A learning foundation

This article suggests that many of the problems afflicting modern educational systems may best be characterized as discontinuities of age, class, race, discipline and organisation. On the basis of this diagnosis, the essay suggests an alternative educational institution — the Learning Foundation — as a model for reorganising the delivery of educational services in order to provide learning opportunities for all ages and levels of experience at the point of the local neighbourhood but supported by the services of central resources units. The governing structure of the Learning Foundation would vest major power in the local learning groups. It would utilise a new teaching role through the development of “educational organisers”, who would apply community organising techniques to the provision of learning opportunities. The idea of this innovative educational institution is supported by a theory of institutional change which emphasises the role of alternative institutions in the reform of social systems. This suggested institution is offered both as a model for evaluating other institutions and as the first approximation of a plan for implementation.     

Latent growth curves within developmental structural equation models

This report uses structural equation modeling to combine traditional ideas from repeated-measures ANOVA with some traditional ideas from longitudinal factor analysis. A longitudinal model that includes correlations, variances, and means is described as a latent growth curve model (LGM). When merged with repeated-measures data, this technique permits the estimation of parameters representing both individual and group dynamics. The statistical basis of this model allows hypothesis testing of various developmental ideas, including models of alternative dynamic functions and models of the sources of individual differences in these functions. Aspects of these latent growth models are illustrated with a set of longitudinal WISC data from young children and by using the LISREL V computer program.     

In defense of scientific autonomy: The two cultures revisited

This article is adapted from a lecture delivered on April 25, 1988 at a meeting sponsored by the National Association of Scholars, at the University of Texas in Austin.