Three essential elements--curriculum, sound instruction, and authentic literacy--are the primary, fundamental drivers of schooling and its improvement, says ASCD author Mike Schmoker. And yet they are rarely implemented. If our schools are to enter Marzano's "era of unprecedented effectiveness," then we must change the way we train…

In this paper, I develop a critique of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)-based lifelong learning policy discourse with a particular focus on "key competencies" (KCs) and its equity implications for school curricular policies. First, I review the discussion of KCs in the writings by the OECD-affiliated…

The question of how to assess the value of what professors do should engage all. Within this context, Donald R. Bacon and Kim A. Stewart's (2016) essay, "Why Assessment Will Never Work at Many Business Schools," is a laudable effort with important insights. In this rejoinder, Nesteruk, for the most part, is in substantial agreement with…

The distinguished US philosopher Elizabeth Anderson, who teaches at the University of Michigan, answers questions put to her by John White about educational aspects of her work in moral and political philosophy. She begins by describing her indebtedness to Dewey in his views on developing students' capacities for intelligent enquiry and as…

As Director of the Honors Program at Indiana University Southeast, Angela Salas has been immersed in what Richard Badenhausen describes in his essay, "Costs and Benefits in the Economy of Honors," as the financial issues of which honors faculty and administrators may not, as a group, be sufficiently aware. Yet, despite wrestling on a…

American popular culture currently defines the community college as a job-training center, a site of remedial education, or a vocational institution. Certainly job training is essential in a period of low employment, and community colleges can and should help Americans achieve prosperity, engage in meaningful work, and achieve their productive…

What should we teach in our schools and vocational education and higher education institutions? Is theoretical knowledge still important? This book argues that providing students with access to knowledge should be the raison d'etre of education. Its premise is that access to knowledge is an issue of social justice because society uses it to…

This paper is intended as a broad, conceptual and theoretical treatise on the aims of teaching art in the age of global digital media. To contextualize a set of general recommendations for art education technology pedagogy, I first provide an overview of the meteoric rise of on-line social networks, and consider questions about the nature and…

As part of their requirements, second-year rabbinical students at Hebrew Union College--Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati campus, must teach religious school or Hebrew school for a full year in one of the local congregations. At the same time, they take a course in the practices of Jewish education. The students must create a portfolio…

In recent years, Australian universities, like many in other countries, have been increasingly driven by the values of commercial enterprise. A key consequence has been the growing emphasis on the kinds of vocational education likely to attract large enrollments and be financially profitable. In strengthening such programs (and related research),…

Stephen Brookfield has written and edited 10 books on adult learning, teaching, and critical thinking. He is a recipient of a number of awards, including the World Award for Literature in Adult Education (in 1986, 1989, 1996, and 2005), the Imogene Okes Award for Outstanding Research in Adult Education (in 1986), and the Leadership Award from the…

In our summer 2006 issue, we ran a comprehensive overview of how postmodernism has degraded composition on our campuses. Steve Kogan enlarges that indictment and charges that the movement has deliberately corrupted every area of English instruction--from the acquisition of skills and knowledge to the more fundamental mission of developing in…

As the leader of the nation's only campus dedicated exclusively to early college, the author heads an institution that ensures students graduate sooner than the national average. As an academic who pursued her graduate work at Oxford University--an institution that confers most of its undergraduate degrees in three years--the author has had direct…

In the truly vast body of literature about community colleges, no one seems to be asking the rather basic question: Do we really need these schools? Has whatever purpose they may have served a hundred years go, gone away or been supplanted or something of the sort? Such an assessment would be a major undertaking. This paper is a prolegomenon,…

What is the task of educators at a time when mainstream American culture is increasingly characterized by a declining interest in and misgiving about national politics? How one answers this question will have a grave impact not only on higher education but on the future of democratic public life. There are no simple solutions says author Henry…