Education & Pedagogy

Technology education has long struggled to establish itself as an equal partner in general education and often struggled to gain recognition for the value of its instruction. Frequently technology educators tout the effectiveness of their programs based on anecdotal evidence gathered from their classroom experiences on how their instructional methods empower students to learn. Although technology education originated without any meaningful input from cognitive science research, it appears that technology education instruction methods are remarkably consonant with findings from cognitive science that define good instruction. Specifically, there is considerable accord between how instruction in technology education and cognitively based instructional models such as collaborative learning, socially distributed expertise, design/engineering, and project-based instruction can be connected. The role of the cognitive research findings on instruction could inform a long over-due theoretical grounding of instruction in technology education. The absence of research on learning and instruction in technology education could be attributed to a lack of theoretical grounding in this relatively new field. This paper examines four cognitively based models of instruction and reviews the relationships between research in the cognitive sciences on learning and instruction in technology education. The consonance between the research recommendations from the cognitive sciences and practice in technology education instruction could serve to stimulate debate on the theoretical grounding of an emerging field of study.

Personalisation is an emerging "movement" within education. Its roots reside in marketing theory, not in educational theory. As a concept it admits a good deal of confusion. It can refer either to a new mode of governance for the public services, or it qualifies the noun "learning", as in "personalised learning". The concern here is with its intellectual affinity to child-centred education, one which the government in England has strongly denied. On balance, the government's view of personalisation is not of a piece with what may commonly be regarded as child-centred education. But the strong semantic accord between the terms "personalisation" and "child-centred education" provokes a question: why does the government not provide a term which unequivocally distinguishes its current "vision" for education from child-centred education? By retaining the term personalisation, the government purports to do two things: first, because of its focus on personalised "tailored" needs and co-produced solutions, it adapts education even further to a consumerist society; and second, because the term personalisation strikes a chord with the discourse of child-centred education, it blurs the fact that little to do with pedagogy or with curriculum has in fact been changed. The term personalisation generates a nostalgic appeal to better times long gone.

Under the apartheid state, higher education was structured to maintain and reproduce the subordinate social and economic position of non-Whites. The post-apartheid higher education sector suffered from fragmentation along racial lines, a lack of sustainability, and a structural incapacity to meet the challenges of restructuring and development. After more than a decade of reform, the Ministry of Education announced the plan to restructure the higher education system, consolidating 36 institutions into 21. Institutional mergers were perhaps the most significant structural change to the higher education system since post-apartheid desegregation of universities. This article examines the role of these new higher education institutions in promoting social cohesion within the university and by extension, the society at large. The institutional functions of the new universities are evaluated on the basis of the following indicators: (a) curriculum, (b) institutional climate, (c) perception of fair treatment of all students and (d) mechanisms to adjudicate community differences. Although all these aspects of institutional functions are important, it is the perception of fair treatment across the higher education system that informs desirable behavior that can promote social cohesion in society as a whole.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on the nature of technology and engineering education provision in developing economies, focusing on Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach: The paper draws on recent developments in the shake up and implementation of new measures to call for quality technology and engineering education in the country, following changes brought about by new education and administrative structures and the new policies being promulgated by both the now democratically elected government working in tandem with universities throughout the country. Issues relating to methods, curriculum, contents, quality and related are examined and reported. The role of planning, input from engineering industries, improved competition and expanded export of engineering services are all investigated and presented. Findings: The paper finds that the establishment of stability in governance of state and universities is signaling positive and upward trend in the implementation of informed policies for improved technology and engineering education in universities which could herald improved economy and conditions of life in the country. Originality/value: In the wake of new developments in education in emerging economies such as Nigeria, the need to take stock and review systems for technology and engineering education is highlighted. Using available information, issues affecting present developments and education practice, some suggestions are provided for the future.

The focus of this article is to provide a child rights analysis of the equity of educational experience afforded to young people outside mainstream schools by alternative providers. The dilemma for policy and existing practice is that alternative education supports children's right to an education as stated in Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child "when schools find they cannot". However, in accepting alternatives are we compromising those same children's rights to achieve access to education on the basis of equality of opportunity? This is a right enshrined in the same article. In order to explore this dilemma, the present paper will firstly consider policy and practice concerns with regard to alternative education, drawing on periodic reports from the Committee on the Rights of the Child for the United Kingdom and how these findings relate specifically to the situation in Northern Ireland. The paper will then look at the articles relevant to the issue of exclusion from education within the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. From this consideration of legal standards applicable to the issue of exclusion, the paper will focus on the complexities of the issue within the context of current debates on marginalized young people and education.

The imperative to provide education for communities affected by man-made or natural disaster has been strongly articulated. Since the mid 1990s, a growing body of literature and research has emerged in the fledgling field of "education and instability"; however, there is still a pressing need for high-quality, applicable research. The article argues that a scholarly attention to the insights and questions of "education and instability" that privileges practitioner involvement may deepen and add rigour to existing insights. Such research may also raise questions and create critical discussion concerning assumptions about conflict, emergency, aid, policy, participation and service provision, and other issues in education and instability. A budding scholarly community at the University of Oxford is the Conflict and Education Research Group (CERG), comprising researchers who have practical experience of working with development agencies and in crisis situations. The group studies what role there might be for education, broadly defined, in promoting stability, peace and development. The article outlines the CERG's emerging research agenda along with its commitment to moving beyond the policy-practice divide to produce meaningful scholarly research with applicable findings and clear dissemination strategies. (Contains 5 notes.)

The heart of Little Big Horn College (LBHC) is wrapped in the passion of Joseph Medicine Crow. Medicine Crow, 96, a nationally renowned tribal elder and historian, has been influencing education on the Crow Reservation in Montana for decades. As one of the founding members of the Crow Education Commission, he helped start LBHC in 1980. Medicine Crow deeply influences the administrators, faculty, and students at the tribal college. His vision to provide education for Crow people continues to live through the other leaders of the college. Not only has Medicine Crow contributed vision to the college, he has contributed his time and his archives. As a long-time tribal historian, Medicine Crow has been collecting oral histories, first-hand accounts, academic papers, photographs, and other historic gems. He has made an impact in Indian Country and across the nation. He is well-respected and has influenced Indian education. In recognition of that, the National Indian Education Association honored him as Elder of the Year in 2009. For all of his medals and national recognition, education is the issue at the forefront of Medicine Crow's mind, specifically education in Crow Country. This article describes how he inspires students with his groundbreaking achievements and service as an LBHC adjunct instructor and lifelong educator.

The Open University (OU) is the UK's largest university, with over 200,000 people studying, part time and at a distance, a range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses and packs. Research and development carried out at the OU's Centre for Outcomes-Based Education (COBE), has provided a new way of enabling students to be accredited at higher education level for their learning in the workplace. This approach to the assessment of work-based learning (WBL) involves recognizing the learning that has taken place below higher education (HE) level and enabling students to achieve 30 credits at higher education level through specially designed assessment. WBL below HE level is represented in the UK by National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 3 qualifications, such as National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ's). This new assessment strategy, based on the theory of self-efficacy put forward by theorists such as Dweck (1999) and Bandura (1997), involves mapping learning outcomes from relevant NQF level 3 qualifications onto the generic learning outcomes for 30 credits of work-based learning at higher education level. Students who have completed this conversion course are therefore in a good position to further their studies at higher education level. (Contains 1 table.)

Today, American education faces a crisis. It is not too extreme to say that public education hangs in the balance. Anyone who has read the history of American education knows that there have always been critics. But they did not want public education dismantled. They wanted it to be better. Today, however, there are critics who believe that public education itself is obsolete. The latest manifestation of this view can be seen in a report released in December 2006 called "Tough Choices or Tough Times" (National Center on Education and the Economy, 2006). It came from a group called the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce. The commission says that the public school system is obsolete and the teachers are not coming from the right strata of society. The most outrageous proposal of the commission is that in the future, all public schools should be turned over to private managers. In this article, the author contends that the recommendation for universal privatization is irresponsible and the move to privatize every public school has frightening implications. Public schools are not a private good. They are not like shoes or soap or cars, where people shop around to find the best thing at the lowest price. Schools are a public good. There must be a good public school in every neighborhood. Challenges for teacher education today are discussed.

Higher education in the Czech Republic is going through an important transition, both politically and economically. New methods of financing university operations are necessary during the transition to a market economy as government funds are increasingly being drawn to other areas. Government and academic officials have worked together in the development of the Higher Education Acts of 1990 and 1998, both of which provide more academic freedom and opportunities for higher education institutions to develop programs that will meet their economic needs. Some of the key elements of change and diversification in higher education were: (1) the regionalization of higher education through the tying of regional institutions to some financing from the region's industry and increasing the role of local government support; (2) the creation of bachelor's programs and their expansion of enrollments in which is expected to account for at least 20 percent of the flow of higher education graduates by 2000; and (3) a shift in student financial support from the government to students and families (e.g., tuition fees and private education). Because of similar political and economic structures in all former postcommunist countries, policy makers and educational researchers in transitional countries around the world may find the Czech transition useful in finding alternative methods of financing higher education. (Contains 2 tables.)

In South Africa, the notion of an African Philosophy of Education emerged with the advent of post-apartheid education and the call for an educational philosophy that would reflect this renewal, a focus on Africa and its cultures, identities and values, and the new imperatives for education in a postcolonial and post-apartheid era. The idea of an African Philosophy of Education has been much debated in South Africa. Not only its content and purpose but also its very possibility have been, and continue to be, the subject of understandably passionate exchanges. In this paper, after discussing some of the constitutive features of African Philosophy of Education, we indicate aspects with which we are sympathetic. Our central question is whether African Philosophy of Education is the revisioned, "typically African" philosophy of education that it is claimed to be. We argue that it has revealed certain tendencies that are remarkably similar to characteristics of Fundamental Pedagogics, the repressive doctrine complicit in apartheid education that it claims to replace. More substantially still (and this is a feature that has wider ramifications for philosophy of education internationally), African Philosophy of Education, by labeling itself uniquely and distinctly "African", runs the risk of insulating itself not only from interaction with the wider (i.e. non-African) world but also from any critical interrogation.

Interest in emotional, social, and moral (ESM) concerns in K-12 education in North America has grown considerably during the past decade. This increased concern is considered a response to the increased prevalence of social problems experienced by children and youth, such as bullying, substance abuse, and depression, and to research indicating that schools can influence the likelihood of students having these types of problems (Schonert-Reichl 2000). Research and theory in psychology which suggests that emotional development is an essential foundation of cognitive development and, therefore, is related to academic achievement also has contributed to this expanded interest (Martin and Reigeluth 1999). A variety of names, including affective education, social and emotional learning, values education, character education, caring education, and moral education, have been used in discussing ESM. Despite the prevalent use of these terms in the literature, the school programs that actually have been implemented under these various auspices are discussed rarely. Further, little, if any, research has explored the relative effectiveness of various approaches. Through a review of the literature, this article provides an overview of the history of ESM education in North America. It also outlines the spectrum of contemporary approaches to ESM education and explores the similarities and differences of these approaches, making suggestions for further theoretical and empirical work. (Contains 1 table.)

On 19 September 2003 in Berlin, V.M. Filippov, the minister of education of the Russian Federation, signed an agreement by which their country joined the Bologna Declaration, which calls for the creation of a unified, Europe-wide system of higher education. One explanation for this turn of events in the transformation of education in Russia has to do with the objective necessity of "becoming a part" of the world educational domain. It is a circumstance that has been stipulated for a long time in their legislative documents on education, and now very specific (including legal) circumstances make it essential that they join the Bologna Process. The Bologna Process orients institutions of higher learning toward the goal-directed accomplishment of the tasks of the creative development of the individual (specifically an individual who has a profession) and, indispensably, the citizen. It spells out very clearly the role that the universities must play in this era of the democratization of society, as a necessary condition of that process (education that is open and accessible to everyone); it emphasizes the vitally important function of education (that of harmonizing nature and human activities), the civic aims and responsibility of education, and its role as a civilizing value (the preservation of the traditions of European humanism and the development of cultural values).

This article explores the theoretical underpinnings of citizenship education as well as issues relating to educational practice to identify and discuss challenges that divided societies, which are characterized by conflicting national or cultural identities, may face in the development and implementation of such programs. Formal education curricula from Northern Ireland and Quebec are compared to identify how they promote citizenship in their divided societies. Both societies are characterized by high levels of segregation in education as well as other aspects of social and political life, but they differ in the extent to which conflict and violence are features of these societal divisions. In the authors' examination of citizenship education in Northern Ireland and Quebec, they outline a brief theoretical framework underpinning citizenship education and discuss issues affecting citizenship as a tool for promoting community relations and peace in modern societies in general and divided societies in particular. Building on this theoretical framework, they describe the sociopolitical context for each society and provide an outline of the educational systems and previous curricular initiatives (explicitly or implicitly) aimed at promoting citizenship and community relations. They then offer a critical examination of the formal citizenship education curricula in the post-primary school sector of each society. They conclude with a consideration of the implications of citizenship education for long-term peace in divided societies. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

This article reviews the contributions of Cliff Malcolm while in South Africa during the period 1997-2005. It focuses on his contribution to the fields of science education, teacher education, learner-centered education, transformational outcomes-based education and HIV/AIDS education. In this paper we provide snapshots of his work as an academic, researcher, writer and humanist as he attempted to redefine scientific literacy to acknowledge the primacy of context and culture as mediating influences on meaningful learning, especially in rural communities. We make brief reference to his use of the Foucauldian conception of power to articulate the complementarity of power and energy as an expression of agency and action, the ultimate goal of a relevant science education. An important aspect of his empirical work with research units, universities and schools, was promoting an awareness of the foundational value of learner centered education which acknowledged the child as a "collective self" rather than an "autonomous self" as derived from the Western canon. Critical of imposing Western conceptions of science on Africa, he appropriates the indigenous concept of "ubuntu," to demonstrate the danger of dichotomizing and essentializing scientific truth while simultaneously marginalizing indigenous knowledges.