Education & Pedagogy

This paper first explains outcome-based education and then considers specific questions related to serving gifted students in an outcome-based education school community, with special application to Pennsylvania. Outcome-based education is defined in terms of its emphasis on establishing learning outcomes, developing appropriate measures, and holding students and teachers accountable for achieving these outcomes. Nine ideals of successful outcome-based education are considered, including continuous and benchmark assessment, an engaging learning environment, and family involvement. Outcome-based education in Pennsylvania is discussed in terms of eight legally established goals for all students. Examples are given of the 53 student learner outcomes identified in the Pennsylvania Chapter 5 regulations. Components of the strategic plan required of every school district every 6 years are summarized. Possible concerns regarding outcome-based education and gifted students are raised. These address: (1) evidence for effectiveness of outcome-based education with gifted learners; (2) responsibility for selecting outcomes; and (3) possible consequences for gifted students of eliminating tracking and requiring all students to achieve performance standards. (DB)

This document presents profiles of 21 exemplary New Jersey elementary and secondary school teacher-developed programs and their outcomes. Thirty-nine teachers received two-year grants that allowed them to evaluate their practices and to prepare materials for dissemination. The programs are in the following subject areas: art; career education; computers and technology; English as a Second Language and foreign languages; gifted/special/alternative education; reading, writing, language arts; mathematics and science; social studies; and social and study skills. The profiles indicate the content area and grade level in which the programs were implemented. Each profile also includes information on the following: program overview, program objectives, what the research says about the instructional approach, program effectiveness, special resources, scheduling requirements, how to obtain further information, and bibliographic notes. Indexes list grant recipients for 1988, 1987, and 1986. (JB)

Minorities face a myriad of fundamental problems in educational programs. These problems are tied to ever increasing politics prevalent in higher education. Traditionally, politics has been linked to education raising questions concerning first, the role of higher education in reducing endemic problems confronting minorities, and second, the pursuit of educational goals by minority groups within the political setting. Since education continues to be the key for upward class mobility of minorities in the American society, there is a need for intrinsically engineered and institutionally established strategies that go beyond mere acceptability to productivity in higher education. Possible perspectives for minorities seeking to broaden their bases via education avenues in the future must include the development of time-management skills for goal-setting and goal-attainment of minority students. Institutions need to infuse multiculturalism into their programs through restructuring curricula, reforming testing and instruction, and adopt nontraditional methods. Four strategic phases can be identified for minorities in the 21st century: acceptance, acclimatization, responsibility and productivity. (Contains 49 references.) (Author/JB)

This study was conducted to identify characteristics of the most academically successful graduates of a teacher education program at the University of Alberta (Canada). Graphical data provide information about all of the graduates; tabular displays provide more specific information about those who graduated with distinction. For example, students graduating with distinction are more likely to be female than male; they include both young and more mature students; and students who are successful in the first year of the program continue this pattern in education and non-education courses throughout college. Implications of this data for teacher education programs, teacher educators, and collaborative partners in school districts, government, professional associations, and other faculties of the universities include the need to counter myths and negative publicity about the academic capabilities of prospective teachers; recognize diversity in gender, range of ages, program routes, majors, and educational history among outstanding students; and scrutinize teacher education programs for systematic barriers to success. (LL)

This presentation describes the distance education program at Memorial University (Newfoundland), which operates the Telemedicine Centre, including an audiographic, teleconference network that uses a combination of hardware and software to turn an MS DOS computer into an interactive long distance blackboard. Topics covered by the presentation include: (1) the distance education set-up at Memorial University, including the role of the Telemedicine Centre within the distance education framework of the university; (2) teleconference programs, 40% of which are health related; (3) print and teleconferencing in distance education at Memorial University; (4) the history of distance education at Memorial from the mid-1960s to the present; (5) institutional considerations, including broadening activities to include delivery outside the university curriculum; (6) support mechanisms and academic counselling for students; (7) management and staffing; (8) the importance of uniformity of technology; (9) support provided by instructors as content experts and providers; (10) course design, course selection, learner environment, and availability of libraries; and (11) program evaluation. (ALF)

Since 1992, Britain's Further Education Unit (FEU) has sponsored a series of projects, including two conferences and a number of case studies, to identify refugees' education and training needs and explore appropriate curriculum and accreditation of refugees who have professional qualifications. The projects established the following: (1) unlike most settled minority groups in Britain, refugees are often academically overqualified for lower-graded jobs but lack the language skills and work experience for high-level management positions; (2) in addition to requiring education and training, refugees entering further education (FE) require special English language support, guidance and counseling, assessment of prior experience, and work experience; and (4) individuals responsible for developing FE programs for refugees must consider organizational, eligibility, requalification/conversion, funding, and other factors limiting eligibility for and access to FE. Actions that the FEU can take to address the identified problems in providing refugees with the education and training they need for employment were identified. (Appended are names/addresses of organizations and publications concerned with refugee education and training and a list of the 10 organizations providing case studies.) (MN)

Historically, written and oral assessments such as essays and group presentations have been the predominant modes of assessment used to assess pre-service physical education students' and sport coaching students' teaching and coaching knowledge the pedagogical content knowledge of preservice physical education students and sport coaching students. Yet, at a time when the call for more practice-based teacher education is commanding more and more attention in the literature, key consideration should be given to the authenticity of assessment modes being used. Thus, one particular mode of assessment that could be considered is use of Practically Assessed Structured Scenarios (PASS). This article presents a four-way conversation conducted by university educators from four different countries who discuss the benefits and challenges of using PASS as a mode of assessment within physical education teacher education (PETE) and sport coaching education programs. An example of how a PASS assessment session might be organised is also included.

Thailand 4.0 is an ambitious reform strategy that seeks to offset the impact of the Thai aging population by transitioning the economy towards a knowledge-based society skilled in advanced technology. Education reforms are paramount for Thailand 4.0 to succeed; however, significant challenges exist that draw into question the capabilities and quality of the nation's higher education institutions. The low perceived quality can be attributed to government inefficiencies, pronounced education inequality between rural and urban students, declining K12 students' core curriculum performance, and a growing dependence on international students to support higher education institutions' financial stability. This paper discusses the numerous challenges limiting higher education institutions from achieving an improved perception of academic quality both domestically and abroad. The recommendations proposed highlight the need for additional government oversight and educational funding. National and regional education policies must be promoted in a clear, consistent, and measurable method, emphasizing short, medium, and long-term goals. Improved national examinations and institutional collaboration will further support the necessary step to address festering conditions limiting any meaningful transition towards a knowledge-intensive workforce.

This article discusses women's education in Modern Korea (1876-1945) by focusing on Cho Dong-Sik ([Korean characters omitted], 1887-1969), the founder of Tongwon Girls' School (Tongwonuisuk, [Korean characters omitted]) in 1908. When this school merged with Tongdok Girls' School (Tongdokyohakgyo, [Korean characters omitted]) in the following year, he took over the latter's management and devoted himself to women's education until his death. Cho Dong-Sik devoted his life to women's education with a firm belief in education and striving to do what he believed to be the best of his capacity. His concept of women's education reflected the concept of innate gender equality rather than the gendered hierarchal view of Confucianism in the traditional era. His early ideas on women's education reflected a Confucian notion of 'Wise Mother, Good Wife', but they gradually evolved into a more nationalistic version of the idea.

The coronavirus pandemic has instituted mandatory online education across Japan and many parts of the world. Using a semi-structured interview, we collected and analyzed students' reactions to online education across high-rank, mid-rank, and low-rank universities in Japan to determine learning outcomes among undergraduates with different pre-existing learning engagements. Our analysis revealed that online education proved effective on students with pre-existing learning engagement outside of class, which in compliance with prior research, only students at high-rank universities were found to possess. Therefore, we inferred that the implementation of online education has been successful at high-rank universities but not at others. This study refutes that the gap in learning outcomes between different university levels occurring as a result of the mandatory shift in the online education is a legitimate phenomenon. This study would serve as a new perspective and evidence for future discussions on equity in higher education.

In Sweden, ethics education occupies a prominent position in the curriculum, both in the general, introductory sections and as a part of the subject religious education. The aim of this article is to investigate teachers' insights regarding ethics education and to contribute knowledge about opportunities and challenges with ethics education, by analysing interviews with ten teachers. Five of the teachers used a fiction-based ethics education within a research and evaluation project, and five teachers used their ordinary ethics teaching. The analysis shows five different themes, time, the students' background, safe relations, lesson plans, and fiction, to be crucial for ethics education, in relation to both opportunities and challenges. The analysis shows that ethics is a subject that occupies a special position, giving students an education that points to the world and provides opportunities to encounter and explore important situations, in other words, an education that develops a multidimensional ethical competence.

With globalization and the knowledge society, the expansion of higher education has become an 'object of desire' among governments to bolster both economic growth and social development. In recent decades, just as in other countries, Brazil has expanded the system and become the fourth largest in the world in enrollment numbers, significantly increasing distance education at for-profit private institutions. However, massification without the necessary attention to quality and equity may present undesired consequences. Thus, considering Brazil has created one of the largest information databases that allow for studies with huge samples, we statistically analyzed performance in a wide scale national examination (Enade) with approximately 222,000 students, disaggregated by background and education modalities. The results back the argument that learning possibilities and performance in distance education are inferior in relation to in-person modalities and that the expansion based on distance education at for-profit private institutions may be reproducing inequalities within the higher education system in one of the most unequal nations in the world.

In Saudi Arabia, the education of students with disabilities has historically followed a segregated medical model. New research is emerging, however, about educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms (i.e., inclusive education). The purpose of this survey study was to examine the level of preparedness of general education teachers, and further investigate if there were significant differences in the beliefs of general and special education teachers based on educational background, roles and responsibilities, teachers' need for professional development, and where students with intellectual disabilities should be placed. Results indicate differences in attitudes between general and special education teachers overall. Though there were differences in teacher attitudes, the results for both sets of teachers indicated a strong preference for students with disabilities receiving services in segregated settings, particularly for students with more significant disabilities. Recommendations were made about the corresponding findings and overall implications for teacher preparation.

This paper presents a heuristic tool that can be used to analyse and reflect on the inclusion of digital competences in Health and Physical Education Teacher Education (HPETE) programs. The tool is used to identify and compare how HPETE programs in three Southern Hemisphere countries address digital competency as an aspect of learning to teach Health and Physical Education (HPE). The results reveal that the tool provides an effective way of analysing the development of digital technologies through HPETE. While these programs are concerned with the need for technology education, they do not rely on suggested international frameworks and have a different focus related to future teachers' digital competences. The lack of a systematic policy to improve digital skills in our data suggests that technology education has emerged from localised efforts. We suggest that our heuristic tool can support educators to refine the inclusion of digital competences in HPETE programs.

Bachelor of Music Education degrees, like many professional programs, require a high number of credit hours for graduation. The marketization of higher education and efforts toward equitable access to a college education drive efforts to eliminate "excess" credits. Despite state and institutional mandates to reduce credit requirements to 120 hrs, many programs still exceed this target with some reaching nearly 150 credit hours. This descriptive survey study with follow-up document review examined how schools of music are responding to credit hour reduction policies limiting credits at or near 120 hrs. The findings of this study confirmed tensions between accreditation requirements, credit hour reduction policies, and curricular aims of music teacher preparation programs. The authors present reports regarding influencing factors and strategies for reconciling credit hours. They further discuss emerging questions regarding credit allotment and course hours, implications for student wellness and curricular reform, and suggestions for future research.