Education & Pedagogy

Reviews materials developed by the now-defunct Russian President's Coordinating Committee for Handicapped Affairs. Reveals a system barely meeting the needs of its handicapped citizens and hampered by inadequate accounting and reporting. Provides a broad range of information on the handicapped in Russia based on approximate data. (MJP)

Explores First Nations (Native American) science education from a cultural perspective. Recognizes science as a subculture and contrasts scientific and Aboriginal ideas about science. Provides a description of the rationale and a series of steps toward a cross-cultural education. Contains 125 references. (DDR)

Reviews two books that seek to define the nature and direction of Russian educational reform: "School Reform between 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow'" (Eduard D. Dneprov, Russian Minister of Education, 1990-92) and "Russia: Education in the Transition" (Stephen P. Heyneman of the World Bank). Criticizes their unrealistic assumptions about politics, finance, and educational management. (SV)

Suggests that school books present a hidden curriculum that restricts the thinking and learning of students, that the high rate of U.S. illiteracy can be attributed to the method by which reading has been taught since World War II, and that encouraging students to read "real" books will ultimately improve the quality of education. (LP)

Describes the compilation of family portfolios, which provide students an opportunity to practice home-school communication in parent education courses within undergraduate and graduate teacher education programs. It delineates the process used to gather information about selected children and families, to plan developmentally appropriate home learning activities, and to compile the family portfolios into useful reference materials. (DB)

Studying the environment outdoors integrates subjects and motivates students at Huntington Area Middle School (Pennsylvania). A study of 40 schools that use the environment for interdisciplinary education found improvements in student achievement, communication, problem solving, strategic thinking, attendance, and behavior. Consequently, the environment is a valuable tool for meeting the rigorous goals of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. (TD)

This article discusses overall trends and commonalities among previous articles on inclusion in the United Kingdom, Ireland, India, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. It concludes that inclusive education must be viewed in a broader context that looks at school reform and the societal context. Teacher education is stressed. (Contains 8 references.) (CR)

This article analyzes policy and legislation pertaining to special needs education in South Africa. It examines South African research and projects aimed at developing sustainable inclusive education policy and practice and concludes that sustainable inclusive education programs must be linked to programs for social and economic growth and employment. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Respondents (n=158) from 23 institutional members of the Cooperative Education and Internship Association evaluated cooperative education/internship students' competence and supervision issues; 56% felt they were more difficult to supervise than regular employees but perceive their work-related skills to be the same or better; 63% were interested in supervision/management training. (SK)

Developed a valid, reliable physical education teachers' physical activity self-efficacy scale for teaching classes in which students were engaged in high levels of physical activity. Results offer preliminary support for the psychometric properties of this instrument, which can help understand physical education teachers' efficacy in overcoming barriers to teaching physically active classes. (SM)

Examines the hidden issues caused by the format-shifting effect in distance education. Findings of a study of undergraduate students indicated that learning format shifting is a period of dilemma that occurs during the early period for learners during their first distance class. Overlooking the issue would result in problems that could affect distance education efficiency. (AEF)

Describes the evolution of higher education in Romania after 1990 and presents the results of a survey concerning the relationship between higher education and the business community in Romania. The survey had as its main objective to analyze the evolution and performance of graduates, from both private and state universities, in the labor market, based on companies' experiences with them. (EV)

Discusses how a comparison of the philosophical orientations, content and methods, and teacher preparation in multicultural education revealed some similarities in the two systems as well as some very instructive differences. Suggests that every teacher education program should include field experiences with diverse students so that prospective teachers can gain confidence working with students from backgrounds different than their own. (SG)

Asserts that California's current education reform effort has deficiencies that exacerbate some problems and ignore others, suggesting that while standards themselves are not bad, problems arise when standards become exceedingly prescriptive and testing becomes the main tool of improvement. Some points the article discusses: silencing debates about multiculturalism, promoting anti-intellectualism and creating an authority hierarchy that locates communities at the bottom.(SM)

Studied policy maker attitudes toward education and education reform in general, focusing on educational vouchers. Survey responses from 89 state legislators from 6 states show that policy makers generally accept the market arguments used by voucher supporters but are sympathetic to equity concerns and funding issues raised by voucher opponents. (SLD)