Education & Pedagogy

The transition from teacher education to work in schools has been described as an "epistemic clash". Teacher educators', novice teachers' and experienced teachers' valuation of the academic, practical and normative demands of teaching are compared using survey data from teacher education and schools. All groups value academic knowledge and practical skills highly. Teacher educators take a more positive attitude toward inclusion, and differ in their views of the normative demands of teaching. The role of teacher education as a corrective to the contemporary demands made of schools through political and international policy initiatives is emphasized. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Public policy questions such as public funding for Catholic schools, the extent of government involvement in private education, and church-state relations in general are not unique to the United States. This article discusses Catholic education in Scotland, with a view to explaining the ongoing need for cooperation and goodwill in church-state relations concerning schools. This paper aims to examine in some detail one particular episode in the recent history of educational policy formation in Scotland in which the supposedly distinctive needs of faith-based schools assumed central importance. This episode is part of a longer history of Church-state relations in Scottish Catholic education.

The aim of the current study was to examine Swedish and Turkish teachers' perspectives on values education. Qualitative interviews with 52 teachers were conducted and analyzed. Values education was mostly about compliance with societal values and norms. The learning goals or values in values education were mainly on how to treat others and on self-responsibility. Teachers did not take a critical approach. A main method of values education reported by the teachers was to be a good role model in evaceryday interactions with students. Values education was largely described as an everyday practice embedded in the stream of social interactions. Furthermore, an everyday language was used when the teachers described values and values education. There was a lack of professional knowledge in this domain.

This article examines three trends that challenge the provision of elementary and secondary education. Using the Commonwealth of Virginia as an example, this study compares national and state trends that threaten the stability and funding of public education. The following three trends are likely to present the greatest challenges to the institution of public schools: (1) demographic changes; (2) disparate and inadequate fiscal resources; and (3) a concerted and coordinated attack on the institution itself. Each trend is discussed and specific recommendations are made to those who lead and support public education. (Contains 1 table, 7 figures and 81 footnotes.)

As the U.S. continues to embrace a comprehensive plan for economic recovery, this article investigates the validity of the claim that investing in higher education will help restore state economic growth and prosperity. It presents the findings from a study that indicates that the most consistent predictors of state economic growth related to higher education are state and local spending on higher education research and development (R&D) from 1988 to 1996 and number of junior colleges for every million persons in a state population from 1997 to 2008. However, per capita highway spending tends to be the most consistent predictor of economic growth during all of the time periods investigated. (Contains 5 tables and 13 footnotes.)

Extant between 2004 and 2011, Aimhigher was the UK government's flagship national initiative for widening participation to higher education for young people from disadvantaged social groups, with costs approaching 1 billion British Pounds. Its demise was predicated on a perceived lack of progress and the absence of compelling evaluative research. This paper argues that this "lack of progress" was at least partly due to a confusion in the implementation of the policy aim leading, inter alia, to the late adoption of a poor outcome measure that underestimated improvements in participation from the target groups and focused on the wrong stage of entry to higher education. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Adult education scholars have not yet examined the connections between the philosopher, John Dewey, and the lecturer on adult education, Everett Dean Martin. These scholars generally portray Dewey as indifferent to their field. However, Dewey's correspondence with a New York newspaper editor in 1928, recommending Martin's The Meaning of Liberal Education, raises interesting questions about these two men and their interest both in the meaning of adult education and in reflective thinking. For Dewey and Martin the value of education engaged in by adults was not merely voluntary participation in an activity but meaningful growth aided by reflection. This study examines the connection between these two figures and explains why Martin's views may have resonated with Dewey and how they shared critical values pertaining to adult education.

The protection of human health and the preservation of the environment are topics that form an integral part of the primary school curriculum in Serbia. However, research studies have shown that students do not have enough knowledge to contribute to the development of a healthy lifestyle and environmental awareness. The latest changes in school policy and curricula confirm that the relevance of environmental education has been recognized, but changes in school practice are yet to come. This article discusses the challenges encountered in the implementation of the intended curriculum and offers suggestions for changes to the curriculum, pedagogy, and teacher training in order to enhance environmental education.

The democratization of higher education through strategically driven science policies and higher education reforms is documented in this paper. These represent complementary policy actions oriented towards strengthening social, cultural and economic dimensions that allow higher education institutions (HEIs) to grow and to train graduates able to adapt to increasingly uncertain job markets. Drawing from the main achievements in Portugal during the period 2006-2010, our central argument focuses on the need to open higher education to all as a means to sustain a strong and specialized knowledge base. The results are related to the role of HEIs in fostering socially robust knowledge and supplying talented people and researchers to society in globalized socio-economic contexts.

Research shows that fathers' level of education predicts achievement of both boys and girls, with significantly greater effect for boys. Similarly, mothers' level of education predicts the achievement of girls but not boys. This study tests the mother-child education achievement hypothesis, by examining the effect of mothers' education on the maths test score of children, using data from 71 schools across 6 districts in Kenya. The findings of a multilevel random intercept model, based on a sample of 1907 learners reveal surprisingly negative effect of mothers' education on pupil's achievement, with an interaction effect of mother's and father's education being positive.

One of the ways that researchers have found to expand and inform global thinking about the impact of education is through international teaching experiences for students preparing to become teachers. "People have always been curious about the ways that societies acquire and use knowledge, the way that knowledge is translated into skills, the way that knowledge sustains and transforms societies, and the ways that children learn and are taught" (Association for Childhood Education International [ACEI], 2013, p. 1). Education diplomacy refers to cross-disciplinary, transnational sharing of ideas, theories, and concepts that advance education. This article addresses the effect of a short-term international teaching internship on American students' awareness of global diplomacy as it relates to the primary classroom.

In this article the role of comparative studies of music education within the globalized world is discussed by looking at a particular initiative in the general education field called "Didaktik and/or curriculum." By drawing on the characteristics and issues of this particular initiative, as well as on some critical perspectives that those characteristics and issues entail, the potential of comparative studies in the field of music education is addressed. In the course of drawing on those connections, the challenges of comparative studies that arise from globalization and "glocalization" are discussed, along with three levels of such studies that emerge when regarding them as meeting places for ideas, experiences, and competences. This discussion will suggest some possible benefits of future comparative studies of music education.

This article examines ways in which music education advocacy efforts have become disconnected from the unified visions and declarations of music educators espoused in the Tanglewood and Housewright declarations and are thus reifying the disconnect between what we value and what we say we value. We first analyze the policies posited by the recently formed Music Education Policy Roundtable and consider several counterarguments. Second, we suggest new directions in music education advocacy by discussing ways to make our programs more culturally relevant and valuable to our schools and communities. Finally, we conclude with a call for our professional organization to take a leadership role in situating the arts as an important element of American public school education by reigniting national aims discussions that lead to liberal and humanistic education policies.

The purpose of this paper was to present a historical background of online education, review its current status, and provide visions shaping its future in an attempt to understand its potential and limitations that will lead to the advancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning. Online instructors must understand the way online education has evolved over the years from previous conceptions of education and the wide array of implications and assumptions involved in the delivery of online education. Recommendations for the advancement of online education, including future research, are given.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not the principles of assessment in online education are reflected in the assessment activities used by the developers and administrators of actual online distance courses. Three online distance education programs provided at a large mid-west university were analyzed; the School of Continuing Studies--undergraduate distance program, the School of Business--distance MBA program, and the School of Education--distance graduate program. The results of the study showed that the assessment activities of online distance courses do not strictly follow the principles suggested in the literature.