Education & Pedagogy

Last year, the North American Association for Environmental Education launched the "Natural Start Alliance," a new initiative to advance environmental education for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Natural Start provides an opportunity for key players to convene, share ideas and resources, and move together toward shared goals. This article shares updates and progress made in this the first year of the alliance.

Susan Imel is retired from Ohio State University. From December 1981 until December 2003, she was the Adult Education Specialist at the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education and Director from 1987 through 2003. This essay begins with a brief overview of the ERIC system including goals for the clearinghouses, followed by a discussion of the clearinghouses that served the field of adult education. It concludes with a section that highlights how centralization has changed ERIC.

With the establishment of the socialist market economic system in China, the issue of social fairness has been paid more and more attentions. The fairness issue of higher education, which is responsible for training high-quality talents for the national economy construction, has become the focus of attention. We discuss and research on the fairness of the higher education, and strive to achieve the goal of education equity in China.

Art Ellison is longtime advocate for adult education, having managed numerous advocacy campaigns over the past forty years on the state and national levels. Prior to his employment in 1980 as the NH State Director of Adult Education he worked for many years as a high school teacher and as a community organizer. In this article, Ellison offers some wisdom gained from his experience over the years as an organizer/advocate for adult education.

The evolution of education in postcolonial Guyana was closely tied to the state through the socialist government's policy of Free Education from Nursery to University. Walter Rodney, a product of the colonial education system and a revolutionary scholar was able to both critique the shortcomings of the existing system while creating a critical pedagogy which could serve as a radical alternative. This chapter examines possibilities for adult education grounded in Rodney's vision.

Mathematics education is not mathematics, it makes a basic use of highly specialized kinds of mathematical knowledge. The modern world feels a crisis of proper mathematics education in any nation. Realistic Mathematics Education is a domain-specific instruction theory for mathematics. This paper introduces realistic mathematics education (RME) and Vygotskian impacts on mathematics education for learning mathematics. This article describes the development of teaching-learning mathematics & learning theories from a socio-cultural perspective. The methodology of the study is based on qualitative type.

Higher education, or more strictly higher education studies, is sometimes referred to as a discipline, though it is more often referred to as a field, sector or area for study. But what is a discipline and does higher education studies, at its current state of development, qualify as one? This article re-considers these matters and comes to some conflicting conclusions. The issue of whether higher education studies is, or is not, a discipline should probably, therefore, be regarded as still open for debate.

In this reviewing paper, a couple of issues concerning school science education in Macau are discussed, including science teacher education, science curriculum reform, and opportunities and challenges for science teachers. Especially, more space is devoted to the issue of science teacher development in the social context of Macau. This paper will be helpful for international readers to understand the history and current situation of science education in general and science teacher education in particular in Macau, a special administration region of China.

This guide presents information on 25 dissertations in bilingual education done by Fellows in ESEA Title VII Fellowship programs. The dissertations cover the following general areas: language learning and communicative competence, teacher training, teacher role and attitudes, parent participation, access to education on all levels, learning styles and academic achievement; school district structure, and vocational education. Each entry provides bibliographic information and an abstract. (AMH)

This selected bibliography lists 93 publications that contain information on: (1) personnel supply/demand in special education, general education, related services, and higher education; (2) trends in education, enrollments, populations, and related topics; (3) demographic data that may influence personnel supply/demand in special education; and (4) models or procedures for measuring and projecting supply/demand. A note indicates that the publications do not deal primarily with such teacher supply/demand variables as attrition, certification, incentives, etc. (JDD)

This treatise on teacher education includes priorities for higher education and agendas for the next president and Congress, governors and state legislators. A discussion is included on priorities for reform in teacher education. Progress in campus-based teacher education programs is noted in the areas of raising academic standards, applying research-based information about effective teaching, recruiting able students into teaching, and strengthening the accreditation process for teacher education programs. (JD)

This paper discusses five specific features of an emerging teacher education model. They include: (1) developing a rationale for teaching science; (2) providing sufficient time for personal change; (3) developing self-analysis skills concerning teaching and learning behaviors; (4) analyzing classroom climate; and (5) modeling teaching behaviors expected in the new science teachers. Each feature is elaborated in detail. (CW)

Philosophical reflections are offered on the ultimate aims of education and the social mission and responsibilities of teachers. An overview is given of education in the United States and the parallels that may be seen between the role of education in American and Nigerian societies. In discussing teacher education, it is pointed out that it is important for teachers to fully understand the philosophy, social forces, institutions, and human relations upon which the formal educational system is based. (JD)

The world of PETE doctoral education is changing rapidly given the current climate in U.S. universities. This article will introduce the reader to the issues facing higher education and set the stage for a series of articles to follow in this special issue of "Quest."

Distance higher education has only relatively recently been established in some Latin American countries, as part of wider higher education reforms. The developments of distance education have been the result of sustained efforts of leading thinkers and practitioners in the region. In this article, several leading distance education professionals coming from some of these countries are presented as recognition of their contribution to the development of distance education in the region.