Education & Pedagogy

Physical educators have long proclaimed that physical education class is an important academic discipline to a students' education. With learning objectives taking place in the affective, cognitive and psychomotor domains. Yet, physical education has been marginalized in today's society. One way to gain support of physical education is getting support from other educators. The literature suggests that teacher's need to promote their programs to gain support and lose the marginality tag that has been place on physical education. For this study the researchers surveyed elementary classroom teachers (n=219). The survey consisted of seven questions, and of the five questions the classroom teachers were asked to further explain their responses to the survey question. The purpose of this study was to obtain and better understand elementary classroom teacher's attitudes and perspectives regarding elementary physical education. Generally, elementary classroom teachers attitudes were positive towards elementary physical education. (Contains 2 tables.)

A critical assessment of extension education is needed to ensure there are adequate opportunities for students to study extension education and that the curriculum is relevant to today's Cooperative Extension Service. This descriptive study was conducted to assess extension education curriculum by identifying and comparing the courses being taught at land grant universities with the competency areas in the Ohio State model of extension education. Courses related to extension knowledge, leadership, and management; theories of human development and learning; program planning, implementation, and evaluation; and applied research were most commonly included in the curriculum. The lack of balance in the curriculum and the discrepancies between the Ohio State model and current practice indicate a need for continued discussion about the types of courses that should be included in extension education curriculum. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The market for management education has grown rapidly over the past 40 years. However, increasing competition stemming from new entrants such as for-profit universities and from the globalization of management education have changed the dynamics of the market thereby presenting business schools with difficult challenges. The process of disruption is offered as a methodology for rethinking program offerings, recruitment, marketing communications, and stakeholder satisfaction. Three disruptive ideas: business schools are not de facto management development centers, the market for management education is fragmented, and management is a profession and should be marketed accordingly are proposed to challenge the conventional thinking that underlies how management education is marketed. The intended result is greater differentiation among business schools, more customer-oriented marketing, and more effective management of the marketing mix. (Contains 2 tables.)

In this article, issues surrounding the status of special education teaching as a profession are investigated. First, the authors consider what makes an occupation a profession and examine the range of views of professions in American society. Second, the authors describe the evolution and developmental history of three established professions: medicine, law, and engineering. The authors then consider the developmental status of special education in relation to the histories of these three established professions. Using this information, the authors consider issues that professions typically face as they develop, including personnel supply and demand; public perception and status; and the role of the profession in personnel preparation. The authors conclude this article with a discussion of actions that will be necessary if special education teaching is to achieve the status of a profession.

As is well known, in the mid-twentieth century education in Russia experienced a powerful upsurge, rising to a position of leadership in the world. Interpreting this extraordinary phenomenon is vital in order to both understand the characteristics of Russia's social and historical development and to map out a strategy for the nation's long-term development. In this article, the author discusses the advances in education in the Soviet Union that were made possible by significant developments in Russian education in the nineteenth century, a period during which Russia moved closer toward a system of mass education. The author examines the situation in Russian education in the final prerevolutionary decades, during the era of the "great reforms," which began to be launched by the abolition of serfdom. (Contains 1 note.)

The focus of this study was to assess the impact of an online workshop on teachers' knowledge, attitudes, and self-efficacy beliefs toward sexuality education and intellectual disabilities. A pretest-post-test group design was implemented for this study. Sixty-eight teachers were randomly assigned to one of two training conditions or a control group. Results demonstrated that teachers in both training groups, information and information/reflection, scored significantly higher compared to the control group on the Knowledge toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Questionnaire, the Attitudes toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey, and the Self-Efficacy toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey. Teachers in the information/reflection group scored the highest of all three groups on the Attitudes toward Sexuality Education and Intellectual Disabilities Survey. (Contains 14 tables and 2 figures.)

This article reports the findings of a study exploring early-career music teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of their pre-service teacher education programmes in Queensland, Australia. It also explores influences impacting upon early-career music teachers' perceptions of effectiveness and early-career music teachers' perceived needs in relation to their preservice preparation. Findings suggest that pre-service teachers perceive a need for teacher education courses to be contextualized, integrated and allow for the continual development of knowledge and skills throughout their early years in schools. This research provides an empirical basis for reconceptualizing music teacher education courses and raises important issues that music teacher educators need to address in order to ensure that graduates are adequately prepared for classroom music teaching. (Contains 1 table and 6 notes.)

The Association of Independent Liberal Arts Colleges for Teacher Education (AILACTE), representing over 200 institutions nationwide, created the Models of Excellence (MOE) Committee to define exemplary qualities of teacher education preparation programs and to select and recognize programs that meet these high standards. With input from members of AILACTE institutions, the MOE Committee developed four Qualities of Excellence. To assess whether the Qualities accurately represent what AILACTE institutions value, the authors studied mission statements and purposes of AILACTE institutions and their teacher education programs. The results of the study and ensuing suggestions add to the professional conversation about what constitutes a quality teacher education program and reminds those in liberal arts institutions, and in the wider education community, of the unique role liberal arts colleges fill in the preparation of teachers. (Contains 1 table.)

The National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa (NPHE) (2001) identifies access as one of the priorities for the transformation of higher education. Consequently, several structural adjustments, policy shifts and enabling mechanisms have been put in place to enhance the efficiency of universities that will eventual lead to access for success. By focussing on multiple views and perspectives in relation to access, this article explores the extent to which access as a policy initiative has contributed to a radical transformation of the South African higher education system. The article presents an overview of positions and perspectives on access by critically analysing the new funding formula, the restructuring of higher education and policy shifts that foreground output and efficiency as main levers of the transformation of higher education in South Africa. (Contains 3 figures and 8 notes.)

Continuing professional education seems to be particularly suited to the online environment with opportunities to communicate anywhere anytime. This appears to be convenient and time efficient for the busy working professional. The views of practising professionals were sought and form the basis of this paper. Primary care physicians at two locations, who actively pursue continuing education, discuss the role of information technology in their daily professional practice and give their views about online education. This professional group is a good example of how a particular interaction style is significant to the collective cultural mores of a group. The paper concludes that these group preferences need to be taken into account when designing continuing education and some suggestions are made for design. (Contains 2 tables.)

The past three issues of "Cell Biology Education" (CBE) have provided overviews of education projects within the National Research Council's (NRC's) Center for Education, Board on Life Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Science's Office of Public Understanding of Science. In this article, the author provides summaries of two recently published reports that are likely to be of interest to higher education faculty. These reports are: (1) "Evaluating and Improving Undergraduate Teaching in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics," a report that examines the issues concerning effective teaching in STEM disciplines; and (2) "Improving Undergraduate Instruction in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics: Report of a Workshop," a report that summarizes discussions during a 2-day workshop in November 2002 and organized by the National Academies' Committee on Undergraduate Science Education. The author also describes a new National Academies Teacher Advisory Council. (Contains 5 footnotes and 2 figures.)

In addition to the pragmatic concerns that often drive the use of technology in theological education, there is a need to develop theological justification and direction for online education. Several Roman Catholic Church documents propose the "divine pedagogy," the manner in which God teaches the human race, as a model for catechesis or religious education. This can provide a rich resource for developing a theological pedagogy for online education. This is especially relevant to the justification for online education, because critics sometimes refer to the incarnational character of the divine pedagogy to argue against the disembodied nature of virtual education. This article addresses such criticisms and more constructively, relates several aspects of the divine pedagogy such as adaptation, community, and participation to teaching and learning in the online environment. (This paper was presented at Theology and Pedagogy in Cyberspace II conference in Evanston, Ill. on April 17, 2004.)

This descriptive-correlational study predicted performance of beginning agricultural education teachers on principles of learning and teaching (PLT) and Agriculture content (AgC) tests of the PRAXIS II examination using demographic and academic variables. Performance on the PRAXIS II was used for issuing initial teaching licenses to the agricultural education teachers. The study used existing records from the Department Agricultural Education at Iowa State University. Professional education GPA explained significant variability in PLT scores. Males scored higher than females on the AgC test. Agriculture GPA did not explain significant variability in AgC scores. Additional research should be conducted to determine whether similar results would be obtained with other licensure areas. Further research should explore the relationship between gender and performance on the AgC test of the PRAXIS II examination. (Contains 4 tables.)

More attention should be paid to four issues during the massification of Chinese higher education: (1) how to understand the prime cause of the expansion of higher education; (2) how to reinforce liberal education; (3) how to balance the relationship between equality and excellence; and (4) how to harmonize the relationship between the university, the government and the market. All these are based on the orientation about the ultimate goal of universities. Modern universities must make students and the public understand that their ultimate mission is places where stratagems for profits and opportunities of employment are provided; rather, modern universities should inspire students' rationalistic potencies, cultivate their ability to look upon the development of individuals, society and history from a long-term and all-around perspective.

This paper provides a historical overview of globalisation in order to illustrate how globalisation both shapes and is shaped by external forces. The authors use this perspective to generate a dialogue about the science education project "The Case of Sustainability by the Bay", and raise some questions to further the discussion on the impact of globalisation on science education. The paper also discusses the importance of recognizing the historic developments around globalisation in order to understand how changes in the global economy have shaped and continue to shape education through policy regarding funding, curriculum development and implementation, as well as trends in teacher preparation and education. The paper concludes by offering implications for policy makers, researchers, and teacher educators as it relates to science education generally, and globalisation particularly.