The neo-classical "human capital theory" continues to be invoked as part of the rationale for educational expansion in the developing world. While the theory provides a route from educational inputs to economic outputs in terms of increased incomes and standards of living, the route is contingent and relies upon a number of key…

Reading comprehension skill is often assumed by sociology instructors, yet many college students seem to have marginal reading comprehension skills, which may explain why fewer than half of them are actually doing the reading. Sanctions that force students to either read or to pay a price are based on a rational choice model of behavior--a…

This article offers a critique of Harry Brighouse's "autonomy-facilitating education", which aims to enable students to reflect critically on their lives and society without disposing them to do so. Because it is "character-neutral", this kind of education purportedly avoids some of the controversy surrounding autonomy-promotion. At the same time,…

Educational Research is commonly regarded as a rational pursuit aimed at the production of objective knowledge. Researchers are expected to avoid value bias by detaching themselves from the normative conceptions of education that shape practice in schools and classrooms, and by casting themselves in the role of the impartial spectator. It is…

This project reconciles historically distinct paradigms at the interface between individual and social choice theory, as well as between rational and behavioral decision theory. The authors combine a utility-maximizing prescriptive rule for sophisticated approval voting with the ignorance prior heuristic from behavioral decision research and two…

Canadian scholar Elizabeth Brule argues in her 2004 essay, "Going to the Market," that the corporatization of the university has led to the construction of students as rational, economic decision makers. As Brule argues, "The only choices considered rational, however, are those that increase one's employment opportunities within the strict…

We present the first empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's program of public management reform. This reform program is based on rational planning, devolution and delegation, flexibility and incentives, and enhanced choice. Measures of these variables are tested against external and internal indicators of organizational performance.…

The idea that formal grammar teaching leads to improvements in school pupils' writing has been a popular one. However, the robust and extensive evidence base shows that this is not the case. Despite this, policy initiatives have continued to suggest that grammar teaching does improve pupils' writing: the "Grammar for Writing" resource is…

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women who both work and mother into the workforce in recent years. The patriarchal structure of the typical U.S. organization is based on rational-economic models and the "economic man" model of worker. This structure systematically disadvantages women who work and mother. The HRD function within…

A nonparametric multicategorical model for multiple-choice data is proposed as an extension of the binary spline model of J. O. Ramsay and M. Abrahamowicz (1989). Results of two Monte Carlo studies illustrate the model, which approximates probability functions by rational splines. (SLD)

Instances from case studies of comprehensive schools in the United Kingdom show that cultural influences restrict possibilities of "rational" action by educational leaders. This article warns against business theory and concludes that we need to know more about how people in schools make choices. (Author/TE)

Many theories of second-language acquisition (SLA) are oppositional, and culling may be necessary. Principled culling requires a rational approach to theory assessment, and the difficulty of identifying universally valid evaluation criteria makes this problematic. Assessment strategies used in other fields can be useful in SLA, but choice among…

This article describes rational analyses and cognitive models of Web users developed within information foraging theory. This is done by following the rational analysis methodology of (a) characterizing the problems posed by the environment, (b) developing rational analyses of behavioral solutions to those problems, and (c) developing cognitive…

Uses work on children's counting schemes and a radical constructivist orientation to describe the development of computer microworlds for the teaching of rational numbers. Suggests that the design of complex software systems needs a strong theoretical background to provide direction for the design. Suggests that computer environments are the…

Discusses Earl Ginter's challenge to the mental health profession to reexamine the status of counseling theory. Describes the author's journey in selecting rational-emotive therapy as his theory of choice and the role its selection has played. Presents information about discrepancy identification, a process that helps mental health counselors…