Education & Pedagogy

The National Assessment of Vocational Education (NAVE) examined how the federal law was implemented and federal funds were distributed under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984. This part of the study examined the federal role in supporting vocational education at the postsecondary level. It examines enrollments, course-taking, educational attainments, and labor market outcomes associated with postsecondary vocational education. It compares different groups of students at various types of institutions and considers the relationship between the act and other policies, both federal and state, that also finance postsecondary vocational education. The study found that postsecondary education is a growing enterprise that is central to the educational mission of less-than-baccalaureate institutions. There are 4.3 million vocational students at these schools. The major problem facing postsecondary vocational education is that many students do not stay in school long enough to receive in-depth training. For students who accumulate substantial amounts of vocational credits or complete programs, postsecondary vocational education pays off in economic terms. These findings strongly indicate the need to help students choose a field of study, complete the program, and find a related job. Perkins Act support of postsecondary education is low compared to state and local support. Federal policy in postsecondary vocational education should aim to improve rates of program completion and placement in related jobs, to provide special assistance to at-risk populations, and to improve the transition from secondary to postsecondary vocational education. (KC)

Vocational education in the United States has come under increased scrutiny, and its proponents need the tools to convince the critics of its merits. Many economic conditions have a strong impact on vocational education, and understanding of economics is important in offering a rationale of vocational education. In a time of shrinking revenues, vocational education is important in the educational system, as it helps make workers employable, and contributes to economic efficiency. To understand the economic rationale for vocational education, one must understand economic concepts and major economic systems. There are two major systems of allocation of scarce resources, capitalism and socialism. The United States has a system of mixed capitalism. Three resources vital for production are land, capital and labor. There is currently a worsening labor shortage, and workers will need to be recruited and developed from underused sources, such as disadvantaged and disabled populations. Vocational education can play an important role in solving the labor shortage problem by anticipating employer demand. The economic rationale for vocational education would seem to be easy to demonstrate on the basis of need for trained workers and increasing international competition. Many governmental decision makers, however, are dissatisfied with vocational education. Vocational education has had to defend itself and criteria and methods have been set up to evaluate vocational education programs. Vocational education need to improve its economic value by increasing its role in economic development. Vocational education must promote itself by informing students, communities, businesses, and government of its contributions to society. (AS)

Purpose: An emerging scholarly critique has claimed that entrepreneurial education triggers more neoliberalism in education, leading to increased inequality, neglect of civic values and an unjust blame of poor citizens for their misfortunes. The purpose of this paper is to develop a deeper understanding of this potentially problematic relationship between entrepreneurial education and neoliberalism. Design/methodology/approach: A Hegelian dialectic method is used consisting of three steps. First, a thesis is articulated based on emerging literature, stating that entrepreneurial education triggers more neoliberalism in education. Then an antithesis is developed representing a logical opposite to the thesis. Finally, the resulting tensions are embraced in a synthesis that triggers deeper understanding. Findings: The synthesis indicates that entrepreneurial education based on a self-oriented search for own happiness leads to more neoliberalism in education, and entrepreneurial education based on an others-oriented search for a meaningful impact on others mitigates some of the already strong neoliberal tendencies in education. Research limitations/implications: Due to an overlap between the two constructs, happiness and meaningfulness, it is difficult to fully disentangle doing well from doing good. How these two opposites interact is a topic that requires more research. Practical implications: A "students-as-givers" kind of entrepreneurial education could represent a way to reach teachers currently skeptical of entrepreneurial education due to its perceived connection to capitalism. This could also make entrepreneurial education relevant to a wider student audience. Originality/value: The paper represents a rare attempt to reconcile critical and praising perspectives on entrepreneurial education.

Technology Education was introduced and rolled out in South African schools in 1998. It has been twenty years since its implementation, yet it is being confused with other traditional subjects. Therefore, even though it is expected that Technology Education should be known for what it is exactly, it is still misunderstood, misconceived and misrepresented. There are factors that contribute towards its misunderstanding (a failure to understand it), misconception (incorrect opinion caused falsely thinking about or understanding it) and misrepresentation (giving a false or misleading account of its nature), such as it being confused with Engineering Education, Educational Technology, Science Education and Technical Vocational Education and Training. Misunderstanding Technology Education causes its misconception and misrepresentation; hence, in this article I use misunderstanding to cover misconception and misrepresentation as well. There is no dedicated literature (at least in South Africa), dealing with this problem in detail; only piecemeal definitions contained in studies about Technology Education exist. Hence, this article explores factors leading to the misunderstanding of Technology Education. As part of addressing this problem, the article builds on the Meaningful Learning in Technology Education Framework to accommodate a more expanded understanding of Technology Education that may help to defuse its misunderstanding. The article contributes knowledge in the scholarship of the understanding Technology Education -- if Technology Education scholars, teachers and the broader readership do not have a clear understanding of Technology Education, how can those who are being taught the subject, i.e. the learners, be expected to understand it?

The comparative analysis of theoretical bases and the practice of moral education technologies implementation in Polish and Ukrainian pedagogy has been made. There has been stated that moral education technology in Ukrainian pedagogical science can be interpreted as a moral education system, the constituent parts of which are the following: aims, the content of the technology, procedural components (forms, methods and means of interaction between a teacher and pupils), diagnostic tools, and the result that meets the defined aim. Moral education technology can also be interpreted as modern means of moral education; as a project (model) of moral education process; as a branch of scientific knowledge; as any educational innovation. Moral education technology is interpreted as a strategy of moral education in Polish educational science. Three strategies of moral education--forming, searching and open--have been described. There have been determined that in Polish and Ukrainian pedagogical sciences the technology of moral education is considered to be a wider concept than the method and methodology. The technology of moral education is interpreted as a branch of scientific knowledge about the process, bases, techniques, methods and means of moral education, as well as conditions of its effectiveness, which ensure educational skills. Criteria of moral education technologies have been determined. The importance of educational diagnostics to the development of moral education technologies has been shown. The causes of the weak development of moral education technologies such as the lack of the accordance to the diagnostics criterion, an intuitive approach to solving moral education problems, complication of their solution have been cleared up. Prospects of using positive ideas in modern educational and moral environment have been revealed.

The purpose of this study is to develop, and test the validity and reliability of a scale for the use of researchers to determine the accreditation standards of open and distance education based on the views of administrators, teachers, staff and students. This research was designed according to the general descriptive survey model since it aims to develop a scale to measure the accreditation standards in open and distance education. The sample of the research comprises 196 students and 19 teachers, administrators and staff studying or working in Private Open education courses in the Kadiköy district of Istanbul during 2011-2012 school year. The research data were collected using a scale developed to measure the level of accreditation standards in open and distance education based on the views of stakeholders in open and distance education institutions. The five-point Likert type scale "Accreditation Standards Scale for Open and Distance Education" developed in this research consists of 47 items under eight factors, including Organizational Structure, Students' Services, Quality Assurance/Accreditation, Measurement and Assessment, Organization Mission, Distance Education Management, Distance Education Program, and Openness/Credibility/Transparency. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient was estimated 0.9683. It was concluded that Open and Distance Education Standards Scale is a valid and reliable instrument developed to measure the open and distance education quality at post-secondary education stages in Turkey. [The page range (6344-6356) displayed on the PDF is incorrect. The correct page range is 6444-6455.]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine school health education in the USA and present alternative approaches for more critical and comprehensive health education. Design/methodology/approach: An ecological model framework is used to identify the limitations and opportunities for improvement in school health education in the USA. An argument is made for school health education that embraces ecological approaches, political economy theory, and critical pedagogies. Findings: US schools have been tasked with providing health education that is primarily rooted in individualistic approaches. Often missing from this education is recognition of the social and structural determinants of health that greatly influence one's ability to practice the health behaviors promoted in schools. This raises pedagogical and ethical concerns, which can be addressed by teaching health education that is grounded in ecological and political economy understandings of health and in critical pedagogies that allow students to more comprehensively and accurately understand health, how their worlds influence health, and their agency within those worlds. Practical implications: This paper offers justification for a critical model of school health education and for the professional preparation of school health educators that is grounded in critical pedagogy and ecological approaches. Originality/value: This work complements other research on critical health education by adding explicit integration of the ecological model and the political economy theory within critical pedagogies.

Higher education is considered as one of the most essential factors in influencing societal changes, due to its ability to help formulate good decision making in every sphere of modern society, in businesses, education, politics and science. Higher education over the years has significantly increased, thus given rise to many opportunities for those who pursue it. The Caribbean students, like the rest of the world seek to benefit from higher education, not only for enhanced academic knowledge, but also for socio-economic development. Due to its sluggish development, brittle economy and lack of natural resources the Caribbean region faces many economic challenges in making quality higher education accessible to all of its occupants. The purpose of this study is to investigate and compare the challenges of low output of higher education and availability of higher education institutions in the 21st century in the Eastern Caribbean. The study analyzed database of 37 tertiary institutions in the OECS, while using comparative approach to analyze availability and cost for higher education. Results show that factors that are affecting higher education in the region are accessibility, location, quality of education, institutional costs and unemployment of graduates. We found that increased access in higher education has risen tremendously due to accessibility of technology and factors like globalization, integration-networking and traveling cost. This paper suggests that collaborative approach be taken by governments of the region to increase access and funding for higher education through scholarships and grants.

Sustainable quality education is a big challenge even for the developed countries. In response to this, education 4.0 is gradually expanding as a new era of education. This work intends to unfold some hidden parameters that are affecting the quality education ecosystem (QEE). Academic loafing, unawareness, non-participation, dissatisfaction, and incomprehensibility are the main parameters under this study. A set of hypothesis and surveys are exhibited to study the behavior of these parameters on quality education at the institution level. The bidirectional weighted sum method is deployed for precise and accurate results regarding boundary value analysis of the survey. The association between parameters understudy and quality education is illustrated with correlation and scatter diagrams. Academic loafing, the hidden and unintended rudiment that affects the QEE is also defined, intended and explored in this work. The study exhibits that the average percentage association between quality education and all the parameters under study is 93.32%, whereas awareness has the least association (82.63%) and academic loafing has the highest association (99.35%) with quality education. The paper proposes a cognitive-IoT (internet of things) based multilayered QEE as a remedial solution for sustainable quality education. The emerging demand of real-time data processing for the education 4.0 environment, makes MQEE suitable for education 4.0 environment. The IoT enabled heterogeneous-data preprocessing, integration, and analysis to foster the proposed model with robustness, scalability, and flexibility. The proposed abstraction mechanism, public/private reporting, and IoT-based data preprocessing system are rich enough to handle data management issues under education 4.0 environment.

This study examines initial teacher education through the experiences of experienced physical education teachers. The participants were 12 PE teachers working in primary education (grades 1-9 in Brazil) in the municipal public school systems of Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, and Diadema, cities located in the São Paulo region known as the 'Greater ABC' or 'ABC "paulista"'. The participating teachers had also graduated from higher education institutions located in this region. This broad area was selected due to its diversity of institutions offering initial teacher education in physical education. The aim was to understand teacher's perceptions about both public school and teaching during their initial teacher education programs in physical education. Data were gathered through focus group interviews and analyzed to understand how the curricula of different institutions in the same region conceptualized public schools and the teaching of physical education in their initial teacher degree programs. Although teacher education and acting in the classroom cover the same territory, teachers identify a large gap between knowledge prioritized in teacher education programs and that required in everyday school life. Attention is drawn to the lack of themes relevant to working in contemporary schools and report the privileged status given to knowledge those teachers understand as being secondary or even unnecessary in pedagogical practices. Final considerations aimed at bringing about a shift in discussing alternatives for changing and reinterpreting the curriculum of physical education teacher education, thus establishing meanings that meet perspectives in line with everyday school life, its needs, and its reality.

Education as a pervasive process has affected all aspects of individual and group life, and today, almost all those seeking development and reform start from all over the world. Preventing radicalization and violent extremism is one of the most controversial issues in the world in this century. In addition, it was found that some extremist groups are recruiting in educational settings. These findings led to a new approach to the education sector as a prominent partner in preventing and combating the radicalization of young people. Education faces many challenges in developing countries, including Afghanistan. With the change of world views, cultures and different beliefs of human beings, the goals of education have also changed and according to this, there is a direct relationship and coordination between society and education. The inefficiency of the education system in different sections of the society will have adverse effects and dangerous consequences, as can be seen from the findings, lack of inclusive education, lack of quality in education and lack of job opportunities after graduation are recommended to strengthen the role of education for sustainable development in developing countries, especially Afghanistan because education is the cornerstone of development. One of the most important and influential institutions, investing in equal education and creating a safe environment for students at different levels (primary, secondary and tertiary) and adopting sensible strategies can be in the process. Integration, convergence, peaceful coexistence and the elimination of violence between peoples and nations have brought about many effects and changes.

Inclusive education is a form of education in which individuals with any disabilities receive education together with their peers. The education people with disabilities receive in special classrooms by expert teachers has begun to be conducted as inclusive education in normal classrooms by non-expert teachers. Senior class pre-service teachers take the special education course in education faculty and also primary school pre-service teachers receive the inclusive education course in addition to this course. The aim of this research is to determine the opinions of the pre-service teachers who receive the special education courses about the adequacy of inclusive education and special education practices they observe at schools. The research was prepared in a mixed pattern and quantitative and qualitative techniques were used together. Therefore, Teacher Competence Scale in Inclusive Applications developed by Bayar (2015) was applied to 197 students who study science, mathematics, social studies, Turkish and, primary school teaching. Besides, views of 25 pre-service teachers who study in the same classes were collected and evaluated in written form. At the end of the study, it was determined that while Science pre-service teachers consider themselves more competent in inclusion, primary school pre-service teachers have higher classroom management competence. There is not any significant difference between pre-service teachers' views about inclusive education according to gender. Furthermore, the pre-service teachers think that teachers lack knowledge and education, students' disabilities are not recognized, there is a lack of equipment, and cooperation of school and family is not effective.

School collaboration has become a popular approach for education improvement in global education reform. This study examined the dynamics of stakeholder school collaboration in China to improve public education using a case study focused on an Education Group government initiative in Chengdu, China. Frist an introduction to a global reform for education improvement through school collaboration is given, followed by a review of global reform for school collaboration and Hargreaves and Shirley's discussion on design and innovation for school networks and collaboration to visualize the framework for the interpretation of the stakeholders' school collaborative interactions. Then, the school collaboration for education improvement in China is examined in detail based on 20 interviews with stakeholders from educational authorities, the lead and member schools involved in the establishment of the Education Groups in Chengdu, China. The interviews were designed based on a review of policy documents about construction of the Education Groups in Chengdu. The findings revealed that the establishment of the Education Groups in Chengdu was driven by both top-down initiatives and bottom-up innovations, and while there had been some success in improving education quality in the lower performing schools, the stakeholder interactions had been hindered by the lack of policy coordination within and beyond the education reforms. It was concluded that a collective institutional context was needed to foster the shared values and trust needed between all stakeholders and promote the sustainable reform of the Education Groups to ensure education equity and quality.

Asian countries have discussed for decades the necessity of implementing multicultural education as their societies are becoming more global. With the dramatically increasing number of foreign and multiracial/biracial populations in South Korea, public education has a great need for multicultural education and Korean language teaching. However, current assimilation-centered curriculums and a lack of understanding of multiethnic students, their cultures, and their histories have created numerous difficulties in the education practice for both teachers and multiethnic students such as dropping out of schools. Moreover, it hardly narrows the disparities between multiethnic students' academic gaps and daily life problems in Korea. This study examines general multicultural education in public education in Asian countries with the goal of building more sustainable and inclusive education systems for all learners in South Korea. First, the study focuses on three East Asian countries: South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to compare the differences in multiculturalism and multicultural education. Then, the study summarizes their characteristics and approaches to multicultural education. The analysis shows that the three countries have common limitations such as building inclusive curriculums and granting the privilege of using a specific language. Next, this study reviews the critical role of language teaching and learning in multicultural education. Finally, the purpose of this study is to raise awareness about multicultural education and the importance of developing and implementing a better system based on language education.

Literacy in China is mainly concerned with illiteracy in rural areas. Therefore, reforming literacy education is largely a problem of how to eliminate rural literacy within the general framework of reform in contemporary China. From 1949 to 1988, the illiteracy rate among the population decreased from 80 percent to 20 percent. There are still about 230 million illiterate people among the total population, including 72 million between the ages of 15 to 40. Among the positive factors involved in literacy education in China are: that the peasants understand that production must rely on science and technology; rural living conditions are much improved; primary education is universalized; and there is a complete system of rural education in place. Among negative factors are that the majority of illiterates are disadvantaged; those who need literacy education live in remote places; some literacy educators have low morale; and in some places there are insufficient resources for literacy education. An ordered system for literacy education has been established. Social forces at work for literacy include the primary schools, the Youth League, and women's organizations. Learners are asked to not only learn the three Rs but also some practical skill. Among the kinds of literacy education are: spare time literacy education such as night schools, literacy study groups, and individualized training; a combination of spare-time and full-time education; and complete full-time study. The policy of control involves the state laying down general objectives and the local governments determining their own policies and methods. (CML)