Education & Pedagogy

The socioeconomic rationale of higher education provision in developing countries is examined by a review of the costs and benefits associated with investment in higher education as a whole and especially in different postsecondary subjects. University expenditures in developing countries typically account for less than 20 percent of the state budget for education, and an increasing part of this expenditure is devoted to technical and vocational subjects. This is indicated by the rising relative share of university enrollments in engineering, agriculture, and related fields of specialization. The international trend toward technical subjects is thought to reflect the notion that technical education contributes to economic development. The scientific basis of this notion is examined by examining criteria for social choice in education: efficiency, equity, employment effects, social demand satisfaction, and flexibility benefits. Assessment of higher education costs at the aggregate university level and the subject field level permit an analysis of the behavior of unit costs as enrollment rises and documents cost differences between various university departments. The quantitative side of higher education benefits is analyzed, including the earning advantage of the graduates of different subjects, social demand satisfaction, income distribution, and employment prospects. Nonquantitative aspects of the choice between liberal and vocational education are addressed by reference to curriculum theory and the sociology of knowledge and change. The results suggest that technical and general curriculum have their place in a balanced educational system. A bibliography and data for different countries are appended. (SW)

The purpose of this essay is to call for an active engagement of professional education faculty in the policy issues on teacher education. In this era of standards and accountability, an unprecedented number of legislative decisions for the education field have been made at the national and state levels, with or without sufficient involvement from education faculty. Various interest groups are attempting to reshape the landscape of teacher preparation in the nation. The provisions and requirements in the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) pertaining to the preparation, recruitment, and retention of teachers--possibly the most complex, challenging and far-reaching parts in the Act--have been pushing real policy changes in states to a new height. In Ohio, a number of legislative actions have taken place in recent years that will undoubtedly change the practice of all 50 institutions of higher education that prepare teachers and other school personnel. Consequently, the impact will extend onto individual programs and the professional life of faculty members, including professional teacher education faculty and Arts and Sciences faculty. This paper provides an analysis of the competing agendas driving teacher education practice in the nation, and tells an Ohio story based on the author's involvement and observations as a faculty member. The author recommends that faculty should learn to get politically smart, rethink the strategies for engaging in the debate about teacher education policy, and with an enhanced credibility, keep teacher education on a solid theoretical ground that most professional educators would agree with and endorse.

Historically, the university was an alien establishment for Russia, reflecting the political ambition of its leadership, not the organic impetus of Russian society. In Soviet academia, the notion of university education was replaced by the concept of vocational-technical training. As a creation of the Soviet government, Soviet higher education represented a very unusual organizational construction with an umbilical connection to the communist party ideology and Soviet autocracy. In its organization and social purpose, Soviet higher education was quite different from the European notion of a university and remote from the international academic community. Soviet higher education opposed the western university model on a fundamental level: The pragmatism of practical training contradicted the ideology of academic liberal knowledge and institutional self-governance. An analysis of Soviet HE administrative structure reveals three defining characteristics: uniformity, top-down administration and one-man management. The purpose of Soviet higher education was to be a nationwide conveyor of a professional workforce that would supply the state with qualified specialists in each field of industry or social services. It intentionally promoted communal values. This review and analysis of Soviet HE administrative organization indicate that in both form and function, it seems to be an alternative to the traditional western notion of university education, rather than a variation of higher education in its traditional sense.

Every nation or society prides itself of the quality of its citizenry. Education enlightens citizens to think rationally and to be responsible people. The notion of enlightened citizens through education as an agent for revealing and perpetuating the characteristic of a successful society, is the impetus for most countries to adopt the education for all upon attaining democratic rule. It is against this backdrop that governments have to develop or improve their education systems to enhance their citizens' social and economic development through quality education. However, there are important questions that need to be answered in order to achieve quality education. One of the questions in many people's minds is that of how quality education could be enhanced? Our answer is that quality education could be enhanced by focusing on improving teacher education. One of the contentious areas of teacher education is what knowledge teachers should acquire and how this knowledge is assessed to ensure that teachers have indeed been sufficiently empowered to teach in their respective fields of specialisation. This paper focuses on interrogating different approaches that institutions and specifically higher education institutions are applying to assess the competencies of pre-service teachers to offer quality education. The paper zooms in on various methods used in the field assessment of teacher practice; the assessors whom are used for the said purpose, as well as the effects the outcomes of such assessment could have on the eventual quality of teacher preparation.

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions. In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: (1) Widening access to higher education in the continent; (2) Improving the quality of education; (3) Improving student experience; and (4) Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees. However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: (1) Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa; and (2) Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries. In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above. Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.

The study determines the relationship between staff utilization and staff commitment in Borno State Colleges of Education, Nigeria. The objectives of the study were to determine: the level of staff utilization in Borno State Colleges of Education, the level of staff commitment in Borno State Colleges of Education and the relationship between staff utilization and staff commitment in Borno State Colleges of Education. Two research questions were raised and answered as one hypothesis was tested. The study adopted correlation research design. The population of the study comprised 739 academic staff in Colleges of Education in Borno State. A simple random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 148 academic staff from the three Colleges of Education in Borno State. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistic of frequency and percentage counts to answer research questions 1 and 2 while Pearson Product Movement Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypothesis. The result of the study revealed that the level of staff utilization in Borno State Colleges of Education was relatively high, the level of staff commitment in Borno State Colleges of Education was low, there was no significant relationship between staff utilization and staff commitment in Borno State Colleges of Education. It was recommended that there is the need for increased and sustained staff welfare so as to enhance and improve staff commitment in Colleges of Education in Borno State and that there should be flexibility on the part of Colleges of Education authorities in creating conducive atmosphere for college staff to desire to work and freely get involved and committed to their work.

Universalisation of primary education (UPE) has been a global issue since the early sixties, yet several decades later and even in the 21st century, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are still grappling with it. Unlike their counterparts in the developed world, its realisation in developing countries has been faced with a myriad of constraints. Kenya has a long standing commitment to providing educational access to its primary school going children. This has been reflected in the country's Economic Plans, Sessional papers and other development plans. Most importantly, Kenya acknowledges provision of basic education for its citizens as a human right, as is enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya (2010). Furthermore, Kenyan citizens have a right to free and compulsory education as is stipulated in the Basic Education Bill of 2012. Moreover, Vision2030 has acknowledged education as a component of the social pillars. Although the first step towards this was articulated by the Kenyan government immediately after independence in 1963 and later in 2003, little has been done to establish the extent to which Universal Primary Education has been advanced in Kenya. Therefore, there is need to do stock taking of the advancements made towards this goal. Furthermore, examining of the obstacles that have persistently hindered its success over the years is critical for realisation of universal education. This paper will therefore address the extent to which universalisation of primary education has contributed to advancement of access to basic education and the obstacles that have hindered its success.

This study is to explore the need to develop learning modules of health education for trainee teachers in the Bachelor Of Teaching (Hons)(Special Education-Learning Disabilities For Primary Education) Programme (Bac.TSE-LDPE) in the Teacher Training Institute (TTI). The questionnaire uses the Likert scale with the close ended questions analysed by percentage while open ended questions are analysed by theme. The questionnaire, piloted on 20 trainee teachers of the January 2009 TTI intake, had a Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.85. A total of 64 trainee teachers from the same cohort then answered the questionnaires. The study found a total of 60 (93.8%) people agreed that health education should be learned by trainee teachers and that the health education module be developed. Among other aspects, trainees hoped that cleanliness including managing of menstruation, healthy lifestyle, food and nutrition, health management as well as outdoor activities of students with learning disabilities will be included in the module. A total of 60 trainees also agreed that health education needs to be studied by students who face problems with personal hygiene: the physical body, food and nutrition, communication and relationship. Teachers and parents who are not equipped with health education were also identified as part of the problem. The development of the learning module is expected to address all the aspects so that the gap between teaching and practices in training special education teachers can be overcome in the future.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Tunali Hilmi Bey, who was not an educator, played an important part among the harsh debates on education surrounding Turkey. The current study analyzes Tunali Hilmi Bey's views on education that is a central point in his life and his sophisticated thoughts. Tunali Hilmi Bey launched a big effort to have social and political reforms, which are crucial to sustain country's development, not to be remained only in thoughts. He brought forward his views regarding the need for simplification of Turkish language and implementing contemporary reforms in education system during the Young Turks movement period, and he continued these activities during his congressman role in Republican period. Tunali Hilmi Bey emphasized the importance of girls' education and considered it as a civic right. Moreover, he provided sensitivity on Turkish language use and urge for not using foreign words in education and in government institutions at the cost of penalties. He suggested services for public education such as "evening schools," "army of teachers" and "mobile training". In addition, he also emphasized individual enterprise for schooling besides government investments. He stated that theory in education should be followed by application to support permanency. He emphasized early childhood education and asked for compulsory elementary education for all citizens until the age of 13. Tunali Hilmi Bey was stubborn to include music and sport lessons in the curriculum and proposed sending students to the West in order to equip them with pedagogical knowledge and to investigate elementary schools.

In the late 1990s, the wild hope of the Lilly Endowment was that a set of American higher education institutions would respond to the call for an exploration of vocation, giving a portion of their precious institutional lives to explore this question with undergraduates. Through projects on multiple campuses, the intent was to learn whether and how a theology of vocation and calling could deepen undergraduate education. The goal was to strengthen an education that could sustain abundant lives for these emerging adults, an education in which intellectual and applied learning could converge with resources from moral and theological traditions. Programs for the Theological Exploration of Vocation (PTEV) was an experiment to learn how education might reshape effective liberal learning for life, work, and citizenship in the twenty-first century. What can be learned from Lilly Endowment supported efforts about the future of effective undergraduate education, and what should be reclaimed for a liberal education to encourage students' big questions and worthy dreams are explored the this special issue of "Liberal Education". The PTEV narrative is a story of ordinary educators on many campuses who caught the Lilly Endowment's vision of learning for life abundant and willingly gave their time to this cause. Now, NetVUE is PTEV's successor, and is positioned to be a lasting network that advances the many lessons learned in PTEV and extends them to a broader range of higher education institutions. The Lilly Endowment invested and remains devoted to fostering abundant life for our precious emerging adults for the sake of our undergraduates and the world in which they will lead. What will we do with what we have learned?

The aim of this paper is to explore the influence of strategic planning in improving the quality of education. The quality of education is directly linked to the effort expended in making arrangements or preparations of educational objectives and determining the requisite resources to facilitate the training, instruction or study that leads to the acquisition of skills or knowledge. Education at secondary sector is of particular importance because it seeks to augment the general intellectual skills acquired at primary level, which are also relevant to any productive occupation including subsequent education. In Kenya, the Decentralized Education Management Activity initiated by the Ministry of Education in 2012 in partnership with USAID embarked on capacity development among education managers at the district and school level to enable them prepare and implement strategic plans. This notwithstanding, education at secondary level continues to experience unique challenges which are more often attributed to deficiencies in planning. Lack of emphasis on careful planning and implementation of plans could have implications for institutions in the current competitive environment. This paper is based on literature search on educational administrators' perceptions of strategic plans, formulation, implementation and their effects on the quality of education. From literature, the vital role of strategic planning in enhancing quality of education is underscored; evidently, some schools have strategic plans in spite of the constraints in their formulation. Strategic planning is viewed as a tool that enables stakeholders to increasingly contribute to the school's strategic objectives which result in long-term sustainability and improvement in quality of education.

Higher education plays an essential role in society by creating new knowledge, transmitting it to students and fostering innovation. Research-based education has lately received increasing interest both among researchers in higher education and in public discussion. The aim of this paper is to develop a thorough understanding of teacher education reform in Japan and its relation to the research development process. To identify whether Japanese teachers are equipped with the conceptual understanding and methodological skills to conduct research, field visits are carried out to some schools and higher education institutions; some content analysis of materials related to their Teacher Education Programs are conducted; twenty-five people (ten professionals, professors, and policy makers, five teachers, and ten students) are interviewed. Quantitative survey data as well as in-depth qualitative data are collected from survey questionnaires and semi-structured interviews over a period of two months. This research attempts to discuss the research policies, strategies and practices in graduate schools of teacher education and the contributions of research in developing high quality teaching. Findings of this research is expected to make research-informed contributions to contemporary issues, initiatives and reforms in Japanese higher education, and will at least serve to initiate a debate about research-based teacher education and contribute to the decisions that need to be made regarding the future of higher education in Japan.

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of prospective physical education teachers on the concepts of "physical education teacher" and "physical education course" through the metaphors. In this study which was structured with the approach of qualitative research, the model of phenomenology, which defines the common meaning of the experience of individuals related to a concept was used. 167 prospective physical education teachers who were enrolled at the department of Physical Education and Sports Education at the Sports Sciences Faculty of Ankara University were included in the study. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data of this study which were collected via the method of semi-structured forms. Within this context, the metaphors formed by the prospective teachers were divided into categories based on their common properties in MS Excel, and a frequency calculation was made. As a result of the analysis, the metaphors that were formed in relation to both the concepts were collected under four categories. It was concluded that the prospective teachers perceived the physical education course as a course that provides children with fun and pleasing moments, relaxes them and is needed for the healthy continuation of their lives, while they perceived a physical education teacher as a person who is found familiar by students, helps them, guides them and is a multi-dimensional person who does everything.

The development and maintenance of a physically active lifestyle and the promotion of health-related physical fitness have become two important components of the national standards for physical education. Physical education is one of the important aspects of the educational and teaching processes. This study was designed to determine the factors of teaching effectiveness for physical education by comparing the opinions of students on teaching courses of King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi with the totals of six aspects: (1) the purposes of Physical Education learning; (2) content and Physical Education programs; (3) teaching methods and teaching activities; (4) the personality aspects of Physical Education instructors; (5) equipment and facilities; and (6) assessment and evaluation. The sample included 1,000 students, with 558 male students and 442 female students, selected using the stratified random sampling method and divided into groups based on gender and types of sports. The results of the study showed that the highest percentage for the overall development of teaching physical education were the personalities of Physical Education instructors (59.18%) and the lowest percentage for measurement and evaluation had the lowest percentage (45.53%). The comparison between male and female students found that the course content and curriculum were at a minimal percentage for male students (45.42%), while the teaching methods and activities for female students (46.81%). Physical education specialists served as an important force in providing health-enhancing physical education for children and adolescents, as they are more effective than classroom teachers in promoting moderate to vigorous physical activity.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and educational periods in secondary school students. The study was conducted on 832 students, 418 girls (M[subscript age]: 12.99±.83) and 414 boys (Mage: 12.92±.85), who received dual and full-time education in the centre of Sivas Province. As data collection tool, BMI was calculated by measuring weight and height, and the percentile curve developed by Neyzi "et al." (2008) in the classification of obesity and underweight was used. As the statistical analysis, the mean, standard deviation, frequency, percent values were used for descriptive statistics of all variables and Pearson Chi Square test. According to findings of the research, the underweight student rate was 11.9% (girls: 6.1%; boys: 5.8%), overweight student rate was 9.1% (girls: 5%; boys: 4.1%) and obese student rate was 8.6% (girls: 5.2%; boys: 3.4%). According to their BMI, 33.3% of underweight students receive dual education, 66.7% full-time education; 47.1% of normal weight students dual education, 52.9% full-time education; 61.8% of overweight students dual education, 38.2% of obese students full-time education; 59.2% of obese students dual education, 40.8% full-time education. A statistically significant relationship was found between the type of education and BMI (p<0.05). As a result, it can be said that the dual education system has increased the rate of obesity. However, the fact that the number of underweight students is higher than the number of overweight and obese students is important for introducing the habits of healthy eating.