Education & Pedagogy

This manual sets forth the standards, criteria, and procedures used in the process of recognizing teacher education institutions and approving teacher education programs in Illinois. Section one provides a description of the recognition and approval process, while section two presents the standards for institutional recognition and the criteria for program approval to be used in assessing new and continuing institutions and programs. Eligibility and standards for consortium approval are also described in section two. Section three outlines the procedures for institutions wishing to be recognized as teacher education institutions. Section four is applicable to institutions seeking approval of an amended or new program and to institutions entering into new programs under a consortium arrangement. The final section describes the periodic review process for teacher education institutions in Illinois. (JD)

The area of online K-12 education is experiencing rapid growth, yet practice has greatly surpassed the research. This article looks to add to the field by examining special education students enrolled in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. There were over 2600 students in the state that were identified as special education students and enrolled in virtual schools in 2009 according to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The population of special education students in cyber school mirrors the population of special education students in brick and mortar classrooms, thus it is important to understand the characteristics associated with special needs learners as current research and practices are not designed to serve this population. Understanding the characteristics of this group is fundamental for instructional design and educational practice to serve the needs of these diverse learners.

In order to present an estimation of the internal rate of return (IRR) to higher education in Colombia, we take advantage of recent updates on the methodological approach towards earnings equations. In order to overcome the criticism that surrounds interpretations of the education coefficient of Mincer equations as being the rate of return to investments in education we develop a more structured approach of estimation, which includes more accurate measures of labor income and the role of education costs and income taxes. Our results imply a lower rate of return than the ones found in the Colombian literature, obtained through conventional estimation of Mincer equations, and show that the IRR for higher education in Colombia lies somewhere between 0.074 and 0.128. The results vary according to the year analyzed and the individual's gender.

Staff and student perceptions of what constitutes good academic writing in both further and higher education often differ. This is reflected in written assignments which frequently fall below the expected standard. In seeking to develop the writing skills of students and propose potential solutions to writing difficulties, a study was conducted in a university and a nearby further education college in the north west of England to explore barriers and solutions to AW difficulties. This paper reports the findings generated using unmoderated focus groups with second-year university health studies students (n = 7) and moderated focus groups with further education college teachers (n = 3 and health studies lecturers in a university (n = 6).

Along with the reform of Chinese Government public finance, higher education belongs to the public product, gradually changes from "fund investment management" to the "expenditure performance management". The evaluation of expenditure performance system becomes the key point of higher education investment mechanism reform. This article studies the level, mechanism, target, and method of higher education expenditure performance evaluation to explore the feasibility of establishing a unified and compared evaluation system, and carries it on the overall expenditure by the indicator system and evaluation analysis method to confirm the validity of university expenditure performance evaluation for higher education investment management. The findings show that expenditure performance evaluation is vital significant for establishing the new higher education investment mechanism based on performance by enhancing the fund investment efficiency and promoting the higher education development.

Preschool physical education has not been extensively researched. Furthermore, research in physical activity and physical education rarely seeks young children's perspectives. The current paper focuses on one aspect of a post-structural study concerned with investigating the place and meaning of "physical education" to practitioners and children at three preschool contexts in Scotland. The paper details the research methods employed to investigate the children's perspectives. It aims to encourage and assist other researchers to include young children in qualitative research related to physical education and physical activity. Furthermore, it is proposed that elements of the research approach taken, and methods and resources employed, may be transferable to other contexts, and therefore may assist in engaging other diverse populations in research related to physical education, physical activity and sport.

This paper presents some of the challenges and concerns for library and information science (LIS) education in India. In order to provide context for these challenges, the paper begins with a brief overview of higher education in India in general and then discusses the beginning of LIS education. It briefly summarizes LIS education in South Asia to provide additional context. The paper discusses concerning issues, including curriculum, accreditation, program delivery through distance education, and research in LIS. The paper goes on to highlight some of the challenges that LIS educators face in India. It concludes with suggestions about how some of these challenges might be addressed including implementation of the Recommendations of National Knowledge Commission. The need for a Model Curriculum in order for LIS to fill the gap between needs of the users and skills of library professionals is also discussed.

There is much more to learn from reading the biographical and philosophical writings of leaders in higher education about what education for librarianship was and should be than from the literature of library education itself. This article contains an alphabetical list with annotations of 23 books on exploring the issues and problems of higher education. The list started as 12 and was referred to as "Shera's Twelve Apostles," and has now expanded to 23. The article concludes with a few titles that do not fall within the self-imposed limits of the bibliography, but ought to be mentioned as being important to anyone concerned with library education. [For the commentary on this article, "The Four Rightly Guided Caliphs. Commentary on Shera, J. (1969). Twelve Apostles and a Few Heretics," see EJ1073513. This article was originally published in the "Journal of Education for Librarianship."]

K-12 online distance education is growing rapidly and many organizations focus on virtual schooling in Canada. The centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) was established in 2000 in Newfoundland and Labrador and has been offering numerous opportunities to rural high school students through online distance education. In this paper, the authors have outlined the historical development of distance education in Newfoundland and Labrador. The concept of distance education in NL is not a new phenomenon. It can be traced back in 1930s. Since then, several efforts have been made to enhance equality of educational opportunities to rural students. Despite the tremendous impact that the CDLI has had on distance education few related research documents or associated scholarly articles exist. At the end of the article some recommendations are made to improve virtual schooling in the province.

This article was comprises the keynote address presented by Gary D. Fenstermacher, at the Conference of the California Council on Teacher Education (CCTE), March 19, 2015, in San Jose, California. The subject covered Nobility, Competence, and Disruption and what they mean in teacher education. Fenstermacher presents his subject in four assertions: (First), "competence" consumes far too much of the rhetoric of education and nobility far too little; (Second), even though "nobility" is nearly absent from the rhetoric of education, it is alive but not altogether well in American schools; (Third), teacher educators exhibit a regard for both competence and nobility but their preparation programs typically stress competence and ignore nobility; (Fourth), and finally, "disruption" in teacher education may be the best hope for the earnest and simultaneous pursuit of competence and nobility. The remainder of the article presents the defense of these assertions.

Technology continues to shift the definition of what it means to be literate. As literacy educators in teacher preparation programs, we must consider how emerging and mobile technology may be used within coursework to not only create multiple ways to conceptualize teaching 21st century literacy, but also as a professional imperative. This article presents practical insights from two literacy education courses at two universities that built mobile technologies into coursework in ways that expand and socially network student learning. This work offers educators who lead literacy education courses in teacher preparation programs a variety of ways to incorporate technology that benefit students and are value-added, rather than simply added on.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Education, as lead institution, initiated a collaborative PT3 project to infuse technology into the teaching/learning experience for prospective teachers in the Greater Birmingham Holmes Partnership. It featured the following projects: (a) assistive technology, (b) mentoring between K-12 and higher education faculty modeling technology infusion during prospective teachers' field experience, and (c) preparation and mentoring for higher education faculty to infuse cutting-edge technology into content/pedagogical courses. The project reached prospective teachers in five teacher education institutions and enabled participants to realize effective uses of technology and assistive technology for teaching, instructional management, reflection, and lifelong learning. This practical piece serves to disseminate the ideas from successful on- and off-line technology interaction.

Piketty's "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" has brought the issue of inequality to the centre of political debate. This article explores contemporary research on the relationship between education and inequality in conflict-affected contexts with a view to seeing how Piketty's work speaks to these issues as a field of research and practice. The article provides a critique of Piketty's approach, arguing for a broader, interdisciplinary and holistic approach to exploring and addressing inequality in education in conflict-affected contexts in their multiple economic, cultural and political dimensions. In doing so the article also lays out an analytical framework inspired by cultural political economy for researching education systems in conflict contexts which seeks to go beyond narrow human capital framings of education and address the multiple potential of education to promote sustainable peace and development in and through education.

This study investigated the massification of university education in Nigeria as a result of the reforms in the education subsector that led to private participation in the provision of university education from 1999. The question of the study hinges on the percentage of access and if the increased number of universities has led to increased access. Using a checklist based on the objectives of university education and some policies of the Nigerian government such as sixty percent admission for science and technological based courses and forty percent for art and humanity based courses, the massification was examined in view of meeting the manpower needed for technological development of Nigeria. Suggestions were proffered on the inherent challenges of the massification of university education in Nigeria.

The challenges of ensuring the right to education are numerous, especially when working with marginalised populations in fragile contexts. Despite having the legislation, strong constitutional support, and even educational innovations designed to guarantee the right to education, a major gap exists in Colombia between political intentions and the reality in flexible non-formal educational models designed for children affected by conflict. This article highlights the experiences of teachers working in this context amidst limitations in the programme design and, often, inadequate training and support. This article explores the prospects of and challenges to guaranteeing the right to education amidst fragility.