Education & Pedagogy

Massification is an undeniable phenomenon in the higher education arena. However, there have been questions raised regarding the extent to which a mass system really corresponds to an effective democratisation not only of access, but also of success. With regards to access, this article intends, through a brief analysis of the expansion of higher education in Portugal (contextualised in the European context), to focus on how the political system and higher education institutions (HEIs) have answered the social need for a highly skilled workforce and an increased demand for tertiary education. If access democratisation can be questioned, then it stands to reason that more doubts may arise regarding the democratisation of academic outcomes. The methodology underlying this study involved the collection and analysis of relevant data from official international and national sources. This allowed for a comparison of the diverse realities and building the national panorama in terms of democratisation not only of access, but also of success. The comparison of these different quantitative inputs shows that applicants from disadvantaged backgrounds are proportionally fewer in number, and tend to enrol in less socially prestigious institutions and study programmes. Students' financial support and social support systems are analysed so as to gauge the state of Portuguese higher education. Despite the advances made in Portugal on the system's expansion and on access to higher education, equity of access and outcomes in higher education have not yet been achieved, thus meaning that the democratisation process has not been fully accomplished.

This paper examines the challenges faced by higher education institutions in designing, teaching and quality assuring programmes of study which, of necessity, must combine the gaining of professional vocational competence with academic study. The paper gives recognition to the policy framework in which these programmes fit--with particular reference to teacher education. It presents the challenges at each stage, from ensuring that curriculum design meets the needs of the profession, to the quality assurance mechanisms which ensure standards and compliance. Initially the paper draws on published research to examine how and why these policy decisions have been taken in much of the developed world. The paper goes on to present a new perspective, however, by comparing current teacher education mechanisms with those that have developed in the past twenty years in further education, looking at the parallels and addressing how far we can learn from the experiences of further education colleagues to ensure that we manage to combine the two different worlds of academia and vocational training without compromising either. It suggests ways in which higher education institutions can learn from further education to tackle the challenges to ensure that concentration on training students to be good teachers is done without compromising personal growth and intellectual development, and examines how far it is possible to meet the demands of higher education quality controls which are applied with differential emphases.

In the past few decades, the internationalisation of higher education has become an increasingly popular trend across different parts of the globe. The fierce global competition and the aggravating unemployment rate, coupled with low teaching and research quality revealed by universities in mainland China, have inevitably compelled a growing number of Chinese students, in particular the financially-able ones, to pursue higher education overseas or to enrol in transnational higher education offered in mainland China. Realising the severe problem of "brain drain" and having a strong conviction to transform its higher education system to become more international for enhancing the global competitiveness of its higher education system, the Chinese government has made different attempts to enhance higher education quality by learning and incorporating new ideas and practices from overseas institutions, particularly encouraging the development of transnational higher education to change the higher education landscape. With particular reference to examining the way these students evaluate their future prospects in choosing different alternatives for further studies in higher education, this study sets out against the context briefly outlined above to critically analyse the motivation of students who choose to study abroad or enrol in Sino-foreign cooperation universities. This study also discusses the extent to which the internationalisation of higher education would affect the situations of "brain drain" and graduate employment in China.

Turkey has more than 130 years of experience of elementary teacher education in formal meaning after opening of the first elementary teacher school. During this time period, approximately in every 10 years there were some major changes based on the level of elementary teacher schools such as middle school, high school or higher education institutes, the number of years of education, and the name and weekly hours of courses. The average percentage of weekly hours of science or science related courses is around 9.69%. The highest percentage of weekly hours of science courses in the history of Turkish elementary teacher schools with the range of 12.1% and 16% belongs to the beginning of Republic or Atatürk era between 1923 and 1938 years. This also shows the main approach of the era of Ataturk to the education as well as elementary teacher education. The lowest percentage of weekly hours of science related courses as 2.1% corresponded to the two-year higher education institutes during 1970s. It shows that this period was the most neglected, and politicized era in Turkish elementary teacher preparation and education. On the other hand, Turkish elementary teacher education has begun to show acceleration in changing and takes its proper place in both qualitative and quantitative meaning, such as increasing the level of elementary teacher education schools to four-year college level institutions and the percentage of weekly hours of science related courses.

The inclusion of religion in public education remains contentious in many countries, including Canada. As multiple religions fill the public sphere, some religious education is necessary if Canadians are to understand each other. Social studies is seen as an appropriate subject to include such education given its foci on diversity and citizenship. In this paper, I examine the degree to which the four western Canadian provinces address religious diversity in their social studies curricula. While religion is not absent from these curricula, the specific content expectations lack a sustained engagement with religious diversity. By contrast, European governments and intergovernmental organizations are considering whether religious education might facilitate peaceful coexistence in religiously plural societies. To emphasize this point, I highlight a recent European study entitled "Religion in Education: A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?" (REDCo). REDCo suggests there is a connection between the inclusion of some form of religious education in public education and a greater willingness of students to dialogue about important issues with people who hold a variety of religions and worldviews. Applying the relevant findings of REDCo to the western Canadian context, I conclude that the lack of religious education in social studies obstructs the implementation of a multicultural society by maintaining a secularist bias in public schools, contributing to the marginalization of religious minorities, failing to address the instrumentalization of religion and ignoring the connection between religious education and the promotion of citizenship.

In April 2013, the "New England Journal of Higher Education" ("NEJHE") launched its "New Directions for Higher Education" series to examine emerging issues, trends, and ideas that have an impact on higher education policies, programs and practices. In this installment of the series, DiSalvio speaks with American Council on Education (ACE) President Molly Corbett Broad about the efforts ACE is making to raise educational attainment in the U.S. and around the world. The article highlights that with a focus on improving access and preparing every student to succeed, ACE convenes representatives from all sectors to collectively tackle the toughest higher education challenges and to address and resolve those issues that most affect access and student success. Among those issues are disparities in access, college completion, student preparation, financial aid, student debt loads, and higher education costs, as well as persistent gaps in access to and completion of higher education by minority groups. Ongoing challenges remain in making higher education more accessible and attainable. Providing useful insights on the transformational potential massive open online courses (MOOCs) hold for higher education, and how higher education will evolve in the U.S. over the next 20 years, Broad points to the efforts that ACE is making in developing the next generation of higher education leadership. This article includes additional details of the interview. [Additional support for the article preparation was provided by "NEJHE's" Journal Staff.]

The article critically reviewed the decline in science students' enrolment in Nigerian Colleges of Education, causes and the solutions. The research evidence abounds that the students' enrolment for science education in the Nigeria colleges of education reduces every year. The causes for this drawback are the crux of this article. The Nigerian college of education is an institution saddled with the responsibility of training teachers for the primary and secondary schools. Nonetheless, the colleges had been criticised for lack of standards in its admission policy and also of qualified academic personnel. The reviewed literature indicates that there are many challenges confronting colleges of education in Nigeria. Some of these are teachers' inadequate pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), out-of-field teaching and low teachers self-efficacy. The paper however observed that this problem and others are the results of bad governance experiencing in the nation. Consequent upon these challenges, the students' enrolment in science education continues to decline every year unabated. The paper identified many causes of the students' enrolment among these are, the proliferation of private Colleges of Education, loss of interest by the students, lack of science equipment and many others. The paper suggested some recommendations to raise the standard of the Nigeria colleges of education and improve science education students' enrolment. Among these suggestions is the full government commitment to the funding of the Colleges of Education's academic programmes.

Background: Despite the wide adoption of entrepreneurship by United States engineering programs, there have been few advances in how to measure the influences of entrepreneurial education on engineering students. We believe the inadequate growth in engineering entrepreneurship assessment research is due to the limited use of research emerging from the broader entrepreneurship education assessment community. Purpose: This paper explores entrepreneurship education assessment by documenting the current state of the research and identifying the theories, variables, and research designs most commonly used by the broader community. We then examine if and how these theories and constructs are used in engineering entrepreneurship education. Scope/Method: Two literature databases, Scopus® and Proquest, were searched systematically for entrepreneurship education assessment research literature. This search yielded 2,841 unique papers. Once inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, 359 empirical research papers were coded for study design, theory, variables measured, instruments, and validity and reliability. Conclusions: While there has been growth in entrepreneurship education assessment research, little exchange of ideas across the disciplines of business, engineering, and education is occurring. Nonempirical descriptions of programs outweigh empirical research, and these empirical studies focus on affective, rather than cognitive or behavioral, outcomes. This pattern within the larger entrepreneurship community is mirrored in engineering where the use of theory-based, validated entrepreneurship education assessment instruments generally focuses on the context of intent to start a new company. Given the engineering community's goals to support engineering entrepreneurship beyond business creation, the engineering education community should consider developing assessment instruments based in theory and focused on engineering-specific entrepreneurship outcomes.

Early age is a "golden moment" which will not be repeated in the period of child development. A rare opportunity must be utilized to provide the best education and care in three centers, namely; school, family and community environment. The purpose of this research is to; 1) Describe the contribution of parenting education management; and 2) Describe the practice of parenting education in three education centers. This research method uses a qualitative approach with a multi-case study design. These informants were teachers, principals, and parents of students from the two Early Childhood Education institutions in the West Nusa Tenggara Province, Indonesia. Data collection is done by in-depth interviews with informants, participatory observation, and documentation review. The results revealed that; 1) a positive contribution to the management of education and parenting in three education centers with the following stages; first, Plan-collaboration in designing the parenting education program; second, Do-collaboration in the parenting education program at school and inactivating it in the family and community environment, and third, Check-control and evaluate program achievements, then make a follow-up plan for the program; 2) Implementation, in; "first"-family environment strengthens the relationship between mother and child, the growing sense of self-confidence of parents in educating and caring for their children; "second" kindergartens environment by holding parenting education activities, holding days of child development consultations, building relationships, support and trust in schools; and "third"-community environment is the application of local wisdom values by community members.

In this article, the reviewers, Lee-Tat Chow and Peidong Yang compare and contrast "Desiring TESOL and international education," by Raqib Chowdhury and Phan Le-Ha, London, Multilingual Matters, 2014, 288 pp., £29.95 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-783-09147-8 with "Transnational education crossing 'Asia' and 'the West'," by Phan LeHa, New York, Routledge, 2017, 260 pp., £36.99 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-138- 60460-5. Chow and Yang assert "Desiring TESOL and International Education" and "Transnational Education Crossing 'Asia' and 'the West'" are two important works that mark significant advances in scholarly understandings of desire within the context of international education (henceforth also including its correlate, transnational education). Grounded in rich empirical research, both accounts show how particular constructions of desire and desiring subjects, framed within an 'East' (or 'Asia')-'West' dichotomy, are indispensable for sustaining contemporary trends and developments in international education. Specifically, both works explore how understandings of international education, and the image(s) of the international student, are constructed and perpetuated through discourses; as well as the experiences of international students as they adopt, resist or appropriate these discourses. "Desiring TESOL" primarily explores these issues in the Australian context of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) education, whereas "Transnational Education" addresses a similar set of questions through the case of transnational education (TNE) programmes emerging recently in Asia. Chow and Yang look at each work in turn.

Inclusive education represents the main ethos of the Kingdom of Eswatini education system. This reflects on both the constitution and on various education policies since the country became a signatory to the goals of Education for All. However, it would appear that major constraints impede the education vision that resonates through the charter of 'no child is left behind'. The education of learners with dyslexia is then called into empirical questions with a focus on the experiences of teachers of such category of learners within the Eswatini education system. A phenomenological research design was chosen, using a convenience sampling technique to select 12 English language teachers of dyslexic learners. Data were obtained by individual semi-structured interviews and by non-participant observations. Content analysis was employed to analyze the data, which were then presented thematically. Peer review, as well as member checks, were used to improve the trustworthiness of data. The main themes that emerged were insufficient time, unwelcoming attitudes, lack of support, and lack of training of teachers of dyslexic learners. It was equally evident that teachers were challenged by insufficient training to enable them to deal with dyslexic learners. Without an effective support structure for teachers, the education of dyslexic learners would remain a chimera. This finding implicates the teacher education programmes in colleges of education and universities in the sense that training on inclusive classroom teaching should form part of the teacher education programme.

Each country in the world has its own individual approaches to the quality assurance system of higher education, so the quality of educational services in each country is different. The developing countries should be guided by the standards and recommendations put forward by the world's leading countries in the field of the assurance system of higher education in order to improve the quality of education services. The purpose of the scientific investigation is to formulate the objectives and analyze the practical aspects of functioning of the quality assurance system of higher education. In the study's framework of the practical aspects of the higher education's quality in European Union's countries, the methods of general analysis have been used, including comparison and grouping; at the same time, the presentation of statistics is also demonstrated by graphical methods. The practical aspects of quality assurance of higher education in European Union's countries have been analyzed, which is reflected in the dynamics of the number of students who have received higher education, the structure of higher education degree seeking applicants, the employment rate of graduates who have graduated from higher education institutions (Employment rates of recent graduates), the World University Rankings, the Europe Teaching Rankings, rating of the strength of the higher education system (the QS Higher Education System Strength Rankings). Proposals for ensuring the proper quality of higher education and a high level of educational services to educational institutions of the European Union have been presented.

A project was conducted in North Carolina to identify science competencies in three selected vocational programs: consumer and homemaking education, business and office education, and marketing and distributive education; to develop subcompetencies to reflect the science skills implied in the identified competencies; to validate the subcompetencies; and to develop training and dissemination activities related to the competencies. An advisory committee was formed and chose 12 teachers (6 science teachers and 2 each from the 3 vocational areas) to participate in the project. The 12 teachers met with a leader for two day-long sessions at East Carolina University to identify vocational competencies that require science skills, to develop subcompetencies, and to develop a matrix of science competencies identified in the vocational competencies. The materials were subsequently validated by a sample of 469 students, parents, teachers, and business persons, who agreed strongly that the revised programs included a great deal of science content. Besides a description of the project, this paper includes (1) a list of vocational competencies that have been identified as having science skills associated with specific tasks/outcomes performed in each of the vocational courses, (2) subcompetencies for each competency statement identified as having implied science content, (3) a matrix that illustrates the required science skills for each of the selected vocational courses, and (4) an annotated bibliography of selected references and curriculum materials. (KC)

This report describes and evaluates the initial effects of the 1984 Texas Education Reform Bill (House Bill 72), in which the Texas legislature enacted a massive attempt to enhance both equity and effectiveness in the State's system of elementary and secondary education. Chapter 1 describes the Bill's various financing components and focuses on its initial effect on disparities in spending among rich and poor districts. Chapter 2 examines the various reforms aimed at improving the quality of teaching, and Chapter 3 focuses on the provisions that affect students. Chapters 4-7 deal with the effects of House Bill 72 on programs which seek to provide special educational services (compensatory education, bilingual education, special education, and vocational education). Chapter 8 describes the implementation of new prekindergarten and summer preschool programs. Chapter 9 discusses the difficulty of implementing curriculum reforms at the State and local levels, and focuses on the confusion that has resulted from House Bill 72's requirements and those of a 1981 law, House Bill 246, which called for different types of reform. Finally, Chapter 10 presents general conclusions and recommendations. The study uncovered widespread satisfaction with the general direction of reform, it is said, except in certain areas where implementation of the law has been difficult. The State, it is argued, must be willing to accept that education is likely to be more expensive in the future. (KH)

In recent years, significant economic, social, and demographic changes have occurred in the United Kingdom. These changes have set the stage for a number of changes in the country's adult and vocational-technical education systems as well. There have been several notable developments with regard to the statutory education system (which provides for the education of children up to the age of 16). These include the Technical and Vocational Education Initiative (a study of methods of organizing and managing secondary-level vocational and technical education), development of a general certificate of secondary education (which offers a single certificate for graduating students of all ability ranges as opposed to the previous system of two separate certificates), establishment of city and guild business and technician education council foundation programs, and development of a "National Curriculum 5-16." Three elements in the education and training system for persons over the age of 16 have been developed. These are the sixth form (for pupils who expect to transfer to higher education after the age of 18), the technical college (the traditional vocational education route), and the Youth Training Scheme (for early school leavers). In May 1985, the United Kingdom government established a committee to examine the question of vocational qualifications and the needs for the future. The committee developed a blueprint for action that called for, among other things, the establishment of a National Council for Vocational Qualifications and the creation of a new national framework for vocational qualifications based on four levels of achievement. When implemented, the recommendations are likely to have an enormous impact. (MN)