and adapted for the purposes of educational research, are judged in terms of their success in investigating educational problems deemed important. Finally, we proffer five general standards that can apply to educational research of all kinds.
Critical Thinking and Subject Specificity: A Reply to Ennis
Authors: McPeck John E.
Published: June 2007

Robert Ennis' recentEducational Researcher article (1989) helps to clarify the troublesome notion of subject specificity in the growing literature on critical thinking. It brings a welcome breath of fresh air to a set of questions that has vexed research efforts and educational programs that attempt to promote critical thinking. In calling for clarification on this matter, Ennis has also raised the level of discussion about the meaning of the terms subjects, domains, and even psychological transfer. No longer can we simply gloss over questions about the precise scope and limits of the putative skills that various critical thinking programs are alleged to promote. The recent paper in this journal by Perkins and Salomon (1989) also provides a useful historical overview of just how vexing this problem has been over the past 30 years. This article both replies to Ennis and continues the discussion.
Significant and Worthwhile Change in Teaching Practice
Authors: Richardson Virginia
Published: June 2007

This paper addresses two questions: What is involved in bringing about significant and worthwhile change in teaching practices? How can or should research aid in this process? In order to do so, two related literatures will be explored—teacher change and learning to teach. These literatures will be used to develop a third perspective, which will be grounded in examples from a teacher change research project which is funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), U.S. Department of Education. This perspective suggests that empirical premises derived from research ( Fenstermacher, 1986 ) be considered as warranted practice, which, in combination with teachers's practical knowledge, become the content of reflective teacher change. It also suggests that practice should be viewed as activity embedded in theory. The paper concludes with suggestions for ways of approaching the introduction of research into teachers' ways of thinking.
Art Education: Issues in Curriculum and Research
Authors: Gehlbach Roger D.
Published: June 2007

The fine arts have never gained a major place in either public school curricula or educational research, even though specialists in art education have been active for many years and the fine arts are generally recognized as important aspects of past and present culture. A major obstacle to progress in art education has been the inability, or perhaps the unwillingness, of artists, art critics, and art educators to define art in a manner that makes systematic curriculum development and research possible. Criteria for such a definition are suggested, and a definition is proposed as the first step toward over-coming the observed problem. Positive implications for curriculum development and instructional research are outlined for further debate and discussion.
Whose Agenda Is This Anyway? A Response to McKenna, Robinson, and Miller
Authors: Edelsky Carole
Published: June 2007

One of McKenna, Robinson, and Miller’s major problems in proposing a research agenda for whole language is that they do not understand what whole language is. It is not an alternate methodology for language arts instruction. It is an educational paradigm complete with theoretical, philosophical, and political assumptions. As such, it has its own congruent research agenda. What prevents McKenna et al. from understanding whole language and from seeing the legitimacy of whole language-generated research is paradigm blindness. What encourages them to pretend to a role of neutral statesmen are particulars of their own paradigm (which they are also blind to) and the dominant position of that paradigm. What makes their proposal so outrageous is their presumption to speak for whole language educators and their attempt to impose their whole language-violating agenda on them while expecting those educators to cooperate in the violation.
Professional Competence Evaluation
Authors: MCGAGHIE WILLIAM C.
Published: June 2007

Professionals are individuals who use technical or specialized knowledge and skill in service of the public welfare. The importance of evaluating the competence of professionals is transparent–to receive assurance that the services delivered by professional persons are effective and safe. Trustworthy evaluation of professional competence requires attention to the social conditions where such individuals work and to evaluation technology. This article addresses each of these issues and provides illustrations of professional competence evaluation from several fields.
Naturalistic Misunderstanding of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
Authors: McKERROW K. KELLY , MCKERROW JOAN E.
Published: June 2007

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle has been misinterpreted by naturalistic researchers. They have utilized the principle as an argument against the efficacy of the rationalistic paradigm. They falsely assume that this argument supports the naturalistic research paradigm. This article attempts to expose the basic misunderstanding of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and its misuse in the current literature on naturalistic research.
Partners in Cognition: Extending Human Intelligence with Intelligent Technologies
Authors: SALOMON GAVRIEL , PERKINS DAVID N. , GLOBERSON TAMAR
Published: June 2007

We examine how technologies, particularly computer technologies that aid in cognitive processing, can support intellectual performance and enrich individuals’ minds. We distinguish between effects with and of a technology: Effects with occur when people work in partnership with machines, whereas effects of occur when such partnerships have subsequent cognitive spin-off effects for learners working away from machines. It is argued that effects both with and of depend on the individual's mindful engagement in the partnership. Such mind-machine collaborations also invite reexamination of prevailing conceptions of intelligence and ability: Are they properties of the individual or of the joint system? We respond to these dilemmas by offering two views, one emphasizing mainly the upgraded performance in a person-machine system of partnership, the other emphasizing more the educationally valued cognitive residue that can result. The use of computer tools to extend the reach of minds is briefly discussed within wider normative, theoretical, and practical contexts.
Put to the Test: The Effects of External Testing on Teachers
Authors: Smith Mary Lee
Published: June 2007

Evidence from an extensive qualitative study of the role of external testing in elementary schools led to propositions about the effects of such tests on teachers. Data from interviews revealed that teachers experience negative emotions as a result of the publication of test scores and determine to do what is necessary to avoid low scores. Teachers believe that scores are used against them, despite the perceived invalidity of the tests themselves. From classroom observations it was concluded that testing programs substantially reduce the time available for instruction, narrow curricular offerings and modes of instruction, and potentially reduce the capacities of teachers to teach content and to use methods and materials that are incompatible with standardized testing formats.
Realism in Research
Authors: House Ernest R.
Published: June 2007

Disputes in educational research over the past few decades have resulted in part from an inadequate conception of the nature of science itself. Developments in the philosophy of science have led to a new understanding–scientific realism–that has promise of resolving many longstanding dilemmas. At the core of the "standard view" of science is the incorrect Humean notion of causation, which has had devastating effects on research in the social sciences. An adequate notion of causation may provide a framework for research that is at once scientific, that incorporates the perceptions and intentions of participants, and that advances critical values such as social justice.
Transcending the Qualitative-Quantitative Debate: The Analytic and Systemic Approaches to Educational Research
Authors: Salomon Gavriel
Published: June 2007

There is a distinction to be made that transcends the one between the quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. It is a distinction between that kind of research that suits best the study of causal relations among selected variables and the study of complex learning environments undergoing change. Two studies illustrating the differences lead to the formulation of two approaches–the analytic and the systemic–which differ from each other in terms of the epistemological assumptions that underlie them. These differences are not accounted for by other contrasts such as "'basic-applied" or "quantitative-qualitative." The analytic approach mainly assumes that discrete elements of complex educational phenomena can be isolated for study, leaving all else unchanged. The systemic approach mainly assumes that elements are interdependent, inseparable, and even define each other in a transactional manner so that a change in one changes everything else and thus requires the study of patterns, not of single variables. It is, however, further argued that the validity of each approach is limited by the combination of assumptions made, phenomena chosen for study, questions asked, and research methodologies employed. Thus, the two approaches, by epistemological necessity, have to be employed complementarily.
Cultural Support for Schooling: Contrasts Between Japan and the United States
Authors: Hess Robert D. , Azuma Hiroshi
Published: June 2007

Conditions that confront students in formal schooling–instruction in groups, sharing teacher’s attention, working independently, dealing with arbitrary rules regulating behavior–are not conducive to learning. Teachers deal with these circumstances by encouraging facilitative dispositions in students or by making learning events more appealing. Cultures differ in the emphasis they place on these two strategies. Japanese tend to stress developing adaptive dispositions; Americans try to make the learning context more attractive. National differences in educational achievement may be more completely understood by analysis of cultural differences in student dispositions. The interaction of student characteristics and teacher strategies creates very different classroom climates in the two countries.
The Controversy About Quantification in Social Research: An Extension of Gage’s “‘Historical’ Sketch”
Authors: Rizo Felipe M.
Published: June 2007

In his address at the 1989 AERA Annual Meeting, N. L. Gage presented his view about the future of educational research in the context of the “paradigm wars.” In this article, after a short review of quantitativist versus qualitativist controversies, from the 17th century until the present, I risk a prediction about the issue of the debate for the year 2009: Confrontation will continue. But that does not mean that there is not any advance or that history is cyclical: Controversy is the way to progress. By learning from old discussions, we will be able not to suppress but to surpass them.
Educational Leadership and the Crisis of Democratic Government
Authors: Giroux Henry A.
Published: June 2007

This article is organized around three major assumptions. First, it argues that the current crisis of American schooling is symptomatic of a broader crisis in the meaning and practice of American democracy. Second, it contends that the dominant approaches to educational reform, particularly America 2000, appear to be at odds with educating students to be informed, critical citizens capable of actively participating in shaping and governing a democratic society. Third, it calls for educators to refashion educational leadership through a language of critique and possibility that expands and deepens the possibility for cultural and political democracy. In short, the article suggests that educational reformers need to expand the purpose and promise of schooling beyond the narrow interests of the marketplace, view multicultural education as central to living in a democratic society, refuse to equate nationalism with monoculturalism, and substitute the language of community, solidarity, and public responsibility for the current emphasis on choice and individual competitiveness.
The Great Child-Care Experiment
Authors: Holloway Susan D. , Fuller Bruce , professor associate
Published: June 2007

Child-care settings provide a national laboratory for testing questions related to parental choice in K-12 schooling. Operating in open-market conditions with little oversight by the government, the child-care field embodies many of the organizational characteristics advocated under certain school choice models. In fact, parents’ general satisfaction with child care suggests that they are unlikely to act as major catalysts of K-12 reform. Their definitions of excellence in child care are somewhat at odds with professional bench-marks, and their procedures for investigating child-care organizations are often cursory. The national child-care experiment also illustrates the tensions between crafting educational remedies at the local level and tightening the technology of teaching through bureaucratic oversight.
The Passions of Pluralism Multiculturalism and the Expanding Community
Authors: GREENE MAXINE
Published: June 2007

Changing demographies and the new immigrations are making the phenomenon of pluralism inescapable in this country. At once, what is recognized as an erosion of community requires us to find ways of reconciling a newly acknowledged diversity with a Deweyan notion of a "Great Community." Using imaginative works as well as philosophic and ethnographic books as texts, this article explores the significance of heeding multiple voices silenced over the years, of making them part of the ongoing "conversation" that distinguishes our culture. This entails an incorporation of visions seldom tapped before; it entails a recognition of exclusions and deficiencies long denied, a discovery of ways to fill the voids and in some fashion to repair. Finally, seeking a regard for distinctiveness as well as a reaching toward connectedness, I look for opportunities for concrete engagements, for imaginative efforts to cross the distances and look through diverse others" eyes.
The Canon Debate, Knowledge Construction, and Multicultural Education
Authors: Banks James A.
Published: June 2007

I review the debate over multicultural education in this article, state that all knowledge reflects the values and interests of its creators, and illustrate how the debate between the multiculturalists and the Western traditionalists is rooted in their conflicting conceptions about the nature of knowledge and their divergent political and social interests. I present a typology that describes five types of knowledge and contend that each type should be a part of the school, college, and university curriculum.
Teaching and Testing to Develop Fluid Abilities
Authors: LOHMAN DAVID F.
Published: June 2007

Fluid abilities are important both as aptitudes for success in formal schooling and as outcomes of formal schooling. However, the aptitude function has been overemphasized, and the outcome function ignored altogether, primarily because fluid abilities are often mistakenly thought to be innate. Two methods for developing and assessing these abilities are discussed. In the first method, students are asked to solve increasingly unfamiliar problems in a domain. This usually requires the adaptation of existing problem-solving strategies or the assembly of new strategies to solve increasingly ill-structured problems. In the second method, students are required to organize knowledge in new ways or to view it from different perspectives. In both cases, assessment requires that students’ personal perspectives be elicited. This raises several difficult philosophical and psychometric problems. These problems and the implications for education are discussed.
Beyond Methodolatry: Two Conceptions of Relations Between Theory and Research in Research on Teaching
Authors: Martin Jack , Sugarman Jeff
Published: June 2007

Two views of the relationships between theory and empirical research are described as Aristotelian and Galilean, following Cassirer 1923) and Lewin (1935) . The two conceptions of theory and research differ with respect to the nature of the conceptual models they employ and the roles and expectations they hold for empirical research. These matters are discussed in the context of research on teaching. The Aristotelian versus Galilean distinction is held to be more fundamental to the conduct and interpretation of such research than other, more frequently discussed contrasts such as descriptive/explanatory, qualitative/quantitative, discovery/verification, or positivist/constructivist. The central claim is that all extant programs of research on teaching inappropriately construe research on teaching as primarily an empirical enterprise, leading to an overemphasis on methodology.