Education & Pedagogy

Summaries of five syllabi for courses on vocational/technical education are presented, along with the five syllabi. These courses are offered as part of graduate level studies in the field of higher education administration. For each of the following courses, a brief statement of content or purpose is provided, along with course objectives, and information on the text used: (1) principles and practices of vocational education, (2) organization and administration of vocational education, (3) developing curricula in vocational education, (4) evaluation and analysis in vocational education, and (5) specialization seminar on the emergence of vocational, technical, and occupational education in America. It is recommended that: more content related directly to practicum experiences in vocational/technical education for administrators should be provided; materials in finance and fiscal management should be developed with problem-solving techniques; and emphasis on developing needs assessments should be inserted in teacher/administrator training curricula. A list of members of the course syllabi network is included. (SW)

Education must be served by education law. This chapter analyzes determinants to education law and recommends that corrective inquiry begin with the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education (NOLPE). Special interest advocacy groups can be deterrents to education law. For example, the Supreme Court made contradictory decisions in 1982 and 1984 regarding the related services provision of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. Decisions against school boards over racial segregation from 1954-72 indicated boards' neglect of education during litigation. The Supreme Court has expressed respect for boards as policy-makers, however. Much litigation can be avoided by clarifying codified law, such as the wording problems found in most outdated compulsory education statutes. Collective bargaining is not conducive to education, with its confrontational approach and tradeoff methodology. Federal and state bodies tend to prescribe details of operation to local school authorities, which hampers adaptations and results in lawsuits. The gravest challenges lie in dispute resolution. Mediation and conciliation should be employed because many educational conflicts need solutions, not victories. (CJH)

The Special Education Services of the Michigan Department of Education has prepared the State Plan for the delivery of special education programs and services starting July 1, 1983 through June 30, 1986 according to guidelines and rules established under Title VI Part B of P.L. 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This plan reflects mandated programs and services for handicapped children in Michigan. Two primary documents are referenced throughout the body of the plan and these are included in the Appendices Section: The School Code of 1976 and the Special Education Administrative Rules. The plan contains 18 chapters which include timelines for the full educational opportunity goal and sections relating to the following content areas required by P.L. 94-142: right to education, priorities, child identification, individualized educational program, procedural safeguards, least restrictive environment, due process, personnel development, participation of private schools, evaluation, and confidentiality. (Author/CL)

The attitudes of 100 Alabama legislators toward higher education and about major issues facing higher education in the State were investigated. Surveys were returned by 79 house members (75 percent) and 21 senate members (60 percent). Attention was focused on legislators' views of the mission of higher education, how higher education should be defined and funded, the role of athletics, who should control higher education, criteria for admitting students, the role junior colleges should play, and how accountability should be measured. Also considered was the relationship of legislators' attitudes to background data (i.e., legislator's experience, education, race, age, size of home town, geographic location, party affiliation, profession, and liberal or conservative philosophical base). Findings lead to the following conclusions: there is little agreement among legislators as to how higher education should be funded; legislators have a favorable perception of higher education in Alabama; there is no agreement on an effective method to reduce duplication in higher education; legislators feel that higher education is their responsibility; and legislators desire a greater degree of accountability for higher education. (SW)

Project Interface was designed to bring together the two distinct fields of special education and vocational education in order to blend the efforts of the two fields to overcome several problems: differing vocabularies, methods, content, vocational evaluation, appropriate placement, teacher preparation, and the differing expectations of special education and vocational personnel. To bridge these disparate elements, Project Interface brought together vocational and special education personnel from three different school districts in the state of Washington. These educators designed and implemented a vocational education model to increase access to vocational training programs by special education/special needs students and to assist mainstreamed students while they are enrolled in vocational education classes. The vocational education model prepared by Project Interface encompasses the following elements: (1) vocational assessment, (2) entry-level skills, (3) materials, (4) curriculum, and (5) individualized educational plan (IEP) involvement. This standardized life-centered model for special education students is expected to enhance all aspects of vocational education for special students and promote building-level support teams for high school teachers involved in the project. (Author/KC)

The UNESCO International Environmental Education Programme has undertaken a comparative study of the incorporation of environmental education into elementary and secondary school curricula. A survey was designed to investigate how environmental education has been introduced into school curricula in different educational systems in various countries. This document presents environmental education in terms of its goals, objectives, and guiding principles, as formulated at the International Workshop on Environmental Education, held at Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1975, and the International Conference on Environmental Education, held at Tbilisi, Russia, in 1977. Survey responses are included from the nations of Colombia, West Germany, India, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Russia, and Venezuela. These responses included: (1) national policy on environment and environmental education; (2) environmental education curriculum, including aims, objectives, content, teaching methodologies, and examples of learning activities; (3) evaluation; and (4) teacher education. The responses are synthesized and trends and problems are described. A bibliography is included. (TW)

Major issues confronting private schools for exceptional children are identified by Charles J. O'Malley, a U.S. Department of Education official. These issues include: identifying the private education community, federal and state cutbacks in education funding, the federal role in education and the continued existence of the Department of Education, parental choice or parental rights, identifying exemplary secondary school programs in both public and private schools, the coexistence between private and public education, strengthening teacher education programs, review of teacher credentialing procedures, minimum competency programs for students, review of compulsory attendance laws, and review of curriculum requirements. Activities that were designed to promote coexistence between private and public education include: a Department of Education sponsored conference at which 120 public and private school representatives discussed block grants, governance, and Public Law 94-142; regional conferences for public and private school administrators; an effort by the Department of Education to better understand private education issues of concern to Fundamentalist and Evangelical groups; and the Department of Education's series of informal get-togethers (Koffee Klatches), which have involved representatives of public and private agencies. (SEW)

This collection of papers probes the current trends likely to have the greatest impact on the field of physical education. Contributors explore the future of physical education regarding scholarship, teaching, women faculty, sport management, and wellness programs. The following papers are included: (1) "Considering the Future of Physical Education" (John D. Massengale); (2) "The Future and the Profession of Physical Education" (George H. Sage); (3) "The Future of Scholarship in Physical Education" (Elizabeth S. Bressan); (4) "The Future of University Women in Physical Education" (Margaret J. Safrit); (5) "Some Considerations for Teaching Physical Education in the Future" (Thomas J. Templin); (6) "The Business of Physical Education" (Michael J. Ellis); (7) "Wellness Programs and Their Influence on Professional Preparation" (Alexander W. McNeill); (8) "Sport Management: Its Potential and Some Developmental Concerns" (Betty van der Smissen); (9) "Dreaming the Impossible Dream: The Decline and Fall of Physical Education" (Shirl J. Hoffman); (10) "Dreaming the Possible Dream: The Rise and Triumph of Physical Education" (Donald R. Hellison); and (11) "Three Dreams: The Future of HPERD at the Cutting Edge" (John J. Burt). (JD)

Over the past four decades, countries in the Asia Pacific region have made in-depth reviews of educational policies that have led to reforms. The volume's first section gives an overview of experiences of countries in the region with respect to education policy review exercises and the formulation and implementation of educational policies and reforms. The second section is an account of the highlights of the comprehensive educational reforms in Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. The third section presents seven essays on special areas and issues in educational reform: (1) distance education in Thailand; (2) development and reform in teacher education; (3) reform in secondary education in Pakistan; (4) recent reforms in technical and vocational education; (5) education of the disadvantaged--problems and issues; (6) Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All--a reform in mass education in Asia and the Pacific; and (7) higher education reform in India, Japan, and China. Section 4 is a bibliographical supplement containing 92 references, a list of previous issues, and recent publications. (SI)

In the face of rising demand for private schooling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, a lack of affordable schooling options, monopolistic behavior of private education providers, and unpredictable government regulations have created a complex and unequal education sector. This research employs a mixed methods comparative approach to explore the ways in which private education providers navigate the regulatory schooling environments and assess the impact on education stakeholders in the UAE and Qatar. The study finds that there are considerable socioeconomic differences in terms of who has access to schooling and that a growing for-profit education sector may be deepening existing inequities in both countries, leaving poorer expatriate families only able to access low-quality education or in the worst cases, unable to access education at all. The promise of non-profit providers as a viable alternative to ensure access is explored.

In this article the authors accept the common view that moral-character education is immanent to the life of classroom and schools and inevitable even when remanded to the hidden curriculum. Most schools claim to address the moral formation of students, and many educators enter the profession for values-laden reasons. Yet the language of values, virtues, morality, and character are notably absent from licensure and accreditation standards and so is formal training in moral-character education in schools of education. To facilitate the development of formal training in the moral work of teaching the authors organize the literature around three training objectives: Best Practice ("Good Learner"), Broad Character Education ("Fortified Good Learner"), and Intentional Moral-Character Education ("Moral Self"). Only the latter aims to move the Fortified Good Learner to the Moral Self and treats moral valuation as the explicit target of education. The authors make several suggestions for doing so and conclude with some challenges for teacher education.

University-based teacher education faces intensifying pressure to prove its effectiveness. This has prompted renewed interest in program redesign. In this article, we argue that enacting meaningful redesign requires university-based teacher educators to learn new ways of thinking and acting not only with teacher candidates but also with their university and K-12 colleagues. Drawing on Engeström's expansive learning theory and our own efforts to redesign our teacher education program along a practice-based teacher education model, we delineate a conceptual framework and illustrate how it supports the organizational learning necessary to enact change in university-based teacher education. The "expansive learning redesign framework" specifies conceptual tools and social practices to guide, enact, and sustain university-based teacher education redesign. It acknowledges the multi-organizational nature of university-based teacher education and provides tools for engaging K-12 educators in the redesign of teacher education.

Pro-Vice-Chancellors (PVCs) form the second-tier leadership of UK higher education institutions. However, their role and position remain under-theorised and under-researched. The present article explores the extent to which a PVC Education role requires core expertise in education or generic managerial skills. Using a mixed-methods approach, we first establish the disciplinary backgrounds of PVCs Education in Russell Group (RG) and post-1992 institutions. Fewer than one in five PVCs Education have a disciplinary background or additional formal training in education. Second, we conducted 24 semi-structured interviews with PVCs Education, Heads of Education Departments and Heads of Learning and Teaching units. These interviews suggest the PVC Education role requires managerial skills, usually acquired in previous headships, as well as academic credibility and knowledge of institutional processes rather than particular expertise in education. In sum, generic managerial skills rather than educational expertise are paramount for understanding the profile of PVCs Education in UK universities.

This article provides an historical analysis of major reforms in teacher education, beginning in the 1970s, specifically focusing on the opportunities each reform presented to build a shared agenda across pre-service general and special education, and the constraints that operated on them. The analysis revealed the existence of several such intersections, each of which created substantive occasions for joint action across general and special education at every stage of teacher education reform. However, four factors--"policy, funding, timing", and "norms of separation"--appear to have operated as constraints upon mining the capacity of these potential intersections. If the promise of a cohesive system of education capable of and committed to supporting struggling students across multiple and intersecting diversities is to be realized, it will be critical to coalesce around a comprehensive equity agenda that builds on the intersections that continue to exist between general and special education.

The author conducted sampling and statistical analysis of papers on education policy research collected by the China National Knowledge Infrastructure in the period from the years 2004--2013. Under the current state of education policy research in China, the number of papers correlates positively with the year; the papers are concentrated in education journals; the researchers are primarily associated with institutions of higher education; and the studies cover a broad range of topics, while emphasizing the practice of education policy. The development trends of education policy research in China include a general rising trend for research on education policy; in the future, researchers from institutions of higher education will continue to be a dominant force in education policy research, and the authors' regional distribution will continue to be imbalanced; education policy research will focus more on educational equity and improved quality, and studies of foreign education policies will continue to be a topic of interest. [This article was translated by Carissa Fletcher.]