David Dwyer - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by David Dwyer

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 1984

Choice Reviews Online, 1997

Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms Edited by Charles Fisher. San Fr... more Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms Edited by Charles Fisher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, Inc., 1996, $28.95 ISBN 0787902381 If you were going to spend a bazillion bucks putting computers and software in the hands of teachers and ten-year-olds, wouldn't you want to have a pretty good idea of the effect your money was going to have on educational outcomes for those children and their communities? And if you were the owner of a company that designed and built the computers and software, wouldn't you want some feedback from those consumers about what designs worked and what changes would improve their performance? This book tells the story of Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), a massive research effort on the part of Apple Computer to study the effects of technology-rich teaching environments on the outcomes of education in the hope of building, marketing, and improving those technological tools. ACOT is now in its second decade of existence. Apple Computer learned considerably more than it set out to find. In the beginning every teacher and every student in the project had immediate access to computers, one at home and one at school. The project began at the elementary school level, but within three years had added secondary participants as well. Apple Computer provided the computers and software all day, every day, for years. Education and Technology chronicles both the developing history of the widespread use of personal computers in education and the reflections of ACOT participants, both teachers, researchers, and Apple Computer project staff The book is organized into three sections. Section One documents the context of thinking about education during the first decade of the ACOT project. The paradigm shift from an instructive to a constructive process in education is described as it emerged from initial theories and reflections on practice to a firm commitment by project teachers to learner-driven curriculum. Section Two is a set of reflective essays from some of ACOT's participants regarding the design and function of technological tools, the learning tasks, and the depth and kind of learnings of teacher and student participants in the ACOT project. Section Three contains four essays by project participants on the professional development of teachers who participated in ACOT in its first ten years. Taken as a whole, the book provides a blueprint for those communities who are attempting change within existing educational structures. …

Historias De Vida Del Profesorado 2004 Isbn 84 8063 631 9 Pags 207 221, 2004

STUDYING TEACHERS’ LIVES, 1992

... Descriptors: Case Studies; Computer Uses in Education; Curriculum Development; Educational Ch... more ... Descriptors: Case Studies; Computer Uses in Education; Curriculum Development; Educational Change; Educational Cooperation; Educational Innovation; Educational Research; EducationalTechnology; Elementary Secondary Education; Futures (of Society); Integrated ...

CONTRACT 400-83-0003 NOTE 132p.; Prepared under the "Instructional Management Program".... more CONTRACT 400-83-0003 NOTE 132p.; Prepared under the "Instructional Management Program". For Volume 1 ("Methodology") and the other case studies, see EA 025 987-994.

Journal of Educational Computing Research, 1992

The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom manage... more The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom management, producing both unexpected problems and benefits. This article summarizes the experiences of thirty-two elementary and secondary teachers as they adapted to teaching in high-access-to-technology classrooms. Using a three-stage model, this article presents the teachers' classroom management concerns, their strategies for solving problems, and their abilities to utilize the technology to their advantage. Teachers moved from frustration to success in coping with changes brought about by the introduction of technology to their classrooms. This article highlights three main issues relevant to practice and research. First, classroom management is not a skill that is mastered once and for all. Second, this article provides further support to the belief that educational change takes time. Finally, it illustrates that teacher change is not unidirectional. Teachers progress through stages...

Peabody Journal of Education, 1985

Page 1. Frances Hedges: A Case Study of Instructional Leadership1 David C. Dwyer Introduction The... more Page 1. Frances Hedges: A Case Study of Instructional Leadership1 David C. Dwyer Introduction The reporting of the findings of ethnographic research has been recognized for years as problematic. Its "thick description[s]" (Geertz, ...

Educational Researcher, 1983

... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is S... more ... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is Senior Research Di-rector at Far West Laboratory for Edu-cational R&D, 1855 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103. According ...

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 1989

Beginning in 1985, Apple Computer, Inc. and several school districts began a collaboration to exa... more Beginning in 1985, Apple Computer, Inc. and several school districts began a collaboration to examine the impact of intensive computer use on instruction and learning in K-12 classrooms. This paper follows the development of a Macintosh II-based management and retrieval system for text data undertaken to store and retrieve oral reflections of teacher participants in the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, (ACOT) project. The effort was conceived as an open-ended and multiple-year inquiry that had to remain entirely flexible to meet researchers' evolving questions. A text-retrieval and analysis system developed earlier by the same team on a minicomputer and required the employment of a full-time programmer. The current effort, conceived specifically for use on a personal computer, is an attempt to keep the entire process in the hands of the research team. Although a highly efficient data management and retrieval system evolved, the data set is developing proportions that challenge state-of-the art personal computer technology. Suggestions about future directions for both the management and analysis of large qualitative data are made. Five appendixes making up about half the document are included. Appendix A contains reporting instructions and examples for the participating teachers; Appendixes B, C, and D contain tape document forms; and theme and category definitions are presented in Appendix E. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/ALF)

Educational Researcher, 1983

... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is S... more ... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is Senior Research Di-rector at Far West Laboratory for Edu-cational R&D, 1855 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103. According ...

An increase in colla(x>rath>e learning in ACOT classrooms is evident not only among older s... more An increase in colla(x>rath>e learning in ACOT classrooms is evident not only among older students but among much younger ones as well I fere, ttvo students at Sierem Creek Elementary School are working together to create a HyperCard® based rt'fxiri about California whales using a Macintosh^ computer Sam (a primary-grade student): 1 don't know if we'll have computers [next year). If we don't, it will be weird. Cause the teacher talks pretty long, and you have to listen.

Educational Leadership, 1996

Beginning in 1985. Apple Computer, Inc., and several school districts began a collaboration to ex... more Beginning in 1985. Apple Computer, Inc., and several school districts began a collaboration to examine the impact of computer saturation cn instruction and learning in K-12 classrooms. The initial guiding cuestion was simply put: What happens when teachers and stnts have constant access to technology? To provide "constant access," each teacher and student in the project received two computers, one for the home and one for the classroom. This paper describes the program, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), and reports on the instructional evolution that occurred in those classrooms. The personal struggles of teachers who came to confront the nature of learning and consequently, the efficacy of their own instructional practices, are examined in detail through individual journal entries. This paper also places the innovative ACOT program in a broader perspective on educational change and draws implications for the support and development of teachers engaged in significant reform projects. (67 references) (DB)

Educational Leadership, 1994

Educational Leadership, 1984

EJ293146 - The Search for Instructional Leadership: Routines and Subtleties in the Principal.

This fourth volume of a six-volume study a school district code-named "Milford" provides an ethno... more This fourth volume of a six-volume study a school district code-named "Milford" provides an ethnographic acc,unt of Kensington School today. Tracing the school's development through the 1979-80 school year, the study's central metaphor is of a ship on a perilous journey. Chapter, 1. describes the school's opening day and "Crosscurrents in Kensington's Course."*Chapter 2 explores Kensington's "turbulent environment" at the federal,, state, and local levels. Chapter 3's exposition of "The Views from the Principers Office" examines the tenure of four successive. principals. Chapter 4 focuses on Kensington staffand on pedagogy in Kensington's 'cla'ssrooms, including sections on instructional goals and objecti7es, curriculum.and instruction, instructional styles and methods, and instructional control. In c4pter 5, "Between the Lines: An Emerging Concept of Organizational Identity," the authors look-closely at Kensington's building, its past, staff, instructional program, and facades and realities. The final chapter, "Implications for Thought and Practice,"discusses longitudinal negted systems and educational policy perspectives and offers a summary and conclusions. In order to protect the anonymity of the school district studied in such detail, 'pseudonyms have been used for all place,names (school, school district, city,'county, state) and personal names (school superintendents, school board members, teachers, students) appearing in the various volumes of this set.(JBM) DOCUMENT RESUME 47 EA 016 685 Dwyer, David C.; And Others Innovation and Change in American Education.

Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 wit... more Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 with open classrooms and designed for team teaching and other ianovative practices. A visit 15 years later reveals that the physical plant has deteriorated somewhat, most classrooms are walled off from eaCa other, and innovative structures are not now used for their original purposes. Current staff members are humorous and stable and interact a great deal, but they are more rural and local than the original staff and are more oriented towat7c1-'a traditional, back-to-basics educational philosophy. The curriculum too is more concerned with order, structured activities, and basic skills. The present principal is also a traditionalist, unlike the school's first principal. Changes in Kensington's social environment have contributed to the movement away from nontraditional approaches. Demographic shifts led to an increase in lower-achieving, inner-city children and an increase in disciplinary problems. These problems in turn contributed to the emphasis on order and basic skills. Further district problems over-racial bias allegations and declining enrollments also strengthened the traditionalist turn. Educational policy-making results from complex influences, but the complexity of education's environments and problems needs to be addressed directly. (RW)

Presented here are five detailed case studies of principals (four elementary level and one junior... more Presented here are five detailed case studies of principals (four elementary level and one junior high level) undertaken to verify and modify a theoretical model of how instructional management occurs in schools. The five ptincipals were selected from a larger group of California Bay Area principals identified by central office personnel as effective. Long open-,ended interviews were used to discover principals' views of their work, and each principal was observed at work for three full work days over an eight-week period. Researchers also observed classes and talked with teachers and students. The onervers particularly looked at seven components of the instructional management model: a principal's personal characteristics, district characteristics, external characteristics, principals' management behavior, school climate, instructional organization, and student outcomes. Data anal7sis'led to modification of the conceptual framework. The observations produced three modified antecedent categories: principal characteristics, community context, and institutional context. Researchers felt the project was most successful in producing a lengthy list of principals' instructional management behavior.

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 1984

Choice Reviews Online, 1997

Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms Edited by Charles Fisher. San Fr... more Education and Technology: Reflections on Computing in Classrooms Edited by Charles Fisher. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, Inc., 1996, $28.95 ISBN 0787902381 If you were going to spend a bazillion bucks putting computers and software in the hands of teachers and ten-year-olds, wouldn't you want to have a pretty good idea of the effect your money was going to have on educational outcomes for those children and their communities? And if you were the owner of a company that designed and built the computers and software, wouldn't you want some feedback from those consumers about what designs worked and what changes would improve their performance? This book tells the story of Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), a massive research effort on the part of Apple Computer to study the effects of technology-rich teaching environments on the outcomes of education in the hope of building, marketing, and improving those technological tools. ACOT is now in its second decade of existence. Apple Computer learned considerably more than it set out to find. In the beginning every teacher and every student in the project had immediate access to computers, one at home and one at school. The project began at the elementary school level, but within three years had added secondary participants as well. Apple Computer provided the computers and software all day, every day, for years. Education and Technology chronicles both the developing history of the widespread use of personal computers in education and the reflections of ACOT participants, both teachers, researchers, and Apple Computer project staff The book is organized into three sections. Section One documents the context of thinking about education during the first decade of the ACOT project. The paradigm shift from an instructive to a constructive process in education is described as it emerged from initial theories and reflections on practice to a firm commitment by project teachers to learner-driven curriculum. Section Two is a set of reflective essays from some of ACOT's participants regarding the design and function of technological tools, the learning tasks, and the depth and kind of learnings of teacher and student participants in the ACOT project. Section Three contains four essays by project participants on the professional development of teachers who participated in ACOT in its first ten years. Taken as a whole, the book provides a blueprint for those communities who are attempting change within existing educational structures. …

Historias De Vida Del Profesorado 2004 Isbn 84 8063 631 9 Pags 207 221, 2004

STUDYING TEACHERS’ LIVES, 1992

... Descriptors: Case Studies; Computer Uses in Education; Curriculum Development; Educational Ch... more ... Descriptors: Case Studies; Computer Uses in Education; Curriculum Development; Educational Change; Educational Cooperation; Educational Innovation; Educational Research; EducationalTechnology; Elementary Secondary Education; Futures (of Society); Integrated ...

CONTRACT 400-83-0003 NOTE 132p.; Prepared under the "Instructional Management Program".... more CONTRACT 400-83-0003 NOTE 132p.; Prepared under the "Instructional Management Program". For Volume 1 ("Methodology") and the other case studies, see EA 025 987-994.

Journal of Educational Computing Research, 1992

The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom manage... more The addition of computers to classrooms influences not only instruction but also classroom management, producing both unexpected problems and benefits. This article summarizes the experiences of thirty-two elementary and secondary teachers as they adapted to teaching in high-access-to-technology classrooms. Using a three-stage model, this article presents the teachers' classroom management concerns, their strategies for solving problems, and their abilities to utilize the technology to their advantage. Teachers moved from frustration to success in coping with changes brought about by the introduction of technology to their classrooms. This article highlights three main issues relevant to practice and research. First, classroom management is not a skill that is mastered once and for all. Second, this article provides further support to the belief that educational change takes time. Finally, it illustrates that teacher change is not unidirectional. Teachers progress through stages...

Peabody Journal of Education, 1985

Page 1. Frances Hedges: A Case Study of Instructional Leadership1 David C. Dwyer Introduction The... more Page 1. Frances Hedges: A Case Study of Instructional Leadership1 David C. Dwyer Introduction The reporting of the findings of ethnographic research has been recognized for years as problematic. Its "thick description[s]" (Geertz, ...

Educational Researcher, 1983

... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is S... more ... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is Senior Research Di-rector at Far West Laboratory for Edu-cational R&D, 1855 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103. According ...

Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 1989

Beginning in 1985, Apple Computer, Inc. and several school districts began a collaboration to exa... more Beginning in 1985, Apple Computer, Inc. and several school districts began a collaboration to examine the impact of intensive computer use on instruction and learning in K-12 classrooms. This paper follows the development of a Macintosh II-based management and retrieval system for text data undertaken to store and retrieve oral reflections of teacher participants in the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow, (ACOT) project. The effort was conceived as an open-ended and multiple-year inquiry that had to remain entirely flexible to meet researchers' evolving questions. A text-retrieval and analysis system developed earlier by the same team on a minicomputer and required the employment of a full-time programmer. The current effort, conceived specifically for use on a personal computer, is an attempt to keep the entire process in the hands of the research team. Although a highly efficient data management and retrieval system evolved, the data set is developing proportions that challenge state-of-the art personal computer technology. Suggestions about future directions for both the management and analysis of large qualitative data are made. Five appendixes making up about half the document are included. Appendix A contains reporting instructions and examples for the participating teachers; Appendixes B, C, and D contain tape document forms; and theme and category definitions are presented in Appendix E. (Contains 22 references.) (Author/ALF)

Educational Researcher, 1983

... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is S... more ... cation. Brian Rowan and David Dwyer are Associate Research Scientists and Steven Bossert is Senior Research Di-rector at Far West Laboratory for Edu-cational R&D, 1855 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94103. According ...

An increase in colla(x>rath>e learning in ACOT classrooms is evident not only among older s... more An increase in colla(x>rath>e learning in ACOT classrooms is evident not only among older students but among much younger ones as well I fere, ttvo students at Sierem Creek Elementary School are working together to create a HyperCard® based rt'fxiri about California whales using a Macintosh^ computer Sam (a primary-grade student): 1 don't know if we'll have computers [next year). If we don't, it will be weird. Cause the teacher talks pretty long, and you have to listen.

Educational Leadership, 1996

Beginning in 1985. Apple Computer, Inc., and several school districts began a collaboration to ex... more Beginning in 1985. Apple Computer, Inc., and several school districts began a collaboration to examine the impact of computer saturation cn instruction and learning in K-12 classrooms. The initial guiding cuestion was simply put: What happens when teachers and stnts have constant access to technology? To provide "constant access," each teacher and student in the project received two computers, one for the home and one for the classroom. This paper describes the program, Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT), and reports on the instructional evolution that occurred in those classrooms. The personal struggles of teachers who came to confront the nature of learning and consequently, the efficacy of their own instructional practices, are examined in detail through individual journal entries. This paper also places the innovative ACOT program in a broader perspective on educational change and draws implications for the support and development of teachers engaged in significant reform projects. (67 references) (DB)

Educational Leadership, 1994

Educational Leadership, 1984

EJ293146 - The Search for Instructional Leadership: Routines and Subtleties in the Principal.

This fourth volume of a six-volume study a school district code-named "Milford" provides an ethno... more This fourth volume of a six-volume study a school district code-named "Milford" provides an ethnographic acc,unt of Kensington School today. Tracing the school's development through the 1979-80 school year, the study's central metaphor is of a ship on a perilous journey. Chapter, 1. describes the school's opening day and "Crosscurrents in Kensington's Course."*Chapter 2 explores Kensington's "turbulent environment" at the federal,, state, and local levels. Chapter 3's exposition of "The Views from the Principers Office" examines the tenure of four successive. principals. Chapter 4 focuses on Kensington staffand on pedagogy in Kensington's 'cla'ssrooms, including sections on instructional goals and objecti7es, curriculum.and instruction, instructional styles and methods, and instructional control. In c4pter 5, "Between the Lines: An Emerging Concept of Organizational Identity," the authors look-closely at Kensington's building, its past, staff, instructional program, and facades and realities. The final chapter, "Implications for Thought and Practice,"discusses longitudinal negted systems and educational policy perspectives and offers a summary and conclusions. In order to protect the anonymity of the school district studied in such detail, 'pseudonyms have been used for all place,names (school, school district, city,'county, state) and personal names (school superintendents, school board members, teachers, students) appearing in the various volumes of this set.(JBM) DOCUMENT RESUME 47 EA 016 685 Dwyer, David C.; And Others Innovation and Change in American Education.

Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 wit... more Kensington School is an elementary school in Milford (Missouri) School District built in 1966 with open classrooms and designed for team teaching and other ianovative practices. A visit 15 years later reveals that the physical plant has deteriorated somewhat, most classrooms are walled off from eaCa other, and innovative structures are not now used for their original purposes. Current staff members are humorous and stable and interact a great deal, but they are more rural and local than the original staff and are more oriented towat7c1-'a traditional, back-to-basics educational philosophy. The curriculum too is more concerned with order, structured activities, and basic skills. The present principal is also a traditionalist, unlike the school's first principal. Changes in Kensington's social environment have contributed to the movement away from nontraditional approaches. Demographic shifts led to an increase in lower-achieving, inner-city children and an increase in disciplinary problems. These problems in turn contributed to the emphasis on order and basic skills. Further district problems over-racial bias allegations and declining enrollments also strengthened the traditionalist turn. Educational policy-making results from complex influences, but the complexity of education's environments and problems needs to be addressed directly. (RW)

Presented here are five detailed case studies of principals (four elementary level and one junior... more Presented here are five detailed case studies of principals (four elementary level and one junior high level) undertaken to verify and modify a theoretical model of how instructional management occurs in schools. The five ptincipals were selected from a larger group of California Bay Area principals identified by central office personnel as effective. Long open-,ended interviews were used to discover principals' views of their work, and each principal was observed at work for three full work days over an eight-week period. Researchers also observed classes and talked with teachers and students. The onervers particularly looked at seven components of the instructional management model: a principal's personal characteristics, district characteristics, external characteristics, principals' management behavior, school climate, instructional organization, and student outcomes. Data anal7sis'led to modification of the conceptual framework. The observations produced three modified antecedent categories: principal characteristics, community context, and institutional context. Researchers felt the project was most successful in producing a lengthy list of principals' instructional management behavior.