Education & Pedagogy

This paper provides teacher organizations with an overview of online education issues and research. The first section defines online education. The second section summarizes reasons for the expansion of online education. The third section looks at the nature and extent of online education in Canada and the United States. The fourth section discusses research issues, and the fifth section suggests areas for further research. The sixth section examines some of the trends and issues in online education at both the postsecondary and K-12 levels, including disaggregation and deprofessionalization, concerns about equity and socialization, technology costs, the technology-privatization-commercialization nexus, and a 2001 Canadian Teachers' Federation survey on online education. The seventh section provides examples of policies and principles drawn from educators' organizations, intended to inform policy development, the implementation and practice of online learning, the collective bargaining process, and general thinking about online education. The eighth section presents a plea for critical and creative thinking about the role of technology in the classroom. (Contains 90 references.) (MES)

This paper summarizes key findings from three 2002 documents on availability of special education professionals: "The Supply and Demand of Special Education Teachers: The Nature of the Chronic Shortage of Special Education Teachers" (J. McLeskey and others); "Special Education Teacher Retention and Attrition" (B. Billingsley); and "The Proliferation of Alternative Routes to Certification in Special Education: A Critical Review of the Literature" (M. Rosenberg and P. Sindelar). The paper addresses the following topics: magnitude of the special education teacher shortage; factors influencing demand; factors influencing supply; reasons for low teacher supply; attrition and retention; filling teacher vacancies and reducing demand; and future research directions. Three policy recommendations for state and local education agencies emerged from analysis of these documents: (1) focus on strategies for supporting new special education teachers (e.g., mentoring, administrative support) in addition to recruitment strategies; (2) examine teacher roles, responsibilities and caseloads to ensure that educators have adequate time to focus on student and family needs; and (3) collaborate with institutions of higher education in developing and implementing alternative certification programs. (Contains 44 references.) (DB)

This paper suggests that Congress could increase funding for special education to the full funding recommended in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act by transferring funds from ineffective and low-priority programs in the labor, health, and education appropriations legislation. More than 30 programs are specifically listed as ones that should be ended either because they have not proven to be effective or because they duplicate other programs that already receive federal funds. Charts show: (1) total federal spending on K-12 education from 1965 through 2001; and (2) the rapid rise of education spending compared to the virtually stagnant reading achievement scores among high school students. The paper particularly criticizes the Education Finance Incentive Program. The House of Representatives is also urged to resist adding pork-barrel projects to fiscal year 2003 spending bills. The paper concludes that members of Congress often give lip service to their desire to increase funding for special education, yet Congress continues to use limited education funds for less important programs and projects. (Contains 13 references.) (DB)

This issue focuses on continuing vocational education (CVE) in Germany. Articles are: "Lifelong Learning in the Knowledge Society;""The Foundations of CVE in Germany"; "Who Takes Part in Continuing Education?"; "Hail Maria! A Helping Hand for Female Academics Seeking Promotion"; "Sponsors and Forms of Continuing Education"; "The New Media the Current Issue for Continuing Education"; "An Instinctive Feel for Alternative Careers in Information Technology: Vocational Qualification by the Nuremberg University Team"; "Building Blocks for a New World: Multimedia 'Driving License'"; "Multimedia in Children's Rooms: Vocational Continuing Education for Teachers in Child Daycare Centers"; "Lifelong Learning As an Issue for Education Policy"; "'The Danger of Missing out' Interview with Matthias Berninger"; and "Quality Assurance in Continuing Education." (YLB)

This lesson plan and learning activities were designed for high school technology education teachers to use in assisting students in making informed decisions regarding a career in technology education. The following materials are included in the packet: (1) the lesson description (three learning objectives and advice to the teacher); (2) the lesson plan outline for "Technology Education as a Career," including goals, a resource list, a supply list, a section called "Review and Focus," step-by-step directions for the teacher's presentation, suggestions for student practice, a mediated activity, a list of what students should learn, and evaluation instructions; (3) the "World Wide Web Technology Education Career Activity" and answer sheet that support the lesson; (4) three overhead transparencies that support the lesson; (5) a recruitment brochure; and (6) a prerequisite lesson plan and overhead transparency for students who have never searched the World Wide Web. (KC)

This technical assistance paper is intended to provide updated guidance for Florida educators of students with disabilities concerning changes in identification, free appropriate public education (FAPE), placement, or dismissal from special education. Following an introductory section presenting the background, purpose, and relevant terms, the paper is in a question-and-answer format. Questions address topics such as: requirements before changing a student's disability category; when prereferral activities are and are not required; what constitutes a change in FAPE or placement; graduation as a change in FAPE; the individualized education program and graduation; required procedures for adding a related service if a student is currently receiving special education services; procedures for discontinuing a related service for such a student; requirements for determining that a student no longer needs special education services; formal evaluation requirements prior to dismissing a student from special education; determination of dismissal criteria; standards for dismissal from special education; readmission into the special education program; and continued provision of accommodations to a student dismissed from special education. (DB)

This resource guide provides a theoretical and practical text for teaching character education. It allows educators to do their own in-depth teacher education and implementation of virtue-centered character education. With this information, teachers can move character education from theory to practice. Chapter 1 begins with a definition of character education and lays out the reasons why schools should undertake this challenge. Chapter 2 explains the difference between teaching virtues instead of values or views. It provides a framework for teaching children to internalize virtue and explains the steps needed to build the foundation for character education. The importance of turning a school into a community of virtue is discussed in Chapter 3, and the methods of making character education an integral part of the curriculum are delineated in Chapter 4. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 discuss the specific roles and responsibilities of parents, teachers, and students. Three appendixes are organized into 20 brief sections on good ideas, action strategies, and curriculum. (Contains 11 exhibits, 8 checklists, and 2 worksheets.) (JDM)

This paper discusses the increasingly corporatist mentality within higher education, focusing on the role of the government within Canada, and elsewhere, to reshape higher education into narrow occupational training. It notes that while governments in Canada and the United States have reduced public funding for higher education, they have pursued agendas of increasing accountability through quantifiable outcomes and the forced narrowing of education to production of the workforce. The paper cites numerous critics of the corporatist-conservative agenda who discuss the growing role of government and business in shaping and spreading this agenda. It examines recent efforts by local and provincial governments in Canada to reshape higher education ministries to focus on worker training, to the neglect or outright abandonment of the humanist emphasis of higher education. The paper concludes that the potentials of these trends and corporatist controls include the loss, for future generations, of the critical sensibilities necessary to evaluate and reorder the state/corporate agenda. (Contains 19 references.) (MDM)

This book brings together the work of practitioners actively engaged in developing new approaches to management education, and their application. The 10 chapters are: Chapter 1, "Rethinking Management Education: An Introduction" (Christopher Grey and Robert French); chapter 2, "Can Management Education be Educational?" (Alan B. Thomjas and Peter D. Anthony); chapter 3, "Mapping the Intellectual Terrain of Management Education" (Jannis Kallinikos); chapter 4, "Management Education and the Limits of Technical Rationality: The Conditions and Consequences of Management Practice" (John Roberts); chapter 5, "Critical Theory and Management Education: Some Strategies for the Critical Classroom" (J. Michael Cavanaugh and Anshuman Prasad); chapter 6, "Is a Critical Pedagogy of Management Possible?" (Christopher Grey, David Knights and Hugh Willmott); chapter 7, "Experiential Management Education as the Practice of Change" (Russ Vince); chapter 8, "The MBA: The Potential fur Students to find their Voice in Babel" (Audrey Collin); chapter 9, "Plato on the Education of Managers" (Jonathan Gosling); and chapter 10, "Management Education as a Panoptic Cage" (Davis M. Boje). A name index and a subject index are included. (RJM)

This paper presents a description of Natural Beginnings, an early childhood environmental education teacher inservice workshop. The purpose, content, and format of the workshop are discussed, as are evaluation results. Evaluation results indicate that the workshop was highly effective in increasing teachers' confidence in infusing environmental education into an early childhood curriculum, fostering teachers' own understanding and appreciation of the natural environment, introducing teachers to environmental education materials and other resources in the community, and fostering partnerships between early childhood educators and environmental education resource professionals. One unique feature of the workshop was the development and field-testing of new environmental education materials (i.e., activity kits and instructional units) appropriate for the early childhood level. In addition to evaluating the effectiveness of the workshop, participant feedback was also used to develop recommendations for similar workshops in the future. Additional benefits resulting from the workshop include increasing parents' and colleagues' interest and involvement in environmental education activities. (Author/PVD)

This guide provides recommendations for collecting accurate, comparable, and useful data about virtual education in an elementary/secondary education setting. Its goals are to: (1) identify components common to many education information systems that are necessary to meet the information needs of policymakers, administrators, instructors, and parents involved in virtual education; (2) highlight specific data elements relevant to the delivery, management, and oversight of virtual education; (3) identify commonly accepted data element definitions that may need to be modified to more accurately reflect the unique circumstances and information needs of virtual education; (4) present policy considerations related to managing information about virtual education; and (5) illustrate how complex issues related to virtual education data may play out in a real-world setting. The following are appended: (1) Data Element Definitions; (2) Data Elements Related to Student Services and Security in a Virtual Environment; and (3) References and Other Resources. A glossary; and an index are also included. [This guide was developed by the National Forum on Education Statistics; State Educational Technology Directors Association; and School Interoperability Framework Association.]

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) was created by the Texas Legislature in 1965 to provide leadership and coordination for the Texas higher education system to achieve excellence for the college education of Texas students. Most of the statutes that are applicable to THECB are found in the Texas Education Code, Title 3, Section 61. The THECB's overall responsibilities include assessment of the state of higher education in Texas; development of recommendations to the governor, Legislature, and institutions for its enhancement; establishment of policies for the efficient and effective use of the state's higher education resources; and the appointment of a Commissioner of Higher Education (Commissioner) to perform all duties delegated by the Board. To meet these broad obligations to the people of Texas, the THECB reviews and recommends changes in formulas for allocation of state funds to public institutions. In addition, it helps eliminate costly duplication in academic programs and unnecessary construction projects. Working with higher education institutions, the governor, and the Legislature, the THECB also ensures that all Texans have access to high quality programs at different instructional levels and administers the state's student financial aid programs.

The dilemma of providing effective education particularly in developing countries with limited resources and ambiguous calculations of rates of return due to unstable economies and labour market fluctuations makes it an absolute necessity to consider costs and benefits associated both with academic and vocational education. Through argumentation and scholarly literature analysis the paper brings together the benefits of academic education and emphasizes its multiple positive implications as opposed to secondary-school level vocational education that has a number of problematic issues to tackle. The argument further develops towards shifting vocational education from secondary-school level to on-the-job short-term technical trainings. The paper also brings arguments from scholarly literature that while rich developed countries can afford certain amount of vocationally oriented subjects incorporated into comprehensive secondary school curricula, the most optimal way for developing countries to find the solution to the problem would be to conduct vocational training courses at job places and adhere to general academic education in secondary schools. (Contains 2 tables and 2 footnotes.)

Alberta Education conducts a set of annual telephone surveys to obtain feedback from education system stakeholders regarding their perceptions of Alberta's education system. Respondents for the survey include senior high school students, parents of children in the K-12 education system, parents of children with severe special needs, teachers in the K-12 system, school board members, superintendents, principals, and the general public. The surveys were conducted by R.A. Malatest & Associates Ltd. from March to May 2008. The main objectives of this study were to determine stakeholders' satisfaction with: (1) The overall quality of Alberta's education system; (2) Alberta's education system meeting the needs of students, society, and the economy; (3) The preparation of students for lifelong learning, employment and citizenship; (4) Communication and stakeholder involvement in Alberta's education system; and (5) Leadership and continuous improvement of Alberta's education system. One appendix is included: Research Background and Methodology. (Contains 13 tables and 10 charts.) [This report was produced by the Alberta Education Performance Measurement and Reporting Branch.]

This paper assesses how policies and institutions affect private returns to invest in tertiary human capital, the ability of individuals to finance this investment and the institutional characteristics of tertiary education systems. Focusing on core tertiary education services, the paper presents new measures of private returns to tertiary education, the institutional setting for supplying tertiary education and the availability of individual financing in OECD countries. Using a panel of 19 countries, the number of new tertiary graduates (a proxy for investment in tertiary education) is regressed on these new proposed measures, as well as other standard determinants of investment in tertiary education. The resulting estimates are used to assess empirically the relative importance of several education, taxation and social policies affecting investment in tertiary education. Several avenues for reform and the trade-offs they present for public policy are discussed. (Contains 6 tables, 24 figures and 3 boxes.)