Education & Pedagogy

The Resource Group on Proprietary Schools in Connecticut Postsecondary Education, formed by the Connecticut Commission for Higher Education, studied the 50 private, profit-making schools licensed by the State Board of Education to give vocational instruction. The basis for recommendations made by the group was that proprietary schools be more closely integrated into the postsecondary education system to maximize choices for students and to use state expenditures more efficiently. The group's 14 specific recommendations are characterized by four stated needs: (1) to recognize the legitimacy of proprietary schools in higher education; (2) to maintain flexibility and responsiveness, the greatest strength of the proprietary sector; (3) to protect the autonomy of these schools; and (4) to insure equitable treatment of proprietary school students. Specific suggestions for the proprietary sector involve representation on the Commission for Higher Education, participation in program planning and coordination, a representative organization, contracts for student spaces, student financial assistance, an information system, provisions for degree-granting authority and for information dissemination, and creation of a master plan for the state. Pertinent public laws and organization bylaws are included in the appendices. (Author/MSE)

Part of a 4-volume set constituting a model to assist all school districts in Region 17 (Texas) in infusing comprehensive career oriented education into their existing instructional programs by 1980, this teacher guide contains materials for the first part of a 3-phase program designed to move the participant through a series of informational steps to a proficiency in developing comprehensive outcome based career oriented education topics. Section A provides awareness information on career education with special emphasis on the Texas state plan for career education. Section B presents an overview and indepth study of the seven components of career education. Section C (63 pages) introduces available occupational resources. Sections D and E deal with two methods of involving the community in the career oriented education program, i.e. resource persons and field trips. An assessment of student needs discussed relative to career education is conducted in Section F. In Section G, participants are introduced to and given experience in using the curriculum infusion format developed for the program. Skills learned in this section will be used in Section H in which participants have an opportunity to adapt topics from the Education Service Center career oriented curriculum. (TA)

Bilingual legislation in Texas requires that the Texas Education Agency provide for Bilingual Education Teacher Training Institutes. This manual was developed to serve as a guide for the implementation of such institutes throughout the state. Each institute meets six hours a day for five days. A detailed outline is given in this manuel for each of the five days. The topics to be discussed on each day are as follows: Day One: bilingual materials (Part I), parental and community involvement, and evaluation; Day Two: instruction in the child's first language; Day Three: second language methods and techniques; Day Four: culture and teacher pupil interaction; and Day Five: classroom management and materials (Part II). Appendix A contains samples of all of the participant handouts, such as articles on bilingualism by William Mackey, Rudolph Troike and Marguerite Smith; a materials list; sample lessons; evaluation forms; information on Spanish orthography; classroom terminology; etc. Appendix B consists of instructor references, such as the text of the Bilingual Education Act, information on instruction in the child's first language, the rationale for the culture component, and copies of transparencies regarding materials, self-contained classrooms, teamed classrooms, etc. (CFM)

The study has as its purpose the examination and comparison of career education movements in the United States and Great Britain and is perhaps best described as a pilot effort. Specific questions addressed included: (1) How do career education efforts in the two nations compare in terms of national commitment, philosophy, and students served? (2) What similarities and differences exist between the two nations with regard to career education program structure and focus? (3) What career education procedures, practices, and materials appear to be utilized by educators in both Great Britain and the United States? In order to develop the proper perspective for comparison, a rather brief summary of the career education movement in the United States is presented. This is followed by a similar summary of career, or to use the British terminology, careers education in Great Britain. Finally, a comparison of the career education movements and programs in the two countries is made. Career and careers education may be seen as integral parts of the school curriculum. In each case, emphasis has been placed on the involvement of youngsters in learning about and preparing to engage in work. (Author)

The document presents a broad overview of Federal involvement in adult education, provides basic information and a guide to primary source material regarding the Adult Education Act, 1964-1974, and suggests further research areas. An historical overview discusses the origins of the current Federal role in adult education through a brief chronological narrative focusing on three program categories which serve adults with less than a high school education: (1) education for civilian and government employees, (2) manpower development programs, and (3) programs to develop literacy and basic skills. The Economic Opportunity Act, 1964, and the Adult Education Act, 1966, with its 1968, 1970, 1972, and 1974 amendments, are examined separately in terms of: legislative history, purpose, definitions, grants to States, State plans and allotments, and other descriptive areas, where necessary. A summary of major revisions for the Adult Education Act reports revisions under the headings used in the legislation. Selected statistics for adult education State grant programs, aggregate United States, fiscal years 1965-1974, are tabulated. Topics for further inquiry regarding historical perspectives are suggested and an outline of selected events in the history of the Federal role in adult education traces activities from 1777 through 1969. (LH)

The final report of the Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW) Region II Adult and Continuing Education Staff Development Project, administered by Montclair State College, synthesizes the project's efforts for regionalization of staff development for New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Chapter 1 covers administrative structure, with the Coordinating Council as the key element and equal partnership granted to State directors of adult education and project staff. Chapter 2 covers regional project office activities, which have been categorized under: regional training, technical assistance, information sharing/dissemination, and coordination. The next four chapters describe the staff development activities of New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands, in terms of objectives, major results, and recommendations. A concluding chapter summarizes the overall project impact: increased commitment to ongoing staff development by the State departments, improved system of intra-regional communication, a recognized leadership role in competency-based teacher education as applied to adult basic education, increase in staff development staff in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, and increased cooperation between New Jersey and Puerto Rico in expanding and establishing adult education graduate programs. (EA)

Competency Based Teacher Education (CBTE) proposes changes in the traditional teacher education system, which include establishing behavioral objectives for student teachers and modifying basic teaching tools that all students must learn to master. CBTE also proposes that teachers colleges be conducted without failure. Critics of CBTE question the effectiveness of behavioral objectives as opposed to the traditional goals of teacher education. They point out that research has not yet identified those explicit, overt teaching behaviors CBTE claims necessary. Another concern of critics of CBTE is the apparent lack of consistency among individual advocates and disagreements over principles. Despite the widespread acceptance of the theories of CBTE, there are still those who maintain that solving the problems of teacher education is not through the learning of behavioral objectives. Their advice for reform of teacher education rests on an avoidance of the spurious claims of CBTE and a categorical denial of its questionable assumptions. Teacher education can be reformed only if entrance requirements to teacher education are stiffened- not abolished, if basic theory courses are infused with academic substance, and if methods courses remain in the curriculum. The establishment of these kinds of standards may move teacher education out of its academic morass. (DMT)

This study surveyed the role of public school adult education in Nebraska--the need and rationale for adult and continuing education in Nebraska, the place of adult education in the public schools, the role and responsibility of boards of education and school administrators, and the part played by the state and Federal governments were considered. A literature survey was done, as well as an examination of the Nebraska "Annual Term Summary Reports" and annual and biennial State Superintendent's reports. Recommendations pertaining to curriculum expansion and to program financing, administration, and status were based on these sources. Findings included the following: (1) there is much evidence that public schools should be actively involved in providing adult education and should be comprehensive; (2) school superintendents must accept and actively support adult education; (3) the Federal government has given public school adult education considerable support and leadership; (4) despite a long history and some noteworthy programs, public school adult education in Nebraska has not kept pace with national trends and has not yet been fully recognized as an integral part of the school systems; (5) the state of Nebraska provides no financial aid to adult education. (author/ly)

A critique of research in trade and industrial teacher education was prepared from a bibliography of 35 studies completed between 1963 and 1967. Some of the conclusions based on the studies are: (1) A sizeable number of the research has been conducted by students as part of a doctoral program, (2) Recent increases in federal funding have not seemed to greatly improve the sophistication of research which has been directed specifically toward trade and industrial teacher education, and (3) The majority of the studies have been concerned with either the teacher education process or the teacher education product. The critique of research serves as a foundation for a model designed to better facilitate the study of trade and industrial teacher education--the model represents the existing teacher education process which may be viewed as a general teacher education model. However, it provides a unique categorical system of process and effects as well as a series of interdependencies in trade and industrial teacher education. The simplicity of the model permits one to develop as much detail as necessary to study a particular problem and provides a starting point from which research models can be developed. (HC)

The purpose of this document was to generate a rationale and a design for planning a conceptual basis for developing common curriculums in vocational teacher education training programs. A review of the literature discusses heuristic approaches to teacher education, the rational basis for common programs, empirical studies in teacher education, approaches to determine content and behaviors of common programs, and the direction of research in vocational teacher education. The proposed research model would have the objectives of (1) determining the content of professional education needs for teachers of vocational subjects, (2) determining the competency levels required, and (3) extracting the common core of subject matter for professional education needs and training elements to terminally develop a listing of common needs for vocational teachers. The general design of the proposed approach is patterned after previous studies, but is modified to include (1) a population of vocational teachers representing five disciplines, (2) a factor analysis, and (3) an analysis of the data by the analysis of variance--the test statistic is the F statistic, and the critical region for the test of the hypothesis is the theoretical value for indicated degrees of freedom at the 1 percent level of significance. (MM)

For the purposes of (1) developing a forward looking approach to the multiple problems of social, political, and economic origin in the urban complex as they relate to the community college, (2) planning various ways in which Chicago City College (CCC) can prepare to meet changing needs of urban education tasks in the 1968-80 era, and (3) encouraging better student, faculty, and administration performances required for a more effective education, a planning conference was convened at CCC in 1967. David Bushnell of USOE spoke on the 2-year college's responsibility to provide comprehensive education, technological and occupational education, and adult education while attempting to teach suitable amounts of general education. His comments were structured around societal trends affecting education, signs of educational improvement, innovation at CCC, and ways in which CCC can serve the community. Harold Mayer, a University of Chicago professor, discussed the conditions that make CCC a significant contributor toward improving the educational and economic life of Chicago's residents. He spoke on employment opportunities in Chicago, education for employment, planning for the future, and challenges to CCC. A list of conference recommendations const tutes 14 pages of the report. (DG)

This seminar was held to focus the attention of personnel in vocational education leadership positions on two major problems critical to further development and improvement of teacher education, with 215 participants from 43 states and the District of Columbia registering. Problem areas of teacher education for differentiated staffing and for teaching the disadvantaged were the topics for intensive study. Position papers were developed for presentations by two task forces in the problem areas. Major presentations were: (1) Educational Personnel Development Agency and Vocational Education, by D. Davies, (2) Vocational Teacher Education: Concerns, Concepts, and Commitments, by R.E. Taylor, (3) A Challenge for Action, by R. Evans, (4) Differentiated Staffing for Vocational-Technical Education, by D. Allen and P. Wagschal, and (5) Vocational-Technical Education for the Disadvantaged, by E.W. Gordon. Reactions of task force members to the presentations and summaries of the work of committees are included. Some supplementary items are; (1) a partial bibliography for teacher education of teachers for the disadvantaged, (2) guidelines and plans for the seminar, (3) the seminar program, (4) an evening film program, (5) summary of evaluations by participants, (6) a listing of the seminar staff, and (7) a list of seminar participants. (DM)

From the point of view of the consumer, there is too much of a consumer-producer dichotomy in teacher education. Four distinct hopes and dreams, all interrelated, constitute selected aspects of this problem. First, teacher education should become a joint endeavor between inservice teachers and teacher educators possibly through the implementation of standards boards to encourage research, testing, and dissemination in the major problem areas of teaching. Second, teacher education should become an educational continuum in selection, initial preparation, induction into the profession, and graduate and continuing education by allowing inservice teachers to control their own continuing education, by encouraging local boards to contract with teacher education institutions for the establishment of new career programs for the disadvantaged, and by a reorganization of the certification process. Third, teacher education should be individualized and should emphasize sensitivity. Fourth, systematic orientation and induction of prospective teachers into teaching should be developed through the study of the sociology of the teaching profession in terms of essential teaching tasks or abilities. The youth of today, better educated, more sensitive, and more concerned, should be involved in the solving of these problems. (SM)

Seeking full use of the educational resources available to developing countries in the areas of rural education and agricultural training, this paper is concerned with ways in which the efforts of organizations and institutions concerned with rural development might be improved and expanded. A generalized critical analysis of different facets of rural education--primary and secondary education; vocational training centers; youth service (wherein youth are given the opportunity to work in return for food, clothing, shelter, and a few hours of education and training per week); government-sponsored farm (training) institutes; agricultural colleges; agricultural education at the universities; adult education; and teacher training--is given. Recommendations include change from a subsistence to a cash economy and increased agricultural output to the point of exportation; "gentle" innovation; formulation of a comprehensive rural-development policy aimed at raising living standards of the rural people through increased and diversified economic activity; coordination of activities through an executive governmental council which includes an experienced agricultural educationist and provides academic and advisory support through a university department of agricultural education; provision for manpower planning; and improvement of the status and role of rural teachers, trainers, and extension workers. (MJB)

During the past decade of adult education, the concepts of career education and lifetime learning have increased in importance. Federal involvement in adult education has increased without a conscious sense of direction, and will undoubtedly continue to increase, leading to greater political pressures on administrators. On the other hand, the increasing number of Federal agencies involved in the areas of education and social welfare has brought the Federal Government closer to local communities than at any time in the past. Adult education needs more career-oriented personnel in order to help achieve the goal of increasing educational opportunities for all population groups. With continued progress, only about a sixth of the employed persons by 1975 will have received less than 8 years of schooling. As the characteristics of the labor force change, career education becomes even more significant; therefore the Federal Government has placed strong emphasis on restructuring the curriculum to integrate career orientation. The coming decade promises massive growth in adult education. This report provides an assessment of adult education--its history, success, relationship to the economy, and innovative trends. (CD)