Applied research and development: Support for continuing improvement in education

Daedalus

Volumn 127, Issue 4, 1998, Pages 233-258

  Wilson, Kenneth G ^a   Barsky, Constance K ^a  

^a OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748086050     PISSN: 00115266     EISSN: 15486192     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Jerome Bruner, Toward a Theory of Instruction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966), 22.
2. See Karen Louis in this issue.
3. See Seymour Sarason in this issue.
4. See Lauren Resnick and Megan Hall in this issue and Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Catalog of School Reform Models, 1st ed. (Portland, Ore.: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, 1998). However, our emphasis on the diversity of accomplishments of individual teachers comes from our own experience with over two thousand teachers participating in a reform in Ohio (the Statewide Systemic Initiative, Project Discovery, jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the state of Ohio). Many of them had struggled long and hard to change their teaching before entering this reform; their accomplishments were diverse, as were their talents, backgrounds, students, and the contexts of their schools. Moreover, none of our teachers had found sufficient time to develop all the changes they would need; most welcomed the further innovations they learned through our reform.
5. See Victoria Marsick in this issue.
6. See Jean Johnson and John Immerwahr, First Things First: What Americans Expect from the Public Schools (New York: Public Agenda, 1993).
7. See Daniel Bromley in this issue.
8. An exception to the constant administrative shifts is the private corporation established at the behest of former President Bush, now called New American Schools, which has provided continuing support for one of the R&D-based reforms we will discuss.
9. See Louis, this issue, and Michael Fullan with Suzanne Stiegelbauer, The New Meaning of Educational Change, 2d ed. (New York: Teachers College Press, 1991).
10. See, e.g., Susan J. Bodilly et al., Lessons From New American Schools' Scale-up Phase: Prospects for Bringing Designs to Multiple Schools (Santa Monica, Calif.: Rand, 1998);
11. Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, eds., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children (Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, 1998);
12. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition (prepared by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory with assistance from the Education Commission of the States, March 1998).
13. For an extensive list of reforms, see Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Catalog of School Reform Models: First Edition.
14. Robert E. Slavin et al., Every Child, Every School (Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin Press, 1996).
15. Reading Recovery is based on research initiated in New Zealand. See, e.g., Carol A. Lyons, Gay Su Pinnell, and Diane E. DeFord, Partners in Learning: Teachers and Children in Reading Recovery (New York: Teachers College Press, 1993).
16. See also Snow, Burns, and Griffin, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children,
17. Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, Catalog of School Reform Models.
18. Resnick and Hall, this issue.
19. Sarason, this issue.
20. See Thomas P. Hughes in this issue.
21. See Thomas P. Hughes, Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 (Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983), 465.
22. Hughes, this issue.
23. See Wallace E. Huffman in this issue.
24. Louis, this issue.
25. Slavin et al., Every Child, Every School.
26. More generally, see Kenneth G. Wilson and Bennett Daviss, Redesigning Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1994).
27. See, for example, K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf T. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Römer, "The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance," Psychological Review 100 (1993): 363-406.
28. Sarason, this issue.
29. See, for example, National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment, The Educational System in Japan: Case Study Findings (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1998), and references cited therein. This report cites exceptionally favorable teacher preparation in Japan as well as troubles with student disinterest in mathematics, perhaps due to pressures from competitive entrance examinations for high school and college. The proposed new research field does not exist in Japan, just as it is missing here, which could account for problems with education not being resolved in either country.
30. See Frank J. Sulloway, Born to Rebel: Birth Order, Family Dynamics, and Creative Lives (New York: Vintage Books, 1996), esp. 39-41.
31. For the latest educational establishment's view of teacher preparation, see National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, What Matters Most: Teaching for America's Future (New York: National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 1996).
32. Reading Recovery has already brought unexpected (if localized) changes to over twenty schools and colleges of education: see Lyons, Pinnell, and DeFord, Partners in Learning. However, Reading Recovery has yet to be studied for its lessons in how to implement change in a college of education.
33. See, for example, Everett M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations, 4th ed. (New York: The Free Press, 1995), esp. chap. 7.
34. Louis, this issue.
35. Recommendations about school reform come from a variety of business organizations, such as the National Alliance for Business or the Business Roundtable. In addition, New American Schools gets its support from members of the business community: see Bodilly et al., Lessons From New American Schools' Scale-up Phase, which makes clear that New American Schools encountered difficulties not anticipated by business leaders.
36. Louis, this issue.
37. From the perspective of change science, one especially important need is to determine whether student performance is improved by the upgrade from Success for All to Roots and Wings. As of the writing of this paper, results were not yet available to provide even a preliminary answer to this question.
38. There are international studies that indicate all advanced nations are having serious problems with their education systems. See, for example, Per Dalin and Val D. Rust, Towards Schooling for the Twenty-First Century (New York: Cassell, 1996). In the context of these shared problems, the rankings of nations in international test-score comparisons may have little relevance.
39. We make these comments based on Kenneth Wilson's personal experience with a National Research Council study of the federal role in education research. This study was unable to get to the bottom of the problems (reverse salients) blocking education reform. It was terminated before its members could develop the necessary understanding of education research and start raising the kinds of questions that might have led to a consideration of reverse salients. For the committee's report, see Richard C. Atkinson and Gregg Jackson, eds., Research and Education Reform: Roles of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1992).
40. See, for example, Louis, this issue.
41. For more of our recommendations and additional information, see the Learning by Redesign web site located at 〈http://www.physics.ohio-state.edu/∼redesign/home.html〉.
42. Our inspiration both for drawing on historical analogies and for specific recommendations came in part from Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (New York: Harper and Row, 1986), chaps. 9 and 110;
43. Stephen R. Graubard, "We Need to Know More," Dœtedalus 124 (4) (Fall 1995): 173-178.