Activist who believed in demonstration and example, Ralph W. Tyler harnessed his theorems to social engineering and participated in astonishing number of watershed events: pursuing monumental Eight-Year Study, founding National Academy of Education, creating and directing Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University,…

According to the late Ralph W. Tyler, the purpose of life is learning. The school's role is to help children (and adults) discover scholarly activity. Teaching is a complex process that requires continual learning. The goal is to become self-directed learners. Cooperative problem solving is best pursued independently of outside financial…

Tyler identifies major hangups in the behavioral objectives movement. For example, he states that an educational objective does not need to be specific in order to be clear, attainable, and capable of assessment.'' (Author)

The rapid erosion in opportunities for constructive learning outside of school will soon be faced squarely as educators come to understand more fully the educational consequences of this phenomenon. The average child from 10 to 14 years of age spends more time viewing television than he spends in school. (Author)

A recent visitor to China offers four generalizations about China's national policy for education and six impressions about the concrete operations of the schools and colleges. (Author/IRT)

Because past educational reform movements were stimulated by events not directly related to schools, the movements' leaders have lacked dependable information about schools' actual effectiveness. This article faults past commissions for their omissions and impractical solutions. Real school improvement happens when school staff and parents…

The Commonwealth Teacher Training Study conducted shortly after World War I and the activities of the Commission on Teacher Education from 1938 to 1944 addressed the problems of recruiting and motivating higher quality education majors. The findings of these studies could prove highly relevant to today's concerns in teacher education. (PGD)

Introduces the following article on "A Study of Schooling," which sought to identify the individual dynamics of a number of schools. Discusses the study's methodology and its relationship to earlier studies, and advances three generalizations on school improvement, involving individual understanding of roles, team efforts, and allowing…

With positive leadership, the present period of austerity offers an opportunity for educational advance. Educational administrators need to develop dynamic organizations that are flexible and capable of monitoring their educational efforts. (Author/WD)

This review of cross-national data on educational achievement indicates that the U.S. educational system has clearly been responsive both to the rapid changes in society and to its basic democratic ideology. (Author)