Education & Pedagogy

One of the goals of the Bilingual Education Act, Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, was the involvement of parents and community members in the planning, implementation and evaluation of bilingual programs. A study of Chicago parents, some with children in bilingual programs and others with children in English-only programs, focused upon: (1) the extent and type of parent participation in bilingual program; (2) the extent of parents' knowledge of and training in the philosophy and goals of bilingual education; (3) parents' opinions of bilingual education; and (4) parents' evaluations of current bilingual programs. Findings and data presented indicate that Puerto Rican parents who have children in a bilingual education program have significantly positive attitudes toward and greater knowledge of bilingual education than parents whose children are not enrolled in a bilingual program. Recommendations are made for increasing parent participation and understanding of bilingual education. (EB)

This paper traces the development of consumer education and of the two closely related areas of the consumer movement and economic education. It is intended for use by graduate students in the three fields, teachers of consumer and economic education, material producers, education administrators, and other policymakers, including government, community, and consumer leaders. Following a brief introduction, the major section of the paper reviews the consumer movement for the time periods of varying lengths prior to 1900 and in the twentieth century. Historical conditions and developments are examined for the consumer movement descriptive of that particular era. A discussion of consumer education developments and then of developments in economic education for each time period follows. The final section reviews issues revealed in the historical survey. These issues concern orientation and approach, content and definition, placement of concepts in the curriculum, mandates and directives, quality of student materials, teacher preparation, networks for educator communication, special needs, and new directions. There are 11 pages of references. (YLB)

The formulation of the Energy Curriculum Institute by the University of Houston at Clear Lake City was based upon the idea that a new approach was needed to develop effective energy education programs. Institute staff assumed that education could no longer depend upon federal and state educational energy agencies for curricular or financial leadership for projects. A brief description of the institutes, including their funding, speakers and materials, instruction, grading system, and balanced perspective, serves as an example of a model for shared local resources which staff propose as the necessary new approach to energy programs. The model assumes that energy education programs: (1) depend upon teacher education programs; (2) require increased cooperation between universities, school districts, energy companies, government agencies, environmental groups, and others; and (3) will be funded increasingly by private local sources. The groups which provided significant support for the institutes through speakers, materials, and field trips are described. (DC)

This manual is designed to aid vocational education personnel in eliminating unlawful discrimination from vocational education programs, services, and activities. A mixed-media kit, it includes a user handbook, a set of transparency masters, and a set of audience handout masters. These components are formatted in question-and-answer style to facilitate speaker presentation of the basic Office of Civil Rights Guidelines concepts, issues, and requirements for nondiscrimination in vocational education programs. The 51 questions group around these topical areas: overview questions; requirements for the state agency; requirements for vocational education programs; and requirements for proprietary schools. These topical areas cut across the concerns of vocational educators and the issue of nondiscrimination in terms of policy, funding, monitoring, access to facilities, access to programs, equal educational opportunity, and student employment. Resources have been selected for the topical areas. (KC)

This supplement to the Consumer Education Resources Catalog (see note) lists teaching-learning resources available for preview at the Michigan Consumer Education Center. A subject index to multi-media identifies titles of films, video cassettes, multi-media kits, and games under seven specific subjects. These are (1) Factors Affecting Consumer Behavior, (2) Money Management and Credit, (3) Buying and Using Goods and Services, (4) Rights and Responsibilities, (5) Basic Economics of the Marketplace, (6) Sources of Information and Assistance, and (7) Teacher Education. An annotated listing of the materials--films, video cassettes, multi-media kits, and games--follows. Information provided may include some or all of the following: title, grade level, length, and year for films; annotation or list of topics covered; source; cost; and component parts. A listing of consumer education materials produced by the Center is appended. (YLB)

A major objective of this study was to determine how Research and Development (R&D) managers, executives, training directors, and academic administrators, perceive the future demand for continuing education in R&D as well as what new institutional arrangements, program innovations, and policy changes they believe will be necessary to meet future demands. Other objectives were to determine how such decision-makers view the current state of continuing education in the United States and how it is related to R&D. Interview schedules were developed that included provisional scenarios of projected changing needs for continuing education of scientists and engineers with different interview schedules developed for three relevant groups of decision-makers. Conclusions and recommendations as well as questionnaires are presented in this final report. (Author/DS)

This article describes the manner in which an authentic and culturally engaging service-learning model was infused into a multicultural education course for pre-service teachers. Service-learning programs integrated into education courses are often approached from a deficit perspective with pre-service teachers perceiving themselves as the privileged providing a service to diverse communities in need. Models of this nature tend to reinforce personal bias and stereotypes. The service-learning framework presented in this article is comprised of the following seven elements: (a) investment in community needs, (b) preparation and planning, (c) community engagement and empowerment, (d) curricula infusion of multicultural education, (e) bridging theory and practice, (f) recognition and celebration, and (g) reflection and evaluation. Infusing this model into a teacher education course engages pre-service teachers toward recognizing, appreciating, and understanding students who are racially and culturally different from themselves. (Contains 1 table.)

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to focus on relevant issues of entrepreneurship education, such as target groups for the subject. It advocates the need for inclusion of entrepreneurship education as a subject in the curricula of all primary, secondary and tertiary learning institutions in Malaysia and other developing countries. Design/methodology/approach: This paper analyses the current structure of entrepreneurship education at the different educational levels. Findings: Enterprise education should not be equated solely to any specific institutions but throughout all phases of education systems. Practical implications: Entrepreneurship education is reviewed in its totality. This is beneficial to educators and policy-makers that are involved in setting or facilitating entrepreneurship educational programmes. Originality/value: The paper provides an evaluation of the state-of-the-art of entrepreneurship education in Malaysia. The educational institutions will require much restructuring to enhance skill development for entrepreneurship. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Environmental education represents a growing area of interest in early childhood education, especially since the inclusion of environmental principles and practices in the Australian Early Years Learning Framework. Traditionally, these two fields of education have been characterized by diverse pedagogical emphases. This article considers how teachers in particular see different types of pedagogical play, such as open-ended play, modeled play, and purposefully framed play as providing opportunities for young children and teachers to develop knowledge through experiences about environmental education in early childhood settings. As a result of findings based on our qualitative research study involving early childhood teachers and children, an emerging model for thinking about environmental education in early childhood is proposed as a way of integrating these pedagogical emphases traditionally associated with environmental and early childhood education. Avenues for future research associated with this model are also identified. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 2 notes.)

This article discusses the ideal of education in relation to the pursuit of alternative perspectives in education, beyond its currently dominant subordination to the needs of the market. It presents the philosophical traditions of "paideia", "Bildung" and "liberal education", with special emphasis on the element they all share--namely, the perception of education as a self value, as an end in itself. At the same time, the article adopts a critical approach to the detachment of the ideal of education, put forward by the above traditions, from issues pertaining to man's material, productive activity, and the alienating relations developing within it. In order to present an alternative perspective, the ideal of education is seen in the light of the Marxist social ideal, with a focus on identifying the educational content of the prospect of labour emancipation. Finally, the article touches upon the future of education, which is presented in association with the possibility of transforming labour into cultural activity. (Contains 5 notes.)

Place-based mathematics education (PBME) has the potential to engage students with the mathematics inherent in the local land, culture, and community. However, research has identified daunting barriers to this pedagogy, especially in abstract mathematics courses such as algebra and beyond. In this study, 15 graduates of a doctoral program in rural mathematics education were interviewed about their attempts to integrate PBME in their classrooms. By using qualitative methods to code and categorize interview data, three themes emerged: (a) PBME was easier to teach about than to practice, (b) several factors contributed to participants' level of depth and authenticity in employing PBME, and (c) teaching place-based statistics was fundamentally different than teaching place-based mathematics. The findings suggest that making a distinction between mathematics education and statistics education would benefit research and practice in place-based education as well as in related pedagogies. (Contains 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)

This paper reports on the development of a science unit for Nunavut students and my collaboration with Louise Uyarak, an early years teacher and a graduate of Arctic College's teacher education program. The unit addresses light outcomes in the "Canadian Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes, K-12". More importantly, it incorporates aspirations of the local community, the District Education Authority, and the Nunavut government for bi-cultural education in science: an education that develops knowledge in and about science and knowledge passed on to the Inuit by their ancestors. Components of lessons are presented and discussed in the context of how Louise and I worked together to develop a resource that would embody the fundamental nature of culturally responsive teaching and "two-way" science learning.

Using longitudinal data of 18-to 20-year-old youths from the Youth in Transition Survey (YITS), the present analysis identified and profiled Canadian postsecondary education dropouts based on the theoretical framework of Tinto (1993). Pertaining to characteristics of pre-postsecondary education conditions, dropouts tended to be male, set low postsecondary education goals, and have a history of dropping out and drug abuse in high school. Pertaining to characteristics of postsecondary education integration, dropouts demonstrated a first-year postsecondary education GPA of 60% or lower, an avoidance of volunteering on campus, and a lack of personal connections on campus. In addition, dropouts have previously contemplated quitting, have low sense of belonging, rely on social assistance, have neither institutional scholarships nor parental loans, are married, and are pursuing postsecondary programs in trade schools or technical schools. Integration into postsecondary education is far more critical to student attrition than pre-postsecondary education conditions.

One of the goals of higher professional education is to develop generic student competencies across a variety of disciplines that play a crucial role in education and that provide wider opportunities for graduates in finding good jobs and more chance of promotion. In this article a list of generic competencies developed in Russian universities is compared with a similar list developed by a consortium of Russian and European universities (project TUNING-RUSSIA). Then there is a second comparison with a list of competencies taken from the CDIO Syllabus. This comparison indicates the degree of similarity among the lists and the possible convergence among universities all over the world. The results are taken from a survey carried out among Russian employers, academics, and graduates. The survey asked to rate each listed competence by its importance and the degree of achieving goals in the process of the education.

This article revisits debates about inclusive education from the perspective of the "Keeping Connected" project, a qualitative longitudinal research project focusing on young people with health-related disrupted experiences of schooling. Drawing on findings from this project, three main arguments are advanced and illustrated in relation to inclusive education. First, voice and subjectivity are not identical for these young people, and inclusive education should be concerned with both. Second, a generic orientation to difference and heterogeneity is an insufficient approach to inclusive education; the specificities of how marginalisation and lack of opportunity is produced for this particular group need attention. Third, schooling is a social institution working and producing effects as a process over time, and this has implications for inclusive education perspectives. The article argues that Osberg and Biesta's proposed framework for inclusive curriculum does not avoid the conundrum it identifies in other inclusive education frameworks, and under-theorises the social, curriculum and subjectivity.