Education & Pedagogy

A 1990 study compared actual practice in trade and industrial education (T&I) degree and T&I option granting institutions with the standards delineated in section 2 of Standards of Excellence in T&I Education (U.S. Department of Education 1985). Descriptive data were compiled addressing the status of T&I teacher education in T&I undergraduate degree programs and T&I option undergraduate programs. Group 1, programs that offered degrees specifically titled "trade or industrial education," consisted of 28 respondents; group 2, programs that prepared persons for T&I teacher employment without a T&I degree title, consisted of 57 respondents. The instrument was an abbreviated version of the section covering standards for T&I teacher education. Data were transferred from the questionnaires to five tables that comprised the five phases of the study, namely: institutional characteristics, qualifications of T&I teacher educators, internship/inservice, program competencies, and sex equity. According to the findings, T&I teacher education programs could use the standards more fully in program planning and development. The percentages of T&I degree and T&I option programs that met or exceeded standards were reasonably consistent throughout the five delineated areas; there were differences of 8 percent or more in 14 of 39 categories. Of the five categories, sex equity showed the poorest rankings. (Appendixes include a list of degree title; a list of universities offering degree T&I education certification; and institutional responses to the questionnaires.) (YLB)

The Alaska Governor's Council reviewed audited reports submitted by local school districts and other reports supplied by the state Department of Education and held discussions with vocational education administrators across the state to determine what happened to vocational education during the 1980s and to make recommendations for the future. The study found the following: (1) fewer secondary students have enrolled in vocational education programs since 1987; (2) expenditures for vocational education programs have declined for the last 4 years; (3) vocational expenditures have decreased as a percentage of the total amount expended for education; and (4) school districts have not adhered to the "added cost" tenets under the public school foundation program, leaving vocational education underexpended. Policy recommendations were as follows: (1) Alaska should adopt a policy that all high school graduates be prepared for immediate employment and/or postsecondary education; (2) high school students should have a year (grade 13) to complete a vocational program after high school; (3) academic and vocational skills should be integrated in the state's high school curriculum; (4) technology education programs should be expanded to grades 7 and 8; (5) categorical expenditures for vocational education should be made mandatory; and (6) the state should provide grants to school districts to provide programs for at-risk youth. (Estimated costs for implementing each of these policy initiatives are provided. An appendix lists critical skills, values, attitudes, and competencies and 11 resources.) (KC)

A seminar assessed the status of primary education in Nepal. "Efficiency Issues in the Primary Education System in Nepal" (I. P. Upadhyay) examined the causes and consequences of efforts to expand access to primary education in a resource-efficient manner. "Current Perspectives on Educational Efficiency" (David Chapman) highlighted various indicators of two types of efficiency: (1) internal, the use of resources within the system; and (2) external, the effects of education on social development. "Improving the Quality of Teaching and Learning in Primary Schools" (Gajendra (Man Shrestha) noted that enlarging access is inadequate without improvements in the quality and accountability of programs. "Increasing the Efficiency of Primary Education: Research and Planning Priorities" (Tirtha Bahadur Manandhar) offered research priorities in cost issues and dropouts, and made specific policy recommendations. "Report on the Education Management Information Systems in Nepal" (Madhup Dhungana) summarized the Ministry of Education's development of an Education Management Information System and made recommendations for future guidelines. "Building an Information System for Efficiency Improvement" (Jerry Messec) considered steps to enhance the efficiency of information systems and use. "Future Steps Toward the Improvement of Efficiency in Basic and Primary Education" (John Mayo) assessed the potential for fruitful policy reforms to enhance efficiency in Nepal's basic and primary education. Finally the concluding statement lists the main points regarding primary education in Nepal, primary teacher training, an education information system, and a research agenda. (TEJ)

Although technology education has been discussed for a decade, it is still uncertain how teachers feel about this new curriculum. Industrial technology education teachers from Idaho and Nebraska were randomly surveyed about their acceptance of technology education. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 73 teachers in Nebraska and 58 teachers in Idaho (total of 131). Evaluation used Hall's Stages of Concern (SoC) model. The questionnaires of the 80 teachers who returned them (about 60 percent in each state) were grouped for data analysis by state, educational level, years of teaching experience, age, school type, and school size. The SoC profiles indicated that 24 percent of the teachers had accepted technology education, whereas 76 percent had not accepted this educational change. Idaho teachers indicated a 76 percent higher acceptance rate than Nebraska teachers. Analysis indicated that school size had a statistically significant impact on teachers' acceptance of technology education, with teachers in medium-sized schools most likely to have accepted technology education. Possible explanations for the overall lack of acceptance include the following: (1) technology education advocates have failed to show any relative advantage of the curriculum to the teachers asked to implement the change; (2) the technology education curriculum was externally developed; (3) technology education change agents, especially in Nebraska, ignored the feelings of industrial technology education teachers by failing to provide inservice training; and (4) the previous change experience of the industrial arts teachers may not have been positive. Recommendations were made to increase teachers' acceptance of technology education by taking their feelings into account and by providing inservice education. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/KC)

During fiscal year (FY) 1995, $20,933,342 in federal, $45,074,084 in state, and $84,449,547 in local funds were expended to support vocational education throughout Missouri. Enrollment in Missouri vocational education included 120,874 secondary students, 57,885 postsecondary students, and 101,914 adults. During FY 1995, work continued on the following areas/aspects of vocational education: performance standards/core measures; secondary, postsecondary, and adult occupational programs, services, and activities; programs for single parents/displaced homemakers/single pregnant women; criminal offenders, and special populations; sex equity programs; state leadership/professional development; community-based organizations; consumer and homemaking education, tech prep, integrating applied academics into vocational education, and career guidance/counseling. The following programs/services were deemed especially noteworthy: 42 at-risk student centers within the area vocational school network; system of industry (customized) training providing specialized skill training/retraining to business/industry; network of 7 regional and 2 metropolitan centers providing comprehensive programs of services for single parents/displaced homemakers; and 29 formal assessment centers to serve disabled/disadvantaged students. (Appendixes constituting approximately 50% of this report include the following: 28 tables detailing enrollment in the various levels/types of vocational programs; Missouri performance standards/measures for vocational education; selected program intake forms; and information about selected programs/services.) (MN)

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. The papers in this volume focus on innovations and alternative strategies designed to improve quality in teacher education at preservice phase. The publication is in five sections. The first four sections were prepared by the respective national Ministries of Education. Section 1 is on Bangladesh and includes an overview of literacy and primary education and a discussion of provisions for initial training of teachers, the funding of education, and problems and remedies. Section 2, on India, includes a brief history of India's educational system, a review of key issues in the National Policy of Education, a discussion of issues facing Indian educators in the nineties, and several data tables. Pakistan is the focus of section 3 which looks at historical perspectives on teacher training, training of elementary and secondary teachers, qualifications for teacher educators, innovations in teacher training, analysis of teacher training programs, financing of teacher education, and recommendations for future development. The fourth section is on Sri Lanka and covers inservice and preservice teacher education, successful innovations in teacher training, problems and issues, and statistical information. The final section is an overview by Beatrice Avalos which summarizes the educational context and the characteristics, issues, and alternatives of teacher education in general and in each of the four countries. (Individual sections contain references.) (ND)

This book takes the position that education in Hong Kong under British rule has been characterized by inequalities, privileges, patronage, discrimination, archaic hierarchies, inadequate planning, and emphasis on quantity over quality. With this colonial heritage and burden, Hong Kong prepares to join China in 1997. Although education in Hong Kong carries many burdens from the past, it also has transformative power for the future through the training of leaders, the promotion of Hong Kong Chinese cultural identity, and the socialization of a new citizenry for Hong Kong as part of the People's Republic of China. The 13 essays in this collection explore education in Hong Kong as a legacy of the past and force for the future. The first part of the collection provides an overview of Hong Kong education in its social context. Part 2, "Education and Politics," considers the political dimensions of change and education. Part 3 explores education and social stratification in Hong Kong, and Part 4 discusses two major educational issues for the former colony: the language of education and the emigration of talented individuals. In Part 5, various aspects of education in Hong Kong and in the People's Republic are compared and contrasted. Appendixes present schematics explaining the educational system of Hong Kong and its policymaking and administrative bodies, a chronological framework of the educational systems and of important documents regarding Hong Kong's education, and a comparison of the educational systems of the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong. (Contains 20 tables and 392 references.) (SLD)

The second session of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, held in Dakar, Senegal, was preceded by a 2-day working group on education in Africa, at which some 15 African educators, decision-makers, and intellectuals debated problems, approaches, and options in education. Several African educators at the highest levels participated in hearings before the Commission to further the dialogue on the relationship between educational aims and educational realities, particularly in the difficult economic and political context facing Africa. The text of this report incorporates the debates and conclusions of the working group, as well as the content of the hearings. Although the theme of the plenary was "education and development," an emphasis was placed throughout the discussions on the situation in sub-Saharan Africa. This emphasis was due both to the location of the meeting, and to the acuteness of the problems there. The Commission emphasized diagnosis, and questions, rather than the formulation of specific recommendations at this early stage. The first part of the report on education and development discusses educational provision, including mobilizing for the expansion of literacy, language of teaching, technical and vocational education, the role of universities in the economy, research, and diversification; and focusing on African problems such as education for women, political stability, overcoming handicaps, tensions between quality and quantity, and the teacher shortage. The second part of the report summarizes four specific topics developed by the Commission: (1) education and communications technologies; (2) education and work; (3) financing of education; and (4) education and international cooperation. (DK)

The education of females is one of the best investments that a country can make in its future, because it enables the country to draw more fully on all of its human resources for national development. In 1981, 26.2% of the population of Pakistan above the age of 10 was literate. The literacy rate was 35.1% for males compared to 16% for females, and ranged from a high of 53.3% for urban men to a low of 7.3% for rural women. The female school enrollment drops sharply after the primary level, and then again after the secondary level. The student dropout rate is linked to the social, cultural, economic, and educational background of the parents. Disparities in educational attainment correspond to other social inequities between urban and rural populations and between men and women. Many rural people want to continue their daughters' education, but it is socially unacceptable for girls to leave their homes for education. Girls are also excluded from apprenticeships in commercial shops, through which boys learn a trade. However, social attitudes are changing, in that educated young men want to marry educated women. Rapid expansion and revitalization of the education system is needed. Improvements are needed in training, planning, management, and promotion of innovation to enable the entire education system to respond to rapidly changing socioeconomic and cultural demands. Other suggestions for improvement include increasing literacy education and job training for women; distributing educational videotape cassettes through the existing commercial video rental infrastructure; increasing computer uses in education; and focusing the educational system on vocational education, especially for females. (TD)

This CD-ROM contains, in compressed form, over 2,600 tables, charts, and text files from the following publications of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): (1) "1996 Digest of Education Statistics"; (2) "1996 Condition of Education"; (3) "1995 Condition of Education" (27 indicators); (4) "1994 Condition of Education" (24 indicators); (5) "1993 Condition of Education" (17 indicators); (6) "1992 Condition of Education" (6 indicators); (7) "Projections of Education Statistics to 2006"; (8) "1996 Youth Indicators"; (9) "Historical Trends: State Educational Facts 1969 to 1989"; (10) "State Comparisons of Education Statistics: 1969-70 to 1993-94"; (11) "120 Years of American Education: A Statistical Portrait"; (12) "Education in States and Nations: Indicators Comparing U.S. States with Other Industrialized Countries in 1991." The disk contains a computer program to search these files and a user-friendly interface to help novice searchers without handicapping experts. A thesaurus of over 450 terms and 80 cross-references has been used to index the tables and figures. Online instructions can be displayed and printed, search results can be saved, and retrieved tables can be displayed, printed, or stored to disk. Hypertext versions of the 1996 tables and the 1991 "Education in States and Nations" are included. FREQUENCY: Annual. TYPE OF SURVEY: National. YEAR OF EARLIEST DATA: 1991. YEAR OF LATEST DATA: 1996.

This book contains 11 reports describing the conceptual, methodological, and policy problems encountered during development of the international indicators known as Network B, which were developed as part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's Project on International Indicators of Education Systems to serve as international measures of education and labor market destinations. The following papers are included: "Introduction" (Bertil Bucht); "Indicators of Network B" (Olof Jos, Kenny Petersson); "Concepts and Definitions" (Thomas J. Healy, Allan Nordin); "Contextual Factors Surrounding Transitions from Education to the Labour Market" (Kenneth D. Bennett); "La transition entre l'ecole et l'emploi [Transition from School to Employment]" (Michel-Henri Gensbittel, Christine Mainguet); "Education, Employment, and Unemployment" (Birgitte Bovin); "The Rate of Return to Education: A Proposal for an Indicator" (Nabeel Alsalam, Ronald Conley); "Gender Disparities in Labour Market Outcomes of Education" (Nicholas Pole); "Methodological Issues in the Calculation of an Index of Gender Differences" (Luc Van de Poele); "Indicators of Continuing Education and Training" (Anna Borkowsky, Maurice van der Heiden, Albert Tuijnman); and "Conclusions" (Bertil Bucht). English and French forewords are included. All papers include English and French abstracts. (MN)

This document contains vocational education program course standards (curriculum frameworks and student performance standards) for exploratory courses, practical arts courses, and job preparatory programs offered at the secondary and postsecondary level as part of the business technology education component of Florida's comprehensive vocational education program. Curriculum frameworks are provided for 54 programs/clusters: business systems and technology 1 and 2; academy of international business; academy of desktop publishing; accounting; accounting applications; accounting operations; accounting records; accounting technology; business administration and management; business administration operations; business computer programming; business cooperative education organization management; business cooperative education; business data processing; business education directed study; business keyboarding; business management; business software applications; computer applications in business 1 and 2; computer information systems analysis; computer programming; computer programming and applications; court reporting; data entry; electronic/desktop publishing; financial records; general office clerk; information processing; international business management; legal secretarial technology; medical secretarial technology; office management technology; office supervision; office support technology; office systems technology; postal service management; practical computer skills; practical keyboarding skills; recordkeeping; records management; records specialist; secretarial services; small business management; small business operations; and word processing technology. Each curriculum framework includes some or all of the following: program title, occupational area, grade level, length, certification awarded; major concepts/content covered in the course; laboratory activities; special notes; and intended outcomes. (MN)

This paper examines the knowledge and acceptance level of special and general education teachers and administrators regarding inclusive education within the rural and diverse state of New Mexico. While inclusive education of disabled students has gained widespread support, little attention has been paid to program implementation within a rural and poor state such as New Mexico. The evolution of the inclusive education movement began with the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Passage of the IDEA led to the Regular Education Initiative movement, whose goal was to merge special and regular education into one system and provide instructional services to disabled children in regular classrooms. An outgrowth of the REI was the full inclusion movement, which focused on strengthening not only the academic performance of disabled students in regular classroom settings, but also socialization skills, attitudes, and positive peer relations. Thirty-nine of 60 special educators attending a 1993 New Mexico conference returned a survey following a presentation on inclusive education. While the majority of educators were supportive of inclusive education, a small percentage (7-15 percent) were consistently nonsupportive. Specifically, nonsupportive respondents desired the continuation of resource rooms and expressed uneasiness about therapists or consultants jointly teaching with them in general education classrooms. Survey results indicate areas of confusion concerning application of inclusive educational practices. However, at the time, none of the school districts represented at the conference had implemented inclusive education. Survey questions and results are included. (LP)

A project was conducted to identify outcomes and procedures for measuring the occupational competency of students completing a coherent sequence of courses in career and technology education (C&TE) programs throughout Texas. The major objectives of phase 2 of the project were as follows: validate criteria for a career portfolio, integrate the career portfolio with general education, establish criteria for authentic assessment, and develop a career portfolio model. Data were obtained from the following: 4 group discussions with a total of 21 child care industry representatives and 11 horticulture industry representatives in Lubbock and Austin (Texas); input from a 10-member authentic assessment advisory committee that included project staff and representatives the Texas Education Agency; site visits to 3 child care education programs; and telephone interviews with teachers currently using authentic assessment in general education. The information obtained was analyzed and used to develop a career portfolio model that is designed for use in C&TE and that integrates occupation-specific skills, the workplace competencies identified in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills report, and general education. (Contains 36 references. Appended are lists of focus group participants and employability skills and child care competencies and additional comments of the focus groups.) (MN)

This final report describes a pilot 3-year project in Alaska to include children with deaf-blindness in regular classrooms. The project established and supported two pilot sites for inclusion of students with deaf-blindness, one urban and one rural. As a result of the project, three out of four pilot site students moved from self-contained special education classrooms to full inclusion in regular classrooms where they received education to meet their individualized needs. At the sites, strategies for supporting inclusive education were documented to be effective. Training was provided to staff responsible for the education of 13 of the 16 school-aged Alaskan students with deaf-blindness. A three-credit university course, offered through distance education, was taught and supported by the project. Additional course work on inclusive education was provided by the project through summer institutes and other short courses. Technical assistance and inservice training were provided for teachers, administrators, parents, and students. Project staff became involved in statewide planning and in a state initiative to support further training and assistance to improve inclusive education. Sections of the report describe the project's rationale, conceptual framework, goals and objectives, participants and components of the training model, problems and their resolution, findings, evaluation, and impact. Extensive appendices provide project materials, including training outlines, course descriptions, a course syllabus, the cooperative agreement, a technical assistance agreement, a teacher survey form, satisfaction evaluations, and a listing of library resources on inclusive education. (Contains 23 references.) (DB)