Forum Network

Michael J. Feuer, PhD of the National Research Council presents the final in a series of three lectures that examine the links between cognitive science and the science of education policy as a means of developing more rational programs of educational improvement and more reasonable expectations for reform and research.

In this lecture, Feuer outlines a strategy for education research and policy that has the concept of 'procedural rationality' as its centerpiece. Procedural rationality provides a framework to explain observed policies and practices as well as recommendations for crafting better ones in the future. A key element of the proposed 'cognitively-inspired' strategy is an implicit contract: a set of principles and rhetorical style to guide researchers and decision makers toward definition of reasonable expectations and acceptance of appropriate means of evaluation rather than quick, dramatic, and ultimately disappointing goals.

Michael J. Feuer is executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education at the National Research Council of the National Academies. An introduction will be provided by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, Charles Warren professor of the history of American education and dean. Richard Murnane, Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson professor of education and society, and Mica Pollock, assistant professor of education, will respond.