Suggests that the doctoral dissertation in its present form does not serve as a training exercise nor as a contribution to knowledge. Proposes a range of alternatives to the traditional dissertation in the field of education, with specific attention to replacing the dissertation with a series of papers ready to be submitted to professional…

Comments on S. Pogrow's suggestion that educational programs should be judged by the degree to which schools using them achieve "surprising scores." Emphasizes the importance of the use of control groups in program evaluation. (SLD)

Presents two related theories for a new paradigm in teacher education. One uses the concepts of "episteme" and "phronesis" to introduce a new way of framing relevant knowledge. The other is a more holistic way of describing the relationship between teacher cognition and teacher behavior. (SLD)

Proposes an action program for moral education in the public schools that incorporates lessons learned from the Head Start movement. Recommends a four-component model of sensitivity, judgment, motivation, and character for this program. (SLD)

Reviews the work of Joe L. Kincheloe, who extends postmodern political theory into the realm of cognitive theory when writing about children, intelligence, or workers. For Kincheloe, teaching, researching, and social justice are so intertwined as to be indistinguishable. (SLD)

Traces the development of teacher education research, discussing five segments of recent scholarship and their contributions to teacher education policy and practice: survey research, case studies, conceptual and historical research, studies of learning to teach, and examinations of the nature and impact of teacher education activities, including…

Discusses the impact of school choice on educational outcomes, examining: whether there is any evidence that the various alternatives to traditional public schools are delivering education in a fundamentally different and more efficient form; what the equity consequences and demographic implications are for enhanced school choice; and how enhanced…

Argues that a piece of fictional writing could be counted as a doctoral thesis, focusing on qualities that are critical for a fictional doctoral thesis (particularly the self-conscious method) and on writing techniques that could enable those qualities (e.g., direct explanation, authorial intervention, and character intervention). (SM)

Studied out-of-field teaching in United States high schools using data from the Schools and Staffing Survey of the National Center for Education Statistics. Reveals that out-of-field teaching is widespread and offers an explanation that focuses on the organizational structure of schools and the occupational conditions and characteristics of…

A longitudinal study of 117 teachers from the beginning of their preservice education through their fifth year of teaching found that attitude toward teaching as a career remained constant during teacher preparation but was less positive after five years of teaching. This attitude was related to 6 of 15 academic and personal characteristics…

A multimethod approach identified barriers and facilitators of action research training as a method to help teachers create school improvement. Content analysis of action research plans developed during training of 14 school leadership teams indicates the importance of technical research skills and the provision of time as a resource to those…

A study of 235 sophomore, junior, and senior business majors found that students with higher levels of reading comprehension and vocabulary had higher cumulative grade point averages, and that 16 percent of students could not read at the first-year college level. Basic skills reading tests administered to entering freshmen may not identify all…

A survey of 330 higher education schools of business examined effects of organizational culture type and managerial strategy on schools' organizational effectiveness. Schools with "clan" culture (compared to "market" and "hierarchy" cultures) were more effective on two of seven dimensions of effectiveness. An active managerial strategy was more…

There is a trend toward abandoning traditional parametric approaches to data analysis, with all their restrictive assumptions, in favor of computer-intensive nonparametric inferential statistical procedures, such as the jackknife and the bootstrap that are based on resampling of the sample data. These techniques are compared with the parametric…

A study investigating the influence of textbooks on teaching strategies in 13 schools compared teaching strategies of 14 secondary teachers using University of Chicago School Mathematics Project secondary mathematics textbooks to those of 14 teachers using other textbooks. Results indicate that textbooks convey pedagogical messages and provide…