Education & Pedagogy

This publication is one of two prepared for a South Asian colloquium on issues related to teacher training in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. This volume includes four papers presented at the conference. The papers present an analytical view of both policy and practical measures on teacher education. The first paper, "The Professional Development and Training of Teacher Educators" (Elwyn Thomas) examines recruitment, training, and career development in teacher education. The second paper, "Teacher Education: The Quest for Quality" (Motilal Sharma), looks at issues in teacher education in Asia, including World Bank involvement and regional cooperation. The third paper, "A Critique of Policy and Practice in India and Bangladesh" (Adarsh Khanna), analyzes preservice and inservice teacher education in India and Bangladesh, the chief strengths of the Indian and Bangladesh systems, and the importance of aid agency projects. The fourth paper, "Initial Teacher Training in Pakistan" (Haroona Jatoi), explores preservice and inservice teacher training in Pakistan. (Individual papers contains references.) (ND)

Quality physical education programs taught by well-trained physical education specialists are an integral part of the total education of a child. This Digest describes the history and development of national standards for physical education by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). In 1995, NASPE published a general description of content standards by grade level and a variety of techniques appropriate for assessing student achievement. The National Standards for Physical Education indicate that a physically educated student: (1) demonstrates competency in many movement forms and proficiency in a few; (2) applies involvement concepts and principles to the learning and development of motor skills; (3) exhibits a physically active lifestyle; (4) achieves and maintains a health-enhancing level of physical fitness; (5) demonstrates responsible personal and social behavior in physical activity settings; (6) demonstrates understanding and respect for differences among people in physical activity settings; and (7) understands that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression, and social interaction. To achieve these standards a quality physical education program focuses on health-related fitness and behavioral competencies and motor skills needed for lifelong engagement in healthy and satisfying physical activity. Implications for instruction and program support are indicated. (Contains 14 references.) (LL)

A project developed a model Master of Science in Education curriculum for health professionals that was based on principles of adult learning. The completed curriculum included course content, instructional alternatives, an implementation plan, and an evaluation plan. The following methods were used: a review of literature on adult education and health occupations education; telephone interviews of hospital staff development personnel and health program instructors; focus groups of health professions educators and current students in health professions education; course offerings and degree requirements; catalogues of graduate education programs; and internal and external experts from regional institutions. Adult learning principles, learning needs, and barriers were identified. Four courses were developed: learning theory, teaching methods, measurement and evaluation, and research methods. The proposed degree requirements were 30-48 semester or 40-72 quarter units. The model for the project expanded Davis' (1993) model into eight components: student, learning preferences, content, teacher, teaching styles, environment, outcomes, and assessment. Students would be provided theory and opportunities to develop skill in both areas of assessment in health professions education: classroom performance and clinical competence. (An attachment of the developed curriculum includes educational philosophy, educational outcomes, and curriculum design.) (YLB)

The summer 1993 Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) "Networkshop" focused on the need for teacher education programs to prepare future teachers to work with and teach effectively increasingly diverse student populations, and the need to increase the number of minority teachers. A major focus was on how policy and decisionmakers can recruit, prepare, and retain students from different ethnic or language groups in teacher education programs and then as teachers. Keynote speaker Ana Maria Villegas outlined four key areas: demographic trends, preparing teachers for diversity, increasing the pool of minority teachers, and policy considerations. She then explored "Models and Strategies for Improving Recruitment Preparation and Credentialing." As part of a panel of teacher education students, teachers, and education decisionmakers on "Restructuring Teacher Education to Prepare Teachers for Diversity," Jacqueline Jordan Irvine outlined 10 essential components for restructuring teacher education for diversity. Another panel presented government and university perspectives in restructuring teacher education, with participants from Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas. Finally, a number of strategies in the area of recruitment, preparation, and credentialing to strengthen and enrich opportunities for teaching for diversity are outlined for state policy arenas, colleges of education, and local school districts. A list of Networkshop participants is included. (ND)

This paper is intended to support art education advocates and policymakers as they formulate strategies for broadening the base of school offered visual art experiences through discipline-based art education (DBAE). The study is divided into three sections. The first section of the paper concerns assumptions, ideas, and perspectives underlying the analysis in the study. The purpose of the second section is to put arts education, DBAE in particular, in context. The second section has three sub-parts: historical background and general commentary; five prominent features of the educational policy landscape; and arts education and DBAE vis-a-vis the five features. The third section consists of five advocacy recommendations. Advocates are urged: (1) to bring in to focus, highlight, and take advantage of the potential of DBAE arts education to foster students' reasoning and problem solving abilities; (2) to assume a more aggressive posture with regard to arts education serving students of marked need; (3) to advance DBAE arts education as supportive of attempts to professionalize teaching; (4) to legitimate the arts by advancing efforts to assess student performance and by accounting for progress in expanding the role of the arts; and (5) to cause exemplary arts education materials to be developed, taking advantage of state-of-the art technologies. Contains 17 references. (MM)

The Clearinghouse for Immigrant Education (CHIME) facilitates public access to literature, research, teaching materials, and human resources to promote the effective education of immigrant students. This document contains four issues of "Selected Readings," a periodic publication that presents resources from the CHIME collection on a given subject. The 85 entries are grouped according to subject; are listed alphabetically by author; and include publishing date, title, journal or publisher, number of pages, an abstract, and ordering information. "Effective School/Family Interventions for Migrant Students" is broken down into the following subtopics: migrant students profile and educational barriers; school staff training and teaching strategies; and home/school partnerships."Resources on School Restructuring: Admission and Placement" covers school admission, tracking, and ability grouping; alternatives to tracking and ability grouping; and special education. "Diversity in Early Childhood Education" includes the subtopics multicultural education; linguistic diversity and second language learning; developmentally appropriate practice--enhancing diversity; cultural diversity and parent/family involvement; and assessment and retention--working towards equity. "Parent Education and Parent Training" was designed for Mobilization for Equity partners and is divided into two sections. The first is aimed at parents, the second at project staff and administrators. Includes ordering information for those items available from CHIME. (TD)

This report analyzes data from a survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia designed to study changes in organizational structure within state education agencies (SEAs) and the impact of those changes on management and leadership in special education. completed forms were received from 48 SEAs or a 94 percent return rate. The report discusses education reform and needed changes within SEAs, barriers to change, and the new roles being forged by SEAs. The results of the survey indicate that the majority of SEAs had experienced reorganizations since 1992; over half of the SEAs indicated that the unit responsible for special education has changed through reorganization; changes in special education units included increased team efforts, broader support for all children, and increased collaboration; SEA reorganization has tended to occur in those states in which the Governor has been in office for more than 23 months and in which superintendents/commissioners of education have been in their jobs for 1-2 years; and 23 respondents reported decreases in special education staffing levels and an increased use of outside contracting to carry out specific special education leadership responsibilities. Appendices include the survey instrument, tabulated results, and examples of SEA organizational charts. (CR)

This paper examines elementary education in Brazil, including the most important and difficult problems teachers and teacher educators face, and the main theories and theoretical frameworks that researchers have used in studying these problems. Elementary school teachers complete a special course, corresponding to high school rather than university level. Most elementary school teachers are female, from low middle class families, with little education. Many work in schools with few material resources, earn low salaries, and have low professional status. The most difficult problems facing these teachers include: lack of preparation for teaching poor children with economic, social, and cultural backgrounds different from their own; teacher education programs that ignore practical knowledge and expertise developed by successful teachers; and lack of direct connection between theoretical studies and the practical world. Problems facing researchers investigating these problems include: teacher research and teacher education research that is developed on teachers rather than with teachers; research that blames teachers' classroom practice for the bad results of education; and research findings not reaching the school teachers. New approaches for education research such as ethnographic studies and life stories could help provide better understanding of the reality of elementary school teachers and the social context of schooling. (Contains 10 references.) (ND)

The University of North Carolina (UNC) Mathematics and Science Education Network (MSEN) applies the resources of UNC to strengthen mathematics and science education in K-16 schools throughout the state of North Carolina. MSEN has 10 centers located on university campuses statewide and six pre-college sites at these universities. University faculty direct center operations and provide workshops and courses for K-12 teachers. These professional development offerings bring teachers into contact with university faculty, scientists, and other professionals to expose them to the most current educational research. This publication of MSEN's long-range goals begins with vision and mission statements, followed by lists of beliefs and policies. Long-range goals are: (1) increase the number of underrepresented students who pursue mathematics- and/or science-based fields of study at the post-secondary level; (2) develop, implement, and evaluate programs that integrate technology into the teaching of K-12 mathematics and science; (3) conduct an ongoing and systematic program of assessment to identify those areas in North Carolina's mathematics and science education that need improvement; and (4) sponsor and conduct research and development in mathematics and science education. This booklet concludes with an Executive Summary. (PVD)

A 3-year study of a New York suburban school district (3,000 students) examined what connections existed between regular education reform and special education. The school district had recently implemented building-level shared decision making teams as part of their efforts to reform education. The purpose of these teams was to develop goals for the district, such as having children attend school ready to learn, having academic goals that are appropriate for helping students enter the job market, and having safe and drug-free schools. Observation and interview data collected throughout the investigation indicate that the teams paid little attention to special education or students with disabilities. Educators working on reform in the district did not consider special education as a key component of the reform process and special educators knew little about these reforms. Findings indicate members of primary school teams were more likely than the middle school or high school team members to indicate that their team represented special education. However, simply having a special educator as a team member did not necessarily ensure special education would be discussed. The need for a team member with explicit responsibility for representing special education interests is urged. (Contains 34 references.) (CR)

This paper describes a two-year full partnership between special education teacher educators from five regional institutions of higher education and six school districts. The purposes of the partnership are identified and include working collaboratively to address and improve services to learners with special needs and to respond to the problems of teachers working with learners with special needs. The four partnership needs that were identified after the first year of the partnership are also discussed and include: (1) to provide effective support for beginning teachers; (2) to provide effective support for teachers on emergency certificates; (3) to coordinate professional development opportunities in light of scarce resources; and (4) to develop a continuing regional network among consortium members to address mutual concerns and problems. The final section of the paper reviews the outcomes of the partnership. Highlighted are: the fully operational working regional consortium of university and local school district special educators, the development and distribution of a survey to first-year special education teachers about their experiences during the internship, the clarification of priority issues through a survey of special education coordinators, and the collection, and publication of a joint list of professional development opportunities for special education teachers. (CR)

This report presents tables, graphs, and text detailing special education statistics for the state of Colorado for the school year 1994-95. The first section of the report includes the following information: (1) the number of children with disabilities served by disability category; (2) the number of students with disabilities served by disability and percent of each disability; (3) the age of students with disabilities; (4) the number of students with disabilities served in various settings; (5) the number of students with disabilities served in home schools by disability; (6) the percent of students with disabilities by disability and gender; and (7) the exit status of students with disabilities. Additional sections of the report include data on the number and different occupations of special education staff, special education expenditures, and special education revenues. A chart includes the number of special education students served in each individual administrative unit, the cost per student, and the total special education expenditures for each unit. The report's data indicate there was a total of 67,419 children with disabilities served in the school year 1994-95, 82 percent of students with disabilities were served within their home school, and the total special education expenditure was $294,160,335. (CR)

Higher education not only contributes to the development of the human resources and intellectual betterment of the nation but is also a major economic enterprise. This research brief reviews and highlights data on the size and growth of higher education and illustrates how higher education institutions are preparing the future labor force. It examines higher education as a major employer; its training of professional talent in terms of associate degrees, certificates and awards, bachelor's degrees, first professional degrees, and doctoral degrees; the return on investment in college in terms of earnings and unemployment; the role of higher education in retooling the workforce; and higher education as a producer of technological and scientific knowledge. Findings include: (1) from 1980 to 1990, overall enrollment in higher education increased 15 percent, with higher increases for enrollment of students age 25 and older; (2) college graduates experience a competitive advantage in the labor market, with higher earnings and less unemployment; (3) higher education employed 2.5 million people in 1989; and (4) the number of doctoral degrees awarded has been increasing annually, but most of the gains have been due to increases in non-U.S. citizens receiving doctorates. The research brief explores implications of these trends. Contains 3 data resources and 12 references. (JDD)

The need to restructure the relationship between bilingual education and special education is examined. Common criticisms of special education and changing assumptions underlying it are outlined. Models that have been proposed to explain minority failure in school as something other than inherent disability are analyzed; these models focus on social and cultural factors influencing education. Directions for changing the process of special education to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students are offered in the areas of assessment and intervention. Three primary goals for the restructuring of bilingual special education are identified: (1) inclusion (conforming the classroom to the needs of all students); (2) increased academic performance; and (3) a shift from the remedial approach to a diagnostic teaching paradigm, with teachers actively involved in assessment and curricular adaptation. Four successful program models are described briefly. It is argued that new assumptions about special education must be adopted for more useful and equitable bilingual education, and five new assumptions are presented. Recommendations are made for personnel preparation, curricular modification, and role changes for mainstream teachers, special educators, parents, and students. Contains a 38-item bibliography. (MSE)

The Best and Brightest Program at Central Missouri State University (CMSU) encourages talented high school students to enter the teaching profession. High school students with effective teacher attributes are nominated, through collaboration among university personnel, elementary secondary practitioners, educational organizations, and alumni. These students are contacted directly by university personnel and urged to pursue university studies in education. The students are invited to Career Day for Talented Students in Education, where they receive an overview of career opportunities in education and the university's teacher education program. Nominations are aligned with state and university scholarship programs designed to provide financial incentives for the students. Evaluation of the program indicates it has led to a significant increase in Missouri Teacher Education Scholarships received by students planning to attend CMSU and in the percentage of freshmen distinguished scholar candidates committed to teacher education. From the first to the second year of the program, there was a 78 percent increase in nominations and a 99 percent increase in enrollment of talented students. The model has been recognized by the Missouri Department of Education as an exemplary recruitment method. (Contains 11 references.) (JDD)