Education & Pedagogy

In 1991, 58 Educational Excellence Teams made over 1,000 recommendations for improving South Carolina public schools. This publication briefly examines the accomplishments of the South Carolina educational system. A partial list of topics reviewed includes: accountability, accreditation and assessment, adult education/literacy, at-risk youth, business-education partnerships, community education, child welfare, curriculum reform, federal programs, finance and facilities, food service, instructional technology, interagency collaboration, parental involvement, personnel evaluation, restructuring/decentralization, teacher education, teacher incentive program, textbooks, and transportation. Each section describes actions taken to meet the recommendations made in each of the areas of concern. (LMI)

This bibliography lists 132 articles, books, handbooks, and research reports concerning distance education in Papua New Guinea. All but one were published between 1970 and 1992. It was compiled through a questionnaire sent to staff members of distance education institutions as well from reports submitted at meetings of the Papua New Guinea Association of Distance Education. The bibliography is arranged two ways: (1) alphabetically by authors; and (2) alphabetically by type of publication (articles in books, articles in journals, booklets, conference papers, handbooks, special journal issues, occasional papers, reports, and theses). The guide also contains a list of authors and a list of distance education institutions in Papua New Guinea. (KC)

This paper uses qualitative data from a survey of Higher Education students, who are also parents, to reveal changing attitudes towards, and perceptions of, education during the pandemic school closures in England. Thematic analysis reveals the stresses of 'homeschooling' and how parents reacted and adapted to these, including adjusting ideas around education. This adaptation mirrors the changing attitudes of parents found in pre-pandemic home education. The paper suggests that post pandemic education could be enriched by taking forward some of these ideas, particularly greater flexibility, personalisation and child autonomy in education.

Sexual education may vary depending on the sources and what specific topics are discussed. The present study examined themes and sources of sexual education in an early adult women sample (N = 581). Women recalled sources and specific topics and identified missing topics that would have been beneficial. Latent class analysis classified women into two classes: school-only sexual education and multiple sources/eclectic. The eclectic group recalled a greater discussion of contraceptives, sexual activity, emotional aspects, pleasure, and gender and sexual identities. Both groups noted a greater desire for realistic lessons, education on empowerment and normalization, and more variety of resources.

Education spending mandates are popular around the world, especially among central governments in large, decentralized nations, who find that they may be useful in influencing varied local fiscal behavior. I evaluate Indonesia's education spending mandate policy, which insists that district governments allocate at least 20 percent of their budgets to education. I find that the mandate has indeed induced some districts to spend more on education than they otherwise might have, thereby meeting the official target. However, the evidence indicates that the local spending mandate has had no significant effect on improving school participation and learning outcomes.

This paper is the first to estimate the cost function of Connecticut public K-12 education and to evaluate the state's school spending based on regression-estimated education costs. It finds large disparities across districts in education costs and cost-adjusted spending. A large percentage of the state's public school students are enrolled in districts where spending is inadequate relative to the predicted cost of achieving a common student performance target. Thus, many school districts, especially the high-cost ones, need a large amount of additional spending to improve student performance.

Quality education is an effective equalizer in an unequal world. The link between cyclical poverty and a lack of quality education is well understood, as is the inextricable link between the provision of quality education and sustainable economic growth. As governments, policymakers, civil society, and ordinary citizens work together to make quality education for every child a reality, the intersection with the development of competent school leadership becomes ever clearer. This article examines how the efforts to improve the quality of education must take into consideration the important role that principals and school leaders play.

This paper reflects on the use of methods in higher education research. My point of departure is that it appears that higher education scholars -- publishing their work in what we generally see as the relevant higher education journals of our field -- make use of a limited set of methods. Whereas there may be good reasons to select certain methods, there are some concerns. These concerns pertain to researchers not making use of the richness of methods available, possibly choosing easily applicable methods, or applying less rigorous methods. If this were the case, higher education research does not sufficiently live up to its aim to increase our (academic) understanding of key phenomena in higher education.

This case study explores leadership emergence within a faculty-based community of practice engaged in a scholarly interprofessional education initiative between nursing, medical, and clinical simulation educators within a transnational higher education context in the Middle East. Findings in this qualitative study revealed rich insights into the inner mindset of an interprofessional education systems convener as applied to the four dimensions of Wenger Trayner and Wenger-Trayner's (2021) theoretical model. The study identifies and presents the role and salient capacities of a systems convener in attempting to reconfigure professional identities within a unique interprofessional education landscape of practice.

In Islamic religious education (IRE), as well as in the context of pedagogical and theological Islamic Studies at universities, Muslim educators, teachers, and learners in Germany and Austria encounter each other in a cultural, religious, theological, and ideological plurality. However, the existing intra-Muslim plurality is often neglected and not the focus of pedagogical and didactic reflections, despite its great significance for religious educational processes. This article outlines possible contours of pluralism-fostering Islamic religious education and didactics based on intercultural and interreligious education approaches in Germany and Austria.

This article offers a perspective on teacher education and training for doctoral students in LIS PhD programs. It discusses literature related to doctoral teacher education and training generally and in the LIS discipline in particular and provides an analysis of teacher education curricular offerings and requirements in doctoral programs based in the United States. The article suggests that this function of LIS doctoral studies is inconsistent across programs and potentially affects the quality of education in the LIS field. The article advocates for further discussion and research on the implications of effective doctoral teacher education and training for the profession.

This article presents a project, Shapes of Water, funded by the Finnish Cultural Foundation, which gave music education students the opportunity to compose children's songs about climate change with the help of artists from two fields (contemporary circus and music) and a scientist (chemistry). The article outlines the ways in which the composing project challenged students' attitudes toward composing as a method for educating children about climate change, and brings together the experiences of the artists and scientist during the project. Finally, three focus areas are presented with recommendations for a sustainable eco-socially oriented approach to music education.

Adult education may keep older workers productive if they voluntarily engage in learning. Examining a generous partial retirement reform in Germany that encouraged early retirement among male workers, we estimate voluntary adult education activities for early retirees. Using county-level administrative data on all public adult education centers (Volkshochschulen; VHS), we employ a difference-in-differences approach exploiting the predetermined county-specific age structure of men for identification. The results show a strong increase in participation in adult education, specifically in cognitively demanding courses. This supports an intrinsic willingness of older workers to acquire skills and abilities independent of financial incentives.

By using principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) within online learning environments, teacher education faculty have an opportunity to break down barriers and create purposeful course content that will benefit all learners. The application of UDL helps teacher education faculty recruit learner interest, sustain learner efforts, and provide learners with options to apply knowledge and demonstrate understanding. Examples and strategies for using UDL in online learning environments are provided.

The concept of common good(s) is crucial in understanding higher education and its contributions. However, measuring global common goods in higher education has been largely overlooked. This paper proposes a framework to measure global common goods in higher education that contains five core dimensions (i.e., knowledge creation, people mobility, research collaboration, human well-being, and cultural contribution). The framework is based on mostly objectively quantifiable indicators that have broad applicability worldwide. This attempt would facilitate the understanding of higher education's quantitative contributions to global common goods and potentially help efforts to increase them.