Education & Pedagogy

This study examined the management, operation, and effectiveness of special education programs in 33 urban school districts from 1984-85 through 1986-87. Data were collected on special education students, facilities, budgets, pre-referral, referral, placement, exit from special education programs, program evaluation, vocational education, related services, special education complaints and hearings, mainstreaming, and student progress evaluation criteria. Findings are organized around six underlying themes: the stability of school district enrollments and funding for special education programs; the referral and subsequent placement of students in special education programs; the incidence of complaints and hearings; the impact of federal and state regulations on program evaluation; the integration of special and regular education programs; and policy and program recommendations. No major increasing trends were found in enrollment or expenditures over the years studied. Numbers of inappropriate referrals were reduced. Complaints and hearings were not a major problem in most areas, and most special education students were enrolled in buildings that also held regular education classes. Recommendations based on these and other findings are offered. Eleven appendices describe the study's methodology and present raw data. (PB)

This document presents a report from the Second National Conference of Values Education. It begins with a brief statement summarizing the conference proceedings. The entire conference program is included. Also included is the transcript of "Moral Education Makes a Comeback," a program held a few days after the conference ended. A resolution on values education drafted by conference participants to encourage further action by conference participants, state and national organizations, and the general public is provided. Recommendations for further action by conference participants are given, which includes a section on how state and local school districts can pursue values education initiatives. Also included is a draft bulletin, "Taking the Next Steps: Implementing Values Education Policies and Programs," which is being prepared to answer some common questions about values education and to offer some suggestions for pursuing values education initiatives. The bulletin contains an introduction, answers to questions about values education, a section on working toward consensus on values education, a values inventory matrix, a bibliography of materials on values education, a list of sources of information on values education programs, and an evaluation form. (NB)

The report describes the approach used by each of the 50 states to fund educational and related services for children served as handicapped by the public schools. An initial chapter discusses state school finance systems, covering equalization and non-equalization aid formulas used for general aid, and special education funding formulas used for categorical aid. For each state, a description is given of the state funding mechanism used to distribute state resources for special education programs and services provided by local education agencies during the 1988-89 school year. State-by-state tables provide data on state aid programs, the relationship of special education funding to funding of general education and other categorical programs, funding of private school placements, factors included in state special education finance formulas, local education agency (LEA) fiscal responsibility for special education programs, special education funding formulas, and targeting of special education funds. Appendices contain a list of individuals in each state who may be contacted for greater detail regarding a state's formula, a list of 11 studies conducted by states regarding their special education finance systems, and a bibliography of 14 items. (JDD)

This proceedings contains the conference program, a list of presenters, and profiles of keynote speakers. Program descriptions are provided for the 10 1989 Exemplary Rural and Small Schools Program award winners chosen by the National Rural and Small Schools Consortium, and for the 7 1989 Exemplary Rural Special Education Program award winners chosen by the American Council on Rural Special Education. This document also contains 74 individual papers. Topics include education and training of special education teachers and rural teachers; transition of handicapped students from school to community; cooperative approaches to meeting rural educational needs with scarce resources, such as networking, technical assistance from education centers or universities, interdistrict sharing, and school-community programs; strategies for improving parent participation; special education teaching methods; mainstreaming in rural schools; improving science instruction in small and rural schools; teacher recruitment and orientation in rural areas; preschool programs for handicapped children and for rural children; and issues related to AIDS and school policy. (SV)

Most educators feel that it is important to provide novice teachers with in-service training at the beginning of their teaching careers, and to continue with such programs throughout their professional lives. With this in mind, this document outlines a proposed in-service teacher education program for Japan. The paper considers the creation of in-service education programs for beginning teachers, and suggests required attendance at certain in-service programs and a one year conditional period. The general situation of in-service education for science teachers in Japan is examined, and the roles of the Ministry of Education, the Science and Culture Prefectural Board of Education, for Japan. The paper considers the creation of in-service education programs for beginning teachers, and suggests required attendance at certain in-service programs and a one year conditional period. The general situation of in-service education and the Prefectural Education Centers are described. Additional information and recommendations are given about the involvement of science education centers in in-service education, the Hiroshima Prefectural Science Education Center, and courses sponsored by research organizations. (TW)

Increased technological advances, coupled with new learners' needs, have created new realities for higher education contexts. This study explored and mapped trends in pedagogical approaches and learning technologies in postsecondary education and identified how these innovations are affecting teaching and learning practices in higher education settings, particularly for the Canadian Armed Forces education system. A qualitative research methodology was employed including a comprehensive review of Canadian and international literature, an environmental scan of Canadian Armed Forces educational institutions, and consultations with experts and practitioners in the field of military education. The research findings shed light on trends in pedagogies and learning technologies in higher education as well as on the presence of these trends in the military educational system. In addition, the findings consider the necessity for a corresponding level of preparedness to meet the needs of diverse learners in the future. This study informs both the field of higher education and the field of military education.

Education has proven to be an effective means of developing the human resource base of most nations and could advance the development of nations. In other to upgrade and train more professionals and non-professionals in the sphere of education, the concept of teacher distance education has gained more attention globally. Therefore, more and new knowledge is required to advance the course of teacher distance education in developing countries through empirical research; it becomes critically important to understand the perceived quality and, therefore, effectiveness of teachers distance education from stakeholders' perspective in the Ghanaian teacher distance education context. Overall, student teachers, tutors and coordinators rated the University of Education Teacher Distance Education successful. It was recommended among other things that the programme design, content quality, instruction design, instructional delivery, student support and student assessment quality must be given further attention.

The high degree of interest that higher education systems around the world have in employability has driven the profound development of industry-university cooperative education. Canada's industry-university co-op education system has served as a model for global cooperative education, and its accreditation system guarantees the high quality of cooperative education. Canada's industry-university co-op education accreditation system is characterized by the authority of the certifying institution, scientific accreditation standards, and operable review criteria. As it continuously improves, it has always embodied the best practices of co-op education. The social environment and administrative mechanisms for Chinese industry-university-institute cooperative education are still immature, and the primary functions of its evaluation system, including monitoring and diagnosis, feedback and regulation, and incentives and guidance, are an important starting point for perfecting the system. In learning from Canada's accreditation experiences, it is necessary to update the concept of cooperative education, refine evaluation entities, and build a Chinese industry-university-institute cooperative education accreditation system with global vision, to further improve evaluation methods.

This article questions the western model of education as suitable for everyone. Having taught for many years, the purpose of education was always clear to me: children and adults needed literacy and education in order to operate in a modern society. My research, carried out in England between 2004 and 2011 on Gypsies' and Travellers' experiences of and attitudes toward literacy and education, revealed very low levels of educational attainment and a cultural disconnection from and distrust of mainstream education. Exploration of the situation in other minority communities in western countries--the Roma and Sami in Europe, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives in the United States and Canada, and Aboriginals in Australia--showed depressing similarities, including blaming these communities for their failure in education. The Sami have argued successfully for a more culturally relevant education, but elsewhere there is very little change. The education that western governments provide appears to be primarily designed for assimilation, not agency. Providing meaningful education to marginalized, travelling, and indigenous peoples will require a positive paradigmatic shift.

In keeping with the theme of the 40th anniversary issue of "EJTE," this article looks back and forward at US teacher education accountability. It argues that "holding teacher education accountable" has been the major approach to reforming teacher education in the US for the last two decades, assuming that enhanced teacher education quality depends on vigilant public evaluation and monitoring of outcomes related to teacher education institutions, programs, and teacher candidates. This article looks back at the "era of accountability" by examining five policy, political, and professional developments that contributed to its emergence and strong hold on US teacher education. Looking forward to the future of teacher education accountability in the US, the article argues that we need a new approach--democratic accountability in teacher education--which is based on intelligent professional responsibility for students' learning including democratic knowledge and skills, strong equity, and genuine collaboration with multiple stakeholders.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to introduce an entrepreneurial learning approach to the study of sport education in order to inform future research directions. Design/methodology/approach: Sport education needs to focus on how it can overcome existing barriers to bring a more interdisciplinary approach. This paper uses entrepreneurship education theory to explore the changes required in sport education provision to create a more relevant and conducive teaching environment. Findings: The findings of this paper suggest that by bringing sport students into contact with entrepreneurship education, aids in the development of improved employability and social skills. Research limitations/implications: Introducing entrepreneurship education into sport will help the students develop learning initiatives that advance the scholarship of sport education within the university sector. Practical implications: The benefits of including entrepreneurship education in sport studies could be of interest to the directors of education wanting to increase student enrollments and interest in their courses. Originality/value: The study suggests ways to offer more interdisciplinary courses and activities linking entrepreneurship education to sport. This needs to be taken into consideration as it will enable the development of sport entrepreneurship education that improves links between academic research with policy and business initiatives.

Education for sustainable development as presented by UNESCO involves a value dimension which is both pivotal and problematic. Pivotal, because values concern what matters to beings, problematic because the values brought forward are formulated as universal values, with the risk of suppressing the plurality of context. The first part of the article develops a theoretical approach for a research project on environmental ethical values in moral education which accommodates for both universality and context. While the scope is mainly theoretical, some empirical material is brought in to illustrate and exemplify. The school subject involved includes religious education, and the empirical material shows that religion is a part of the context. However, this aspect is not accentuated in the theoretical approach presented. The second part is a mediation between this theoretical approach on moral education and the interpretive approach addressing religious education. The aim is to explore common ground, uncover factual tension and reflect on how both moral education and religious education may contribute to environmental and sustainability education.

The current study examined special needs education teachers' preparation for inclusion in Early Childhood Education (ECE). The present descriptive study drew on a sample of twenty-eight ECE special needs education teachers purposively drawn from Mashonaland West educational province of Zimbabwe. A constant comparative analysis of data organisation with continual adjustment was utilised throughout data analysis to identify recurring themes and discover common patterns while maintaining individual contextual information. Despite participants' Afrocentric and Eurocentric conceptualisation and support for inclusion, they were selective regarding children to serve based on the nature and severity of the children's disabilities. Limited capacity in teacher education for inclusion in teacher education institutions hampered participants' preparation. Infusion of training on inclusion across ECE teacher education curricula, affording teacher candidates teaching practice in inclusive settings, collaboration of teacher education institutions with other stakeholders and in-service training of teacher educators could enhance teacher preparation for inclusion. The present study is a baseline for future studies on special needs education teacher preparation for inclusion in ECE.

Today the requirements in higher education are vast and majority of the population in the country cannot afford higher education as their per capita income is very low. Neither the government nor the private sector alone can cater to the requirements of higher education. It is in this context, one should look at the scope, feasibility, inevitability and the usefulness of private investment in higher education. This article analyzes the role and importance of public-private partnerships in Indian higher education system. The author points out some of the arguments for and against public-private partnership in education and some measures that the government can adopt to promote public-private partnership in education. The case of Indian higher education sector is also analyzed in another section. The article concludes that there must be a healthy partnership in the field of education by helping each other and contributing together. This study is descriptive in nature and based fully on secondary data.

The paper presents a description and comparison of the undergraduate student teacher training and kindergarten teacher continuing education in the Montessori Method of Education encompassed in formal education in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of the paper aims at depicting Montessori education, still an attractive pedagogical direction in both countries, in a thorough, unconventional and innovative way. Even though Montessori education has been rooted worldwide for centuries, in Slovakia and the Czech Republic it presents relatively new alternative education, considering that an integrated school system, introduced in these countries in 1948 and lasting almost to the end of20thcentury, did not allow the use of other alternatives in addition to the mainstream education. A description of (preschool) education in both countries and an analysis of kindergarten teacher's personality and his/her lesson plans are included in the theoretical part of the paper. The empirical part contains pedagogical research of qualitative design, conducted in Slovakia and the Czech Republic in order to identify and map the current state, level and possibilities of formal education of pre-service and in-service teachers in Slovak and Czech kindergartens.