Graduate Education Course Research Articles

Kidnapping Public Schooling: Perversion and Normalization of the Discursive Bases within the Epicenter of New Right Educational Policies

Public schooling has been kidnapped. The author examines how this happened – since we all know very well who did it. How did public schooling become a hostage of world's neo-rightist political processes? This article attempts to unveil some of those strategies that underpin the very core of the neo-rightist current triumphalistic posture. To understand the way neo-rightist political processes encompassed public schooling at such a frightening pace it is necessary to situate neoliberal policies based on what has been called the third hegemony of historical capitalism. Also it is necessary to be aware of (a) how particular key concepts and practices have been cleverly and gradually twisted and perverted, positively hijacked from the social sphere, and coined within an economic flavoured materiality, and (b) how the new rightist triumphalism is deeply enmeshed within the politics of the common sense and the role that the media plays in building a particular commonsensical framework. The article ends by taking the Portuguese reality as an example, not only denouncing the poor record of some of the graduate and teaching education courses within the universities and colleges, but stating the need to rescue democracy by reinventing it.

Communication and Instruction in an Online Graduate Education Course

Computer‐mediated distance education holds potential for providing professional development opportunities for teachers. This study investigated teaching and learning through written asynchronous and synchronous communications in an online graduate education course. Types of student participation during four weeks of discussions in the course, two weeks involving discussion boards (asynchronous) and two involving chat sessions (synchronous), were analyzed to better understand the instruction and learning taking place through each mode. Surveys of students' perceptions of various aspects of the online course including their learning through discussion boards and chat sessions were gathered. Findings suggest instructional practices for online education that draw on the strengths of each written communication mode while diminishing their weaknesses.

Reading and the Difference it Makes

SUPPOSE THE EASIEST, AND MOST GLIB, therefore most important answer to the questions Why do have to read? or Why do have to read that? or Why do have to read like that? is, quite simply, you don't: you don't have to read anything, there is no instrumental value in reading in the ways in which we teach, or teach, indeed there may be no pleasure no net result, no learning outcome, no increase in income. And then for the question or larger questions of reading, with this--not so much uselessness or disinterestedness--with this admission in mind, would take on three tangents or angles of attack (as we used to say when was in ground school): the relationship between reading class or labour; reading versus writing the biblical idea of eating the book; the Lacanian/Zizekian idea of interpassivity, or the Subject supposed to read. And this subject supposed to read one might begin with, in terms of class, anecdotally, when was visiting my sister a few years ago and, seeing me with the newspaper open, a friend of hers said, Readin' again, eh?, which has become a sort of mantra around my household since. But really this class notion I'd like to reference with a title of mine, my first collection of poetry from ECW Press in 1997, the Be Labour Reading, a title chose because it seemed to encapsulate neatly (perhaps too neatly) the paradox that difficult writing (and the notion of how easy it is, perhaps to difficult texts), which is to say formally innovative or experimental writing, which is difficult to read, to make sense of or to navigate oneself in, was a kind of writing that obtained its cultural capital at the expense of the reader's economic capital: the texts were belaboured because the reader would be labour (and perhaps the other way around), a condition made all the more tragic or ironic or paradoxical as proceeded to spend the next eleven years being paid to read in the precarious job market of sessional academic labour. And this necessitates saying why am against learning outcomes (because of their instrumentality) why am against being against learning outcomes (because of the elitism of university pedagogy). Here John Guillory's Cultural Capital is useful for how it argues that we must consider postsecondary questions of the canon the syllabus in connection with the secondary school system, a connection with all the more resonance to me because part of what do at SFU is teach graduate courses to high-school teachers returning for an MA in English, but also because of the hierarchies of reading involved in the sessional composition college system--which is to say reading as marking. Then, this connects with a different kind of work as reading, the notion of class, which troubles me because of how it seems as if am saying that a text that is difficult to read will be more off-putting to a working-class reader than to a middle-class reader, which is clearly nonsense. That is, the kind of texts that value, that enjoy reading, those associated, if we are talking about late twentieth early twenty-first century writing, with L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing the Kootenay School of Writing (how apropos that ACCUTE the Vancouver Writers' Festival, or the academy the market, both choose to ignore the local--of course, bpNichol Nicole Brossard Steve McCaffery are read--a bit--the canonized 70s) call into question just how reading functions in a globalized, mediatized culture of Empire: Oppositionally, the car became known as him. Without can happen in: plural pushes skips time zones, adds class to voice. This waiting compresses that time, appends archaeology to the afternoon. Metal rattle. So really Sunday is postponed, rendered as retch. A W over the city, spinning for commerce. Jeff Derksen, Solace But to quickly shift gears, if we would rather than read, this is a long-standing desire, of course, one that goes back to the of Revelations, to the famous scene in Chapter lo where St John is confronted with a mighty angel holding a book in his hand--for some reason it seems important that the be little--a mighty angel who spoke with seven thunders in his voice; St John says I was about to (10:4) immediately is told write them not (10:4) but instead to take the little and eat it up; it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey (10:9) which indeed it is. …

Content Validity of the Visual Similes Test II

This study examined the content validity of the Visual Similes Test II, designed to measure affective and cognitive arousal in individuals 5 to 21 years of age. The 54 participants were asked to rate the affective and cognitive content of unoccluded stimuli from the Visual Similes Test II. The participants, whose mean age was 27.0 yr. (SD=8.6), included 1 (2%) man and 53 (98%) women who were enrolled in undergraduate and graduate special education courses. Paired-sample t tests comparing the affective and cognitive ratings for each item were significant for 53 of the 55 stimuli. The mean effect size (Cohen d) was 1.49 (range = .08 to 1.9).

Online Distance Education Graduate Courses in Physics Especially for High School Physics Teachers

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Online Distance Education Graduate Courses in Physics Especially for High School Physics Teachers

Online Distance Education Graduate Courses in Physics Especially for High School Physics Teachers

Using Web-based GIS For Earth and Environmental Systems Education

Web-based inquiry educational modules using Geographic information system (GIS) maps are ideal for earth and environmental systems education. GIS maps display and manage a rich array of spatially referenced data, which can be combined in user- defined ways to study most natural systems. The maps can be served over the Web to create flexible and portable educational modules for science education. We describe the use of GIS maps for an ongoing pre-service teacher graduate education course at Lehigh University and show applicability to other traditional disciplinary courses taught in many secondary and introductory college classrooms. Like Earth system science, use of GIS maps transcends traditional natural and social science disciplinary boundaries. GIS can be used to track how natural systems are functioning and changing in response to human activities. Similar to Earth system science, GIS maps provide a framework for integration of environmental data across a range of temporal and spatial scales. Instructional use of GIS helps students integrate disciplinary perspectives to appreciate a broader, systems viewpoint. The implementation of Web-based GIS in conjunction with other content materials enables learners to analyze and synthesize large amounts data that would be much more difficult in other formats.

A COMPARISON OF INTERTEACHING AND LECTURE IN THE COLLEGE CLASSROOM

Interteaching is a new method of classroom instruction that is based on behavioral principles but offers more flexibility than other behaviorally based methods. We examined the effectiveness of interteaching relative to a traditional form of classroom instruction-the lecture. In Study 1, participants in a graduate course in special education took short quizzes after alternating conditions of interteaching and lecture. Quiz scores following interteaching were higher than quiz scores following lecture, although both methods improved performance relative to pretest measures. In Study 2, we also alternated interteaching and lecture but counterbalanced the conditions across two sections of an undergraduate research methods class. After each unit of information, participants from both sections took the same test. Again, test scores following interteaching were higher than test scores following lecture. In addition, students correctly answered more interteaching-based questions than lecture-based questions on a cumulative final test. In both studies, the majority of students reported a preference for interteaching relative to traditional lecture. In sum, the results suggest that interteaching may be an effective alternative to traditional lecture-based methods of instruction.

Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: On Integrating Pedagogical Training into the Graduate Experiences of Future Science Faculty

“Good luck on your first day as an assistant professor, Dr. Tanner! Have a great class!” On the wall above my desk, these words scream out from an otherwise encouraging note that is adorned with many exclamation points. This note has hung on my wall since my very first day as an Assistant Professor of Biology. As I was charging off to teach my first class, a senior faculty member who had been on my hiring committee slipped this note under my office door. In moments of pause years later, I still stare up at that note and breathe a sigh of relief that I had much more than luck to guide me on my first day as a college-level teacher. Although I continue to have much to learn—as all of us do no matter the number of years of teaching experience—I did arrive at the university with both formal and informal training in science education. I had had plenty of exposure to innovative pedagogical approaches, questioning strategies, and techniques for engaging diverse audiences in learning science. As a scientist educator, I had had the privilege of many years of collaboration with outstanding K–12 educators as well as a postdoctoral fellowship in science education. However, my training has been, to say the least, unconventional compared with that of my fellow junior faculty and unique in its preparation in regard to the teaching and learning of my discipline. It will not be news to anyone reading this article that university and college teaching is to a large extent a profession with no formal training. It’s startling but true that the majority of faculty members—and lecturers who often teach large numbers of students—have no formal training in the teaching and learning of their discipline. In fact, the hiring process in university science departments is structured primarily to evaluate a faculty candidate’s ability to be a productive researcher, with success measured in number of publications and magnitude of grant funds raised. Depending on the type of institution, for example, research university, state-level university, or liberal arts college, there may be a component of the faculty interview process that probes a candidate’s teaching ability, for example, requesting a statement of teaching philosophy and requiring the candidate to teach a sample lecture class. However, this sample lecture often screens for gross inadequacies, rather than looking for stellar innovations or pedagogical skills. This lack of formal, accredited training for university and college instructors stands in stark contrast to the requirements for a high school teacher who is charged with the education of students only a year junior to college freshmen. High school teachers in the United States must be credentialed as a secondary science teacher, demonstrate subject matter competency in every subject that they will be teaching, and must continually engage in professional development in the teaching and learning of their discipline throughout their career as a science teacher. With the 2002 federal No Child Left Behind legislation, the onus is upon each precollege science teacher to become “highly qualified” in terms of formal university-level training in science education. However, no such required professional training or measurable standards for teaching are required in institutions of higher education. Many policy documents have suggested standards of teaching practice in postsecondary science education (National Research Council, 1996, 1997; Siebert and McIntosh, 2001), but the extent of implementation of these ideals is unclear and has gone relatively unstudied, although national and regional accreditation boards do look at outcomes, asking colleges and universities to assess what their students have gained from four years of study at their institutions. Nonetheless, there is a striking reversal of accountability that happens when one crosses the precollege teaching to college-level teaching boundary (Table 1). During the K–12 school years, society expects K–12 teachers to be responsible for student learning. Salaries of teachers in many states are tied to student test scores, and poor student performance can potentially invoke penalties. At a college or university, several variables in the educational universe shift. Students are the ones responsible for learning. The evaluation and compensation of college-level teachers is not DOI: 10.1187/cbe.05–12–0132 Address correspondence to: Kimberly Tanner (kdtanner@sfsu.edu). CBE—Life Sciences Education Vol. 5, 1–6, Spring 2006

IN MEMORIAM: STANLEY HELMER ANDERSON, 1939–2005

Stanley Helmer Anderson was born on 6 August 1939 in San Francisco, California. He died peacefully at home with his family in Laramie, Wyoming, on 1 September 2005 after a lengthy illness. His wife Donna preceded him in death in 1999. He is survived by two children, Becky Castano and Greg Anderson, their spouses, and a grandson, Ross Anderson. Stan joined the AOU in 1967, became an Elective Member in 1986, and was elected a Fellow in 1995. Stan's interest in birds began through participation in Boy Scout programs in the San Francisco Bay area when he was 11. He graduated from high school in Burlingame, California, in 1957, and from the University of Redlands with a major in Biology and a minor in Chemistry in 1961. A year of graduate courses in Education and Biology at San Jose State College in California followed. Stan went on to serve as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy from 1963 to 1966, after which he obtained an M.S. degree at Oregon State University under John A. Wiens, studying The Avifaunal Composition of Oregon White Oak Stands. He continued for a Ph.D. under Wiens, completing his dissertation, Ecological Relationships of Birds in Forests of Western Oregon, in 1970. That same year, Stan joined the faculty at Kenyon College, where he worked until 1975. He served as a Scientist at Oak Ridge Associated Universities from 1975 to 1976, and from 1976 to 1980 as Chief of the Migratory Nongame Bird Section of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. In 1980 he moved to Laramie, Wyoming, as Leader of the Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. He served as Unit Leader and Professor of Zoology and Physiology at the University of Wyoming until his death. The breadth and depth of Stan's contributions to science were substantial. Between 1970 and 2005, he authored almost 200 scientific publications that appeared in journals ranging from The Auk and Ecology to the Journal of Wildlife Management. He also authored or co-authored multiple editions of three textbooks that have been used widely in the field of wildlife management, as well as books on the Prairie Falcon and forest and rangeland birds of the United States. Stan was one of the first avian ecologists to study bird-habitat relations using multivariate statistical techniques. Throughout his career, a special interest in habitat selection guided his research and his training of students. In recent years, he focused increasingly on endangered species and made significant contributions to solving problems confronting black-footed ferrets and Greater Sage-Grouse. Stan's influence is reflected not only in his extensive contributions to science but also in the many students he mentored. From 1980 to 2005, Stan advised or co-advised 100 graduate students, including 23 Ph.D. and 77 M.S. students. Many of his students currently serve as management or research biologists with state (21%), federal (22%), or tribal (3%) natural resource agencies. Many others are college or university faculty (15%), or biologists with nongovernmental organizations (14%) or consulting firms (10%). And still others presently work in secondary schools, medicine, city planning, and ranching, with one bringing his wildlife background to the U.S. Secret Service. Stan's care and sense of responsibility for his students were evident. He frequently mentioned that mentoring his students was the most rewarding aspect of

Editor's Farewell

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times… . Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)Don T . Martin introduced me to the History of Education Quarterly (HEQ) in my first history of education graduate course at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) in 1972. HEQ seemed to be revered there. I soon found out why. This scholarly journal had originated at Pitt under the editorship of Ryland W. Crary. Ry (as we called him) became another of my mentors at Pitt. In his trademark urbane and sophisticated style, he taught me much about scholarly writing and social grace. A signed and treasured copy of the first issue of the Quarterly still resides on a bookshelf in my study.

The Potential of Jigsaw Role Playing to Promote the Social Construction of Knowledge in an Online Graduate Education Course

Many online courses fail to promote the active construction of student knowledge or camaraderie among student peers. Accordingly, online course designers and instructors are challenged to promote purposeful peer student dialogue and establish a sense of belonging where all learners perceive themselves as stakeholders in the course community. Online role playing is not a common activity, and electronically networked jigsaw role plays appear to be rarer still. In this article, we describe the transition of a face-to-face jigsaw role-play exercise to a primarily asynchronous graduate-level online course in education. Data collected from various sources suggest that students enjoyed online role play and valued it as a learning experience. We conclude with reflections, lessons learned, and future plans as we continue to explore the challenges and benefits of online role-play in graduate level online courses that serve adult professionals.

The Potential of Jigsaw Role Playing to Promote the Social Construction of Knowledge in an Online Graduate Education Course

Many online courses fail to promote the active construction of student knowledge or camaraderie among student peers. Accordingly, online course designers and instructors are challenged to promote purposeful peer student dialogue and establish a sense of belonging where all learners perceive themselves as stakeholders in the course community. Online role playing is not a common activity, and electronically networked jigsaw role plays appear to be rarer still. In this article, we describe the transition of a face-to-face jigsaw role-play exercise to a primarily asynchronous graduate-level online course in education. Data collected from various sources suggest that students enjoyed online role play and valued it as a learning experience. We conclude with reflections, lessons learned, and future plans as we continue to explore the challenges and benefits of online role-play in graduate level online courses that serve adult professionals.

Using computer conferencing and case studies to enable collaboration between expert and novice teachers

Abstract This paper reports on a teaching innovation where groups of experienced and novice teachers collaborated in analyzing case studies involving the education of students with special learning needs. The teachers collaborated in an asynchronous computer conferencing system (Web Knowledge Forum). All participants were enrolled in special education graduate courses taught by the authors. The authors discuss the use of case studies in teacher education, collaboration between novice and expert teachers, and highlight some of the demands of computer conferencing particularly in relation to the loss of face‐to‐face interactions and the interpretive demands of electronic communication.

Is online instruction perceived as effective as campus instruction by graduate students in education?

At a southern metropolitan university, the researchers examined the students' perceived quality of the learning experience of the online courses as compared to classroom-based learning for graduate education courses. The researchers used Chickering and Gamson's (1987) [Chickering, A. W., & Gamson, Z. F. (1987, March). Seven principles for good practice in undergraduate education. AAHE Bulletin, 3–7] seven principles of good practice to have students rate the quality of their learning experience. The 92 student responses demonstrated that they perceived their learning experience the same or significantly better online than the classroom-based courses. The principle that demonstrated a significant difference in favor of the online courses was more time on learning materials. Participants also rated the online courses as high on how much they learned in the course as the traditional the on campus classes. The implications were that students perceive the quality of their online learning in graduate education courses similar or even superior to campus courses.

Kentucky's Moonlight Schools: An Enduring Legacy of Adult Learning Principles and Practice

Honoring the past through knowledge of a powerful movement from the beginning of the last century has been found to contain useful, relevant, meaningful information for present-day practitioners in adult education. compelling story of an adult education project, begun nearly 100 years ago by Cora Wilson Stewart and known as The Moonlight Schools, provides amazing links with modern-day adult learning principles. What does an adult learning initiative that began nearly 100 years ago have to do with 21st century practices in adult learning? Recently, the two of us traveled the mountain roads of eastern Kentucky once a week to an extended Morehead State University campus where we each taught a graduate class. During our travels, we discovered several interesting connections. One of us, Jim Canipe, teaches graduate courses in Adult Education and Research Methods, while the other, Mattie Decker, teaches Foundations of Reading and Reading in the Content Area. Each semester, Decker teaches her students about and takes them to visit Little Brushy, the Moonlight School near the Morehead State University campus where Cora Wilson Stewart began teaching adults to read and write in September 1911. Decker's students are always surprised to find that many of the innovative strategies they are learning were once taught in the one-room schoolhouse. In addition, we saw the links between Stewart's methodology and present-day adult learning theory. We realized how certain principles of adult learning were encapsulated within Stewart's practices--long before much formal adult learning theory existed. Similarly, students in our reading classes continued to discover direct application of best practice reading strategies that were actually relevant back in Stewart's days. Therefore, we became inspired to share this remarkable story of the Moonlight Schools and suggest that some principles of adult learning reveal how lessons learned from Cora Wilson Stewart's historical campaign against illiteracy coincide with modern-day adult education practices. story itself is compelling: Stewart was the first female superintendent of schools in a rural community that had few roads and plenty of feuds. setting is Rowan County, eastern Kentucky, after the turn of the century, where the one-room schools scattered throughout the county were the sites used for the new effort in adult learning. Over time, Stewart became aware of a need for educating adults in the community, since many often visited her office asking her to read a letter they received and to write a response for them. Classes were held on the nights of the full moon, so that the students could find their way through the dark, tree-shaded, treacherous, and circuitous mountain roads. teachers were all volunteers, and the students ranged in age from 18 to 86 years old. Many brought their babies with them (Nelms, 1997). There are amazing photographs documenting these adult learners. One of those photos shows adult students engaged at the blackboard inside the simple classroom environment. What began here spread to other states and eventually grew to include Moonlight Schools for African Americans and Native Americans. Stewart received national and international recognition because of her work with adult education (Baldwin, 2006). setting of the story is a simple one. People lived and traveled in mostly undeveloped forests and hillsides. Travel on the few roads was made difficult by the isolation of the communities, as well as the frequent floods, mudslides, snow, and ice. Fifty small one-room schoolhouses were scattered throughout Rowan County by 1911 and were filled with children during the day. Cora Wilson Stewart devised a system in which the teachers in the day schools were asked to volunteer to teach in the evening Moonlight Schools. They spread the news of the idea mostly by word of mouth and did not know if anyone would attend that first night. …

The Medium is the Message: Online Technology and Knowledge Construction in Adult Graduate Education

Teaching online entails delivering a course fully or in part via the Internet and, in particular, the World Wide Web (Aragon, 2003; Ko & Rossen, 2001; Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Online course delivery in higher education is widespread and increasing (Aragon, 2003; Palloff & Pratt, 1999; Weiss, Knowlton, & Speck, 2000). A range of offerings exists, including fully online degree programs, online courses in all disciplines of study, and hybrid courses, where face-to-face meetings are combined with online learning technology. It is important to focus on effectiveness as it is enhanced or degraded with the use of online technology rather than on the technology itself (Maid, 2003). Research has shown rather conclusively that pedagogy and instructional design are correlated with student learning while technology itself has little influence (Johnson & Aragon, 2003). Watts (2003) views technology not as end in itself, but rather as a catalyst that allows educators an opportunity to revisit how, what, and why we are teaching (p. 6). More prominent online technology tools like WebCT (see www.webct.com) and Blackboard (see www.blackboard.com) appear to support a traditional behaviorist approach to (Maid, 2003). Yet, many adult educators are social constructivists who ground their instructional designs in the assumption that learning occurs through interaction with students, the instructor, and the learning environment (Gibson, 2000; Taylor; Marienau, & Fidler, 2000). For their students, the connecting classroom has been found to play a central role in their learning (Graham, Donaldson, Kasworm, & Dirkx, 2000). Adults make meaning of being a student, develop relationships with students and instructors, and connect with cultures and communities in the connecting classroom (Graham et al.). Some adult educators are resistant to online because they believe it does not complement social constructivist pedagogy by facilitating the experience of the connecting classroom (Palloff & Pratt, 2001). At the same time, online course delivery is of particular interest to adult educators in higher education because it offers greater access to adult students for whom it is inconvenient or even impossible to attend classes on campus (Derrick, 2003; Gibson, 2000; Kilgore, 2003; Palloff & Pratt, 2001). In response to criticism of the use of online technology, Gibson observed that it is possible to design online courses to encourage interaction and experiential learning, and that there are countless examples of [constructivist] adult education using a wide range of (p. 429). Wilson and Lowry (2000) argued that constructivism can be employed in online by providing access to rich sources of information; encouraging meaningful interactions with content; and bringing people together to challenge, support, and respond to each other (p. 82). The problem for the instructor, then, is to improve accessibility for adults with the use of online technology, without threatening the constructivist potential of the connecting classroom. The purpose of this article is to describe my own experiments with online technology in adult education graduate courses, as I attempted to improve access to adult students while providing a collaborative, connected, and experiential learning environment. I will briefly describe three cases where I designed a blended course including both face-to-face meetings and online interactions. I will then compare and contrast the different technologies used, and how they shaped the knowledge collectively constructed by the students and me during the semester. Finally, I will discuss the implications of what I learned for practitioners. Three Experiments With Online Technology for Adult Graduate Education I first became active participant in Internet-based communications in 1990. …

Does rational persuasion influence potential consultees?

AbstractSuccess in collaborative school‐based consultation depends on whether teachers implement interventions suggested by consultants. In business literature, Rational Persuasion (RP) has been identified as one potentially effective way to influence consultee perceptions about proposed interventions. RP includes intervention information, why it is important to decide to use the intervention, and potential objections to the intervention with arguments against those objections. The influence of these RP elements on potential school‐based consultees has not been studied. This preliminary analog study investigated whether presenting RP importance and objections for behavioral interventions influenced teachers' ratings of acceptability, effectiveness, and commitment‐to‐implement. Participants included 71 teachers enrolled in graduate education courses. The within‐subject design included three video vignettes of each of three conditions for three different behavioral interventions (total of nine possible videos, three presented to each group). Results suggest that the influence of RP on acceptability, perceived effectiveness, and commitment‐to‐implement ratings was inconsistent. Implications for research and practice are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 40: 627–640, 2003.

Impact of a graduate class on attitudes toward inclusion, perceived teaching efficacy and knowledge about adapting instruction for children with disabilities in inclusive settings

The purpose of the current study was to determine the effect of a 15-week introductory special education graduate course on general education students' attitudes toward inclusion, their teaching self-efficacy and their knowledge about adapting their teaching for students with disabilities. Dependent measures t-tests revealed that respondents' attitudes toward inclusion and their teaching self-efficacy on the surveys employed in the present study were not significantly different from pre-test to post-test. However, narratives from student interviews demonstrated positive attitudes toward inclusion, increased knowledge and confidence to teach students with disabilities in inclusive settings and willingness to adapt instruction for children with disabilities. Implications and recommendations for teacher preparation programs are briefly discussed.

Understanding educational reform: a reference handbook

The only handbook of its kind to bring together materials from a wide range of authoritative works, providing the reader with a comprehensive overview of reform in American education. Crafted in ten skillfully written chapters, Educational Reform covers the history, politics, and processes of educational reform and addresses reforms in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Starting with a definition of educational reform and where its far-reaching results can lead, the work goes on to assess the role of the public in educational reform, the educational reform industry, and resistance to reform. Of interest to school boards and administrators and useful in graduate and undergraduate courses in education, it is written in a conversational tone that brings the subject out of the realm of dry analysis. Readers will benefit not only from the numerous case studies that intersperse the themes discussed, but also from the extensive bibliography of print and nonprint resources (including websites) listed for further study. There is little doubt that the classroom must change to meet the needs of the 21st century-read Educational Reform to learn just how. Eight narrative chapters address the history, chronology, politics, and processes of educational reform An extensive bibliography of print and nonprint resources as well as detailed appendixes