Education & Pedagogy

During the closing remarks at the 2003 Conference for Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) faculty, Larry Locke, emeritus professor from the University of Massachusetts, commented on the presentations that he had seen as well as topics that he felt were important, but were not addressed at the conference. One omission was the topic of teacher candidates who should not become teachers. Most teacher educators have had at least one of these students go through a program. For many, the current solution is to hope that the individual fails one of the licensing requirements or has an inadequate grade-point average. Locke proposed that additional screens should be in place that would prevent unworthy students from entering the teaching profession. This article explains the procedures that one university is following to address this issue.

Adult education programmes developed for or by indigenous communities rarely seem to have addressed gender inequalities. Yet, compared to mainstream adult educational interventions promoting instrumental approaches to "functional literacy", such programmes often appear highly politicised, starting from a standpoint of promoting indigenous peoples' rights. We look at the reasons for the absence of gender analysis from policy and research on indigenous adult education and highlight key issues within indigenous adult education, when viewed from a gendered perspective, particularly language, assessment, learning structures and programme objectives. Drawing on case studies of indigenous adult education programmes in South and South-East Asia, we emphasise the need for participatory, non-hierarchical processes in adult education that can provide legitimate space for multiple voices within indigenous groups, without enhancing the sense of marginalisation. The principles underlying indigenous adult education programmes can help planners to challenge and respond to gender inequalities.

In this study, the author examined special education teacher's perceptions of their effective instruction practices in teaching students with disabilities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Participants included 107 prospective teachers who teach in special education classrooms, and 107 prospective teachers who teach in centers. They responded to 63 items of the modified version of the Model off Effective Instruction (Ysseldyke and Algozzine, 1995). Finding revealed that teachers in general were ineffective in teaching students with disabilities. However, female teachers were more effective than male teachers; special education classroom teachers were more effective than their counterparts who teach in centers; teachers who had 1-5 years of experience were more effective than those with more than six years of experience, and teachers who had inservice training once were more effective than those who had inservice training more than once.

Standardized portfolios are being used by teachers and teacher candidates to demonstrate subject matter knowledge for certification or to be considered highly qualified; however, the psychometric adequacy of data used for this purpose has not been evaluated. In the current study, we examined the interscorer reliability, concurrent, predictive, and discriminate validity, and instructional utility of an assessment portfolio used in a special education teacher education program. The estimate of interscorer reliability was .91, validity coefficients ranged from .53 to .60, and the discriminate validity coefficient was 2.01. A comparison of scores for instructional objectives suggested relative difficulties writing adequate short-term objectives, which was then further emphasized in subsequent instruction and resulted in increased scores. Suggestions for practice and future research are included. (Contains 3 tables.)

During the 1990s, Spain experienced a phenomenon that is slightly unusual in educational systems: the coexistence of two secondary education models and one single tertiary education model. The overall purpose of this article has been to study the possible differences in the academic performance of students in university education in terms of the model followed in secondary education. We carried out a comparative monitoring of various cohorts of students in the Universities of Barcelona, Oviedo, the Basque Country, Salamanca and Zaragoza (Spain). These institutions are located in regions of differing size and nature, and are representative of the Spanish university system as a whole. In all, we analysed the academic performance of nearly 150,000 university students. The main conclusion we reached is that there are no differences in student academic performance at university in terms of the secondary education system followed.

Addresses three separate initiatives South Yorkshire Further Education Consortium SYFEC e-skills4industry - a partnership between Lewisham College and Deloitte and Cascade and information and communication technology ICT training for schools. The initiatives, however, share two important characteristics. First, they are all initiatives which have been recognised within the National Training Awards NTA programme organised by UK Skills and supported by the UK Governments Department for Education and Skills DfES. Second, each of the initiatives, albeit in different ways, looks at the utilisation of information and communication technology ICT in different aspects of education and training. The three winning accounts featured here offer useful insight into how the further and higher education sectors, in partnership with industry, are responding to some of the challenges and opportunities that have arisen as the use of information technology IT becomes common place in peoples working and learning lives.

Comparative education, as an eclectic field, contains flexible boundaries whose contours are often difficult to discern. Are the boundaries of comparative education wide enough (or, perhaps better said, narrow enough) to make it a "science"? Should it be largely a policy-driven field, or should it focus mainly on theory? How "hard" or "soft" should the field be? What part should intuition play in research? To what extent should comparative education draw on other fields for insight and inspiration, and to what extent can and should comparative education stand apart from other fields? The main purpose of this article is to raise questions about these claims. The article asserts that although the meaning of comparison has been debated over the course of the field's development, the recent rise of postmodernism is plausibly the most serious challenge ever to boundary stability.

In this article, I portray the status of visual art education in United States public elementary schools between 1997 and 2004. I report on trends in state policies and interpret data from a national survey of elementary principals, visual art specialists, and classroom teachers. I also provide information on public opinion about arts education, and the possible impact on art education of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Data from this period serve as a benchmark for tracking shifts in policy and practice as the nation's schools respond to NCLB mandates for improved scores in reading, mathematics, and science by 2014. My discussion highlights recurrent themes and contradictions in policy and practice. (Contains 3 footnotes and 4 figures.)

As I look back at K-12 science education in post-World War II America, it strikes me that surprisingly little progress has been made. This disappointing outcome cannot be due to a lack of effort, for in the last half-century our investment in science education reform--human and financial--has been substantial. In this essay, I focus first on some of our failures (as I see them) of the last 50 years, and speculate on why we were not more successful. With that in mind, I then propose a reform agenda for the next 50 years.

An ambivalent, sometimes destructive, relationship between modern humanity, technology and "outer" or external nature has historically attracted the critical attention of scholars and commentators from a wide variety of backgrounds. The effects of technology on postmodern "inner" nature warrants similar scrutiny. This article examines how technology structures human experience and is structuring education for sustainable development. Propositions about the "technics of experience" and questions for environmental education are posed so as to invite more earnest discussion about the inroads technologies and "vicarious" learning experiences are making into the equally unproblematic ontological treatment of postmodern learners/subjects. Consideration must be given to the question of what users of the technological medium "become"--an ontological issue of crucial relevance to the ongoing aspirations and legitimacy of environmental education. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table and 4 notes.) [Reprinted from "Environmental Education Research" (2003) 9(4), pp. 525-541.)

To address teacher supply/demand/preparation issues, the Texas Education Agency funded a project that established a statewide inter-institutional system for providing Web-based distance education courses as preparation for FCS teacher certification. The Family and Consumer Sciences Distance Education Alliance (FCS Alliance) involves voluntary participation of ten universities that have teacher preparation programs. The purposes of the FCS Alliance are to: (a) Address the shortage of certified FCS teachers; (b) Enhance existing campus-based teacher preparation programs by providing Web-based course options accommodating scheduling needs of campus-based students, customize courses reflecting content needs that are unique to teacher certification specializations, and offset infrequency of campus-based course offerings; and (c) Allow individuals otherwise unable to obtain FCS certification due to schedule and proximity constraints to pursue a degree including a full complement of content specialization and discipline-specific courses.

In his "Perspectives on the Philosophy of Education" John Wilson laments the confusion that surrounds the current state of the philosophy of education. Unlike other branches of philosophy, he claims, it is not clear what the philosophy of education is about, and a snapshot of current work in the field reveals its lack of coherence. To remedy this he advocates starting "from scratch": the philosophy of education is to be understood as a discipline concerned with the logic of value judgements and focused on questions of learning. While the present paper acknowledges the extent of Wilson's contribution to the field, it draws attention to the confusion in the position that he holds, and shows that his assessment of the current state of the philosophy of education is both inaccurate and politically blinkered. In the process, the paper challenges his account of the philosophy of education as a branch of philosophy and offers a more coherent characterisation. (Contains 1 note.)

Concerns about the "Americanization" of Canadian schools have been raised frequently throughout the history of Canadian education. Fear of American influence was behind the requirement in the 1816 Common School Act in Upper Canada that all teachers take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. It was the reason for the strong promotion of the colonies' British identity during the era of the establishment of compulsory elementary schooling. But whether close ties between Canadian and American educators were viewed in positive or negative terms, it has never exactly been clear what is "American" about American education. Scholars have yet to write a coherent account of the extent to which Canadian education has been shaped by American values or the American educational experience. This article suggests that Canadian schools have been influenced by many of the same issues that faced American schools. (Contains 16 notes.)

Despite their interconnectedness, teacher education, teacher development, and teacher retention are often treated as discrete domains of inquiry. This article and the research on which it reports resist such compartmentalization and instead focus on relationships between teachers' pasts, presents, and futures. In particular, this qualitative study of 15 specialized teacher education program graduates examines urban teachers' perspectives on and experiences in professional development. Specific attention is paid to the role of professional development--in conjunction with other forces, including preservice preparation and workplace conditions--in shaping teachers' attitudes about their work and their professional futures. Findings illuminate four kinds of complexity underlying teachers' early career needs that are discussed and used to generate suggestions for how universities might better support teacher education program graduates to build rewarding and effective long-term careers in education. (Contains 10 notes and 1 table.)

In recent times, there has been a growing interest in empirical research in religious education and (practical) theology. No doubt, empirical procedures not only promise important insights for religious education--they also promise academic credibility because they are part of the established methodology in a number of disciplines like psychology, sociology, and cultural studies. In this paper, the author offers his conclusions concerning the research needed in religious education, including: (1) Establishing religious education as a research discipline that must produce research results that gain acceptance within the field as well as beyond; (2) Conducting more empirical research and striving for a methodological balance; (3) Researching previously "unknown territories" such as congregational work and the context of the family; (4) Following an agenda that appeals to different audiences--church and theology, the individual person, and the wider public; and (5) Realizing that religious education should not strive to model itself according to the expectations of science. (Contains 1 footnote.)