POSSIBLE NEW FUTURES FOR OUR JOURNAL ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB

The author argues that this journal, Religious Education, as a premier outlet for religious education scholarship, must take more creative steps in making its scholarship accessible via electronic media. In particular, she suggests three possible new arenas: leveraging existing content by creating “electronic content collections,” moving the journal into an online format that would allow for multimedia articles, and developing a site that would promote “open source” scholarship in religious education.     

Educating for Commitment: Insights from Postmodernity

Abstract

Secular pluralism in contemporary culture and current theological divisions within churches have important implications for Christian education. This paper addresses the question of how religious commitments can be made and convictions held outside of polarizing and exclusionary understandings of truth, and without the presence of uncontested doctrines. What habits, practices and dispositions should Christians cultivate in this context? It brings resources from postmodern theology and philosophy into conversation with the Anglican tradition, in order to propose ways that Christian education can foster faith commitment in the midst of pluralism and disagreement.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.—W. B. Yeats, The Second Coming

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there.—Rumi     

Some thoughts on task analysis and objectives in educational psychology 1

Front‐end analysis, a performance‐problem‐solving technique, suggests that improved training is only one of the solutions to a problem. In education, where inadequate learning and poor motivation are symptoms of the problem, major curricular revisions of Educational Psychology courses may not constitute the best, solution. A task analysis of what expert teachers do suggests that the most relevant skills to be acquired belong at the principle‐applying level of Gagné's hierarchy, while most educational psychology courses tend to develop verbal repertoires meeting objectives of the sort “After reading what I have to say, the student will be able to tell me what I said.”; More attention to relevance of content and less to media and modes of presentation is now required.     

Problem-Solving Strategies

This article reviews recent research on problem-solving strategies and their relationship to leaning and problem-solving processes. A distinction is made between schema-driven and search-based problem-solving strategies, and expert-novice differences in the use of these strategies are discussed. General strategies that facilitate the learning of problem schemata associated with expertise are contrasted with strategies that hinder schema learning. Constraints on the use of problem-solving strategies and the consequent implications for education are discussed. Suggestions for future research are made, which include the study of search-based strategies in experts and the effects of training on strategy use.     

William Horsley: music master at Miss Black’s boarding‐school for young ladies, 1828–1840

William Horsley (1775–1858) was active in London from the late 1790s. A founder member of the Philharmonic Society, Horsley was at the heart of the musical establishment, working as a composer, organist, commentator and teacher. His teaching career spanned over 50 years, during which time he took private pupils, trained choristers and organists and taught at many boarding‐schools for young ladies. In 1809 Miss Ann Black took up residence at 37 Kensington Square, where she opened a boarding‐school and engaged Horsley as music master in 1828. Her school prospectus and surviving correspondence offer an insight into the difficulty of sustaining a viable school business in a competitive market. Horsley’s papers shed light on the business dealings between masters and school proprietors, both depending on income from pupils to sustain them. Through his correspondence and published work we learn more of Horsley’s teaching method and of his working relationships with his pupils.