Education & Pedagogy

The number of teacher candidates with learning disabilities (LD) has grown over the past several years. Teacher education programs are accountable to produce quality teachers while providing reasonable accommodations that facilitate completion of a degree program. This study investigated accommodations provided to teacher candidates with LD in teacher education programs. Accommodations at the knowledge level were considered acceptable, while accommodations in field experiences were less common and more likely to raise ethical concerns. For some accommodations, a wide disparity of opinions was evident, indicating poor consistency across teacher education programs. Findings indicated that programs were willing to provide accommodations that maintain the standards of the program and require candidates to demonstrate competence in essential skills of being a teacher. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper examines the meta-theoretical status, basic determinants, interests, conditions and directives of theory development in contemporary intercultural education (IE). It identifies functions and main objectives of IE at the macro-, mezzo- and micro-levels of society, interdisciplinary approaches associated with the discipline, as well as its relations with other sub-disciplines of the educational sciences (i.e. international and comparative education, peace and civic education, as well as its contribution to global, European and regional education). Special attention is devoted to the analysis of national, racial-compensatory, civic and cultural borderland-oriented paradigms, as well as political and historical conditions determining the direction of IE development in particular countries. There are also distinct under-represented areas of interest in IE. In the conclusions of the paper, suggestions are offered for re-constructing IE due to the unique changes and challenges we face in today's world.

George W. Bush entered the White House determined to change federal education policy. In his first year as the president, Bush forged a bipartisan consensus around the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which he signed into law on January 8, 2002. For the first time, states receiving federal K-12 education funding would be required to hold districts and schools accountable for the achievement of students, regardless of their income levels, special education status, or ethnic, racial, or native-language backgrounds. As President Bush prepares to leave office on January 20, 2009. he calls the NCLB law one of his important domestic accomplishments. This article describes the flaws in NCLB's accountability system, discusses why it is not popular among educators, and describes how President-elect Barack Obama might implement some changes to NCLB.

This paper elaborates possibilities and limitations for sex education in schools by mapping the consequence of introducing the topic "sex" within a range of scientific and informal discursive settings. The organising and regulating structures of the school maintain the boundaries between common-sense and scientific discourses. Bernstein made a distinction between vertical discourse and horizontal discourses. Vertical discourses characterise scientific discourses that are coherent, explicit and systematically principled structures. Horizontal discourses characterise common-sense discourses that are local, segmented and context-dependent. The implications for teaching sex education through vertical discourses such as science, English and art as opposed to personal and social education, which is a horizontal discourse, are discussed. Yet, all discourses are unstable, and the notion of a "tipping point" is introduced to demonstrate the potential for sex education when vertical discourses collapse. (Contains 1 note.)

As online environments gain an increasing presence in higher education for both on-campus students and distance learners, there is a need to examine how effective these environments are for student learning. Online environments require essentially different teaching and learning strategies from those used in the traditional face-to-face contexts (for on-campus students) or with print-based material (for distance learners). This article identifies early childhood teacher education students' perceptions of their learning experiences with the advent of an online learning environment. Perceptions of on-campus and distance learners are compared, and implications for teacher education staff interested in providing high quality learning environments within an online space are discussed. (Contains 1 figure.)

West Liberty State College (WLSC) is a baccalaureate-general state college situated on 290 acres in the village of West Liberty, West Virginia. In the fall 2002 semester, the College reported an enrollment of 2,571 students. The College contains four academic units: the School of Business Administration, the School of Education, the School of Liberal Arts, and the School of Sciences. WLSC confers four bachelor's degrees within 10 departments and 24 programs/specializations. This article examines the integration of general education skills and knowledge into the major fields of study at WLSC with a specific focus on the School of Business Administration. Assessment of general education goals in the Business program and the development of a Primary Trait Analysis instrument to measure general education outcomes in this field of study are discussed in this paper. (Contains 4 tables.)

In this era of global competitiveness, it is not sufficient for colleges and universities to train students for mere technical competence. What is required for graduates' professional and personal success is additional attention to the development of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will support them throughout their lives. General education outcomes, as well as technical skills and knowledge developed through concentrated study in a major discipline, must be developed in every college or university graduate. To better serve students and to address the heightened call for accountability in higher education, institutions must engage in a comprehensive campus-wide discussion on the specific components of critical thinking, problem solving, writing, and the methods to assess these skills (Maki, 2001). This article provides a framework for assessing these types of general education outcomes within the major fields of study.

"The great teacher is not the man [or woman] who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people." This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson is an important reminder that education involves more than just teaching academic content and meeting state, or national, standards. Teachers inspire, encourage, challenge, and help children find ways to meet their academic and personal dreams. In the United States, teaching, and the field of education, is brought to the national forefront each presidential election as candidates employ educational experts and speechwriters to prepare glossy campaign rhetoric to tell the American people that they are all about education change. This article discusses how the American people wanted more than just talk; they wanted action. This article discusses powerful collaboration can be when teachers work together with universities to plan and implement curriculum.

The introduction of the new teacher education model that includes competences and educator roles has marked a major change in teacher preparation programmes. The purpose of this study was to ascertain how novice educators perceive the new teacher education programme, that is, to find out whether novice educators perceive the teacher education training programme as adequate. In this context, novice educators are educators who have taught for 18 to 24 months after completing the teacher education programme. A questionnaire was administered to 897 novice educators who completed their teacher education in 2004 and 2005. The results reveal that the novice educators perceived the programme as inadequate. The novice educators indicated that the programme did not prepare them adequately for the teaching profession.

The lack of intercultural competencies among students in higher education is one of the most significant issues facing higher education and society in general. As institutions of higher education embark on the journey of embracing the increasingly diverse student populations, some universities have revamped university mission statements to reflect their support for "creating and maintaining" a diverse student population and for graduating interculturally competent students. This study compared reports from the three participating universities (one university in the United States and two in Ireland) on four different variables regarding student diversity, student participation in study abroad programs, types of study abroad programs offered, and types of intercultural programs available to students. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)

This paper offers an analysis of Lee S. Shulman's concept of "signature pedagogies" as it relates to legal education. In law, the signature pedagogy identified by Shulman is the Langdellian case method. Though the concept of signature pedagogies provides an excellent infrastructure for the exchange of teaching ideas, Shulman has a tendency to portray the concept in Manichean terms with the forces of light of professional education (where students are engaged in a rigorous and systematic education) ranged against the forces of darkness of non-professional education (where students are non-participative and where education is to some extent in a state of flux). It will be argued in this paper that the signature pedagogy of law has a number of pedagogical and epistemological shortcomings that should make those from non-law and non-professional backgrounds cautious about imitating its various constituent elements in their respective disciplines.

China and Vietnam have experienced drastic social, economic and political changes, especially when these two socialist regimes have started economic reforms in the last few decades. In order to create more opportunities for higher education with limited national resources, both Chinese and Vietnamese governments have adopted strategies along the lines of marketization and privatization to "reform" their higher education systems. The major objective of this article is to critically examine how the market transition taking place in China and Vietnam has led to changes in education governance, particularly examine how these two governments have approached the challenges of global capitalism by transforming the socialist education model into a more market-oriented one. This article also discusses the major challenges and policy implications when education is increasingly privatized and marketized in China and Vietnam.

Reducing disparities in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians is one of the main ways in which the relative disadvantage Indigenous Australians face will be overcome. Relative and absolute participation rates in all forms of education have improved, however they are still unacceptably low. Those Indigenous Australians who do undertake post-school education do so for the most part at a later age than the non-Indigenous population. This paper gives a descriptive analysis of the age at which Indigenous Australians are currently undertaking education, and the age at which Indigenous Australians obtained their qualifications in the past, making comparisons where appropriate with the non-Indigenous population. It also examines how certain characteristics of students vary across different age groups. (Contains 6 tables, 6 figures and 1 footnote.)

What David J. Ferrero has called "the Hundred Year's War between "progressives" and "traditionalists"" continues unabated in the twenty-first century. Undoubtedly, current initiatives in public education favor those who support traditional approaches, yet many critics believe inflexible state tests are restricting teachers' flexibility in employing methods other than teacher-centered direct instruction. President Bush's proposal for extending mandatory testing beyond grade eight into high school and renewed discussions about establishing national curricular standards and tests are threatening to prevent schools and teachers from using progressive education theory and methods. While its easy for progressives to become discouraged, it is still premature to declare the final decline of progressive education in the United States. In this article, the author reviews the current state of progressive education and predicts how politics will affect its future.

Physical education departments are composed of diverse academic disciplines that may include physical education teacher education, exercise science, and athletic training programs. The complexity of each program and its individual demands often cause faculty and students to become disengaged from those outside of their own major and the happenings within a department. To help promote student and faculty engagement across interdepartmental disciplines, a physical education department implemented a departmental fitness challenge to build camaraderie through fun, fitness, and friendly competition. This article provides a template for the development of a fitness challenge, procedures used to engage students in the planning and implementation of an annual fitness challenge, generalized results of a fitness challenge, and tips on making it a successful event. (Contains 1 figure.)