This article summarizes major points about the transformation of educational assessment that emerged from the work of Gordon Commission and it presents recommendations to different stakeholders as to needed changes in policy, practice, and research and development.

Background/Context: Within the context of four locally funded research projects, the researcher was asked to disseminate the findings of her narrative inquiries not to the research community, which had previously been the case, but to the practice and philanthropic communities. This, in turn, created a representational crisis because practitioners…

Background/Context: William H. Kilpatrick is known worldwide as "Mr. Project Method." Despite considerable scholarship by Lawrence A. Cremin, Herbert M. Kliebard, Milton A. Bleeke, John A. Beineke, and others, the origin of Kilpatrick's celebrated paper of 1918 has never been explored in depth and its historical context. Focus of Study: The…

Background: The intellectual context of this essay is the nature of human thought as examined by philosophers and psychologists past and present. Focus of study: The study focuses on the treatment of thinking by John Dewey in his two editions of "How We Think" and by William James in his "Talks to Teachers". Research Design: This is a…

Background/Context: Determining John Dewey's exact influence on civic and social education during the early 20th century has been one of the most vexing issues facing curriculum historians. Generally speaking, interpretations of Dewey's work and influence have been plagued by four recurring methodological limitations: First, historians tend to…

Background/Context: Even though not fully realized, in legislation and theory, the requirements of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act have created pressure to address the historical inequity in educational opportunity, achievement, and outcomes, as well as disparities in achievement between…

Background/Context: The view of philosophy of education as "practical philosophy" initiated by Wilfred Carr has been a focus of recent educational discourses. What "practical" means here is closely associated with the educative aspect of "philosophical practice" itself. This article attempts to explore another educative aspect of philosophical…

Background Context: Despite its significance for learning, listening has received very little attention in the philosophy of education literature. This article draws on the philosophy and educational thought of Aristotle to illuminate characteristics of good listening. The current project is exploratory and preliminary, seeking mainly to suggest…

Background/Context: Although the concept of listening had been neglected by philosophers of education, it has received focused attention since 2003, when Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon addressed it in her presidential address to the Philosophy of Education Society. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Haroutunian-Gordon offered a…

Background/Context: This article is part of a series of studies carried out by the authors in this special issue on the general topic of listening and its specific relevance to teaching. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: We examine the common activity of pretending to listen and argue that thinking about it carefully reveals some…

Background/Context: The educational performance of Latina/o students in the United States is becoming a central concern in education policy and reform. In an attempt to explain variation in the academic achievement of Latina/o students, considerable sociological and economic research has emerged. Even though the contributions of these studies are…

Background/ Context: In recent years, scholars the world over in both the social sciences and humanities have reanimated the ancient idea of cosmopolitanism. They discern in the idea ways in which people today can respond creatively to rapid social, political, cultural, and economic transformations. Scholars in this burgeoning field have examined…

Background/Context: A group of educators have demonstrated success not only with White middle-class and affluent students but also with students from varied racial, socioeconomic, linguistic, ability, and cultural backgrounds. A reoccurring theme from these schools and from the literature on school change is that exemplary leadership helps create…

Background/Context: The central role of hope in teaching has long been acknowledged by authors such as Sonia Nieto and Larry Cuban, but hope has received little focused attention from scholars. While books such as David Halpin's Hope and Education and Stephen Fishman and Lucille McCarthy's John Dewey and the Philosophy and Practice of Hope each…

Background/Context: If education centrally involves self-cultivation, and the teacher's own robust selfhood is necessary for inspiring self-cultivation in students, then teacherly self-cultivation is a necessary condition of education. But teaching is seen as a helping profession, where helping others always seems, in practice if not in principle,…