Education & Pedagogy

Developed particularly for vocational educators, guidance and counseling personnel, and directors of gifted education programs, this booklet (brochure) is intended to bring about a greater awareness of the occupational opportunities for gifted and talented students through vocational education. Initial discussion focuses on definition and need for synthesis of the following concepts: equal opportunity, guidance and counseling, special education, career education, gifted education, and vocational education. Some characteristics of gifted and talented students and their identification are discussed briefly. The remainder of the booklet is an overview of the possible vocational programs and potentially satisfying jobs for the gifted/talented. Final emphasis is on the importance of guidance and counseling for the gifted. Photographs illustrate the text. (JT)

This study provides new and more accurate information about private rates of return to education (RORE) in Malaysia. Most of the prior studies on RORE have not addressed selectivity bias, and those that have are based on an older data set. The findings suggest that for both males and females, the average private returns to education are highest at the secondary (16.5 percent and 27.2 percent, respectively) and university (15.5 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively) education levels. Thus, it is important to pursue education until the secondary level and further to the university level to capture higher returns to education. (Contains 9 tables and 2 figures.)

Higher education provides graduates with both monetary and non-monetary benefits. Globalization and technological developments foster utilitarian approach, therefore the transmission of competences that are relevant in labour market is an important target for higher education institutions. The paper presents findings of research on the match of generic competences of higher education graduates to labour market needs. Research population consisted of graduates of EU member states and Turkey; the issue was analysed through nine sections. Mainly, graduates lack field mastery, time management and ability to work under stress; they have over-developed competences of international orientation. (Contains 8 figures and 6 footnotes.)

This article considers approaches to promoting global perspectives as both cognitive and affective learning outcomes within geography education. Particular attention is paid to the work of Robert Hanvey, who proposed "An Attainable Global Perspective" in the 1970s, which explicitly ties to the content and perspectives embedded in geographic education. However, this approach was situated within a particularly American perspective on the nature and value of "global" education. This paper both endorses and updates Hanvey's ideas, aiming to spur dialog among geographers to internationalize the discussion of how geography education can foster more truly global perspectives.

Citizenship is about individual's membership in the socio-political community. Education for citizenship conceives issues such as quality education, learning society and inclusion. Educational thinking in India has long valued community as a learning resource. With empirical experiences drawn from the programme of "Ecology and Natural Resource Education" (ENRE), executed by local non-governmental organisations in three Blocks in West Bengal, India, this study argues that learning from community has potentials to contribute to quality education and democratic citizenship. Since the local community and non-governmental organisation efforts are insufficient, involvement of the state is necessary, to place it as a universal agenda for citizenship education.

Current preoccupations in teacher education reform include data gathering, teaching technique, and preparing PK-12 students for standardized tests. The purpose of American education has been reduced to economic benefit. Concerns with ethical behavior, the good life, and democratic citizenship have fallen by the wayside except perhaps in a single social foundations course. Media literacy education infused in the teacher education curriculum offers one way to restore purpose to teacher education, encouraging both pre-service teachers and their students to think critically about their media-dominated society.

In this theoretical article the authors review the theories and issues surrounding new literacies to determine their possible consequences for the preparation of teachers. The authors examined these theories alongside artefacts from the disciplines, content-area classrooms, and teacher education curricula. This interpretive work allowed the authors to (1) acknowledge the presence of new literacies in disciplinary practices, (2) notice that content-area classrooms are new literacies spaces, and (3) reimagine the curricula used to prepare teachers for work in content-area classrooms. Implications for classroom instruction and teacher education are discussed.

This paper traces the transmission of Western science through the agricultural education sector during the British colonial administration of Malaya. This education system included three levels: elementary, intermediate and the school of agriculture. To understand the process by which Western science was transmitted in Malaya, Basalla's model was adopted to clarify the vectors of Western science and the types of knowledge disseminated by these vectors, and to identify the mechanisms sustaining scientific research activities outside Europe. This paper shows that the transmission and the diffusion of Western science through education were highly centralised under the British colonial umbrella and closely associated with the agricultural economy.

What is Career and Technical Education (CTE)? How does one identify and recognized strong CTE educational programs? And after one has answers to the first two questions, how does one successfully align CTE teacher education (CTTE) programs across large institutions such as colleges within universities, or in Kentucky's endeavor within universities across the commonwealth offering various CTE programs? A multi-year educational project designed and implemented through the Kentucky Career and Technical Teacher Education Conference planning committee has created a plan to strengthen Kentucky CTE. The process to identify the issues and concerns with a formulation of the plans of actions could be of use to any organization.

Higher education in Macau, China, is characterized by vocationalization of institutions, lack of faculty professionalization, and little or no shared governance. Using general statistics of higher education in Macau and a case study of one university, this paper illustrates not only the status of the profession but also the structural, cultural, and individual factors which influence that status. The findings have an important implication for the development of higher education in Macau in the post-colonial era. At a time of universal corporatization and commercialization in higher education, this study explores a challenge that higher education faces everywhere.

Afghanistan's public education system has been victimized by the brutal oppression of the Taliban Regime. Schools were destroyed, teachers were executed, and women were prevented from receiving an education. However, the situation has improved in recent years. Public school enrollment rates and educational access for females have substantially increased since the fall of the Taliban Regime. A resurgence of learning is happening throughout the country. Although this resurgence is welcome, it faces unique challenges. This article examines Afghanistan's history of educational oppression, describes post-Taliban educational trends, examines modern challenges facing public education, and provides recommendations for fostering a new hope for educational attainment among the citizens of Afghanistan.

The purpose of this study is to explore, using a musical metaphor, the consonance, counterpoint, dissonance, and resonance of a large-scale multicultural teacher education program. In particular, it examines the different instructional approaches of seven graduate students and two faculty who currently teach an undergraduate multicultural education course at a large midwestern university. By combining a theoretical framework (Bennett, 2010) with a musical-analytical approach, the study explores how the interplay of individual voices contributes to a "productive dissonance" that has the potential to transform the overall program.

Benchmarking is one way of ensuring academic depth and rigour in teacher education. After making a case for setting benchmarks in teacher education based on the widely recognised intra-education system contextual factors, the importance of also taking into account the external (e.g. the national-social) context in which teacher education occurs is highlighted. A five-step plan is offered for ensuring academic depth and rigour in teacher education through benchmarking. The process is illustrated with examples from the South African situation. The article concludes with an outline of the contextual conditions with which teacher educators in South Africa have to cope.

In Italy the "Education and Training System" is undergoing a period of complex reorganization. This occurs within a "European Integration Process" aimed at achieving a full "Citizenship right" and the maximum mobility among "Member States". Starting from the latest "European Directives", which make the concept of "Competence" the cornerstone of "Education, Training and Work", and examining data from some very recent surveys of national and international significance, here we propose a picture of the current Italian situation.

This article discusses the expansion of education systems that now, following international declarations, are expected to offer an "Education for All" to children, young people and adults. Since in these declarations special education and inclusive education are conjoined, sociological questions can be asked as to what sort of social relationships and conflicts are involved in this expansion of a sub-system that underpins mass education. The article uses recent research asking school and college heads, teachers and administrators, how they defined and treated the young people and what future they envisaged for them, given that an ideology of human capital dominates government thinking and policy.