This article comes largely from observations made on-the-job while teaching mathematics in a government high school in the ACT. The issues canvassed will be familiar to those who have considered the arguments for and against ability grouping in mathematics education. It is speculative in nature, hinting at a synthesis of opposing views in the ability-grouping debate and ending with a proposal about how the practice of streaming might be aligned better with numeracy outcomes.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Numeracy, Ability Grouping, Mathematics Education, Mathematics Instruction,...
This article seeks to describe attributes of effective health educators by presenting the interrelationships between Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" and the responsibilities and competencies proposed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. A brief historical account of key figures and events associated with the health education credentialing process is provided. Moreover, implications for health education professional preparation...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Change Agents, Goal Orientation, Leadership Effectiveness, Needs...
Many career and technical education (CTE) programs rely heavily on support from the business community to serve their students. However, there is very little information available on building solid business-education partnerships. Most people in the business world will say that they care about education, but how can educators find the people willing to pay education more than lip service by committing their time and resources to support schools? What do those people want to accomplish? What can...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Business, Partnerships in Education, Technical Education, Career Education, Program...
In this essay, the authors discuss what it might take to develop knowledge that can help education policymakers and schools attain their goals. In reading both the research and the current policy environment, the authors identify several fundamental reasons why it is so difficult to develop the knowledge needed to inform policies that might enable standards-based reform to succeed. First is an inadequate conception of the goal of the system and how proficiency should be measured. Second,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Policy, Educational Research, Academic Standards, Educational Objectives,...
When a teacher plans instruction, he has in mind some prototypical students or group: someone like himself or some group similar to his in ability. With this conception of the prototypical students or group, he teaches only one-third of students to reach a level of achievement. At the end of semester, most teachers give their grades, generally reflecting students' IQ scores, according to a normal distribution curve. There are good learners and poor learners, faster learners and slow learners in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Outcomes of Education, Educational Change, Educational Objectives,...
Family economic status is generally considered to be an important factor associated with students' educational outcomes. However, to evaluate the strength of this contention, it is important to first have appropriate measures of family economic status. Measuring the economic status of Vietnamese people has been particularly difficult as the respondents have not been able to report accurately on their income. This has been compounded in rural populations, because of the relative economic...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Outcomes of Education, Educational Objectives, Vietnamese People,...
"Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money" is a critique of the pernicious syndrome set in motion when the means and concomitant benefits of higher education--money and prestige, in particular--became increasingly accepted as its most important and fundamental ends. The book contends, on the basis of extensive evidence and documentation, that such a distorted perception of the functions of higher education became far more widespread in the last decades of the twentieth century than...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Student Educational Objectives, Education Work Relationship,...
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has greatly affected the current status of career and technical education (CTE). Since the implementation of NCLB, there has been increased course-taking in science, math, and the other traditional academic subjects by high school students in this country. Research shows that the consequence has been a loss of opportunity for many students to enroll in CTE--resulting in declines in CTE enrollments at the secondary level. A 2002 study found that over the coming...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Technical Education, Teacher Education Programs, Vocational...
This research, conducted with an introductory sociology class at the University of British Columbia during the 2001-2002 academic year, explored community service-learning as a pedagogy and philosophy. The theoretical focus of this paper is Nancy Fraser's (1997) criticisms of Jurgen Habermas' (1992) bourgeois liberal model of the public sphere. We analyzed the class experiences with community service that emerged from students' contributions to a database of community organizations, concept...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Course Evaluation, Sociology, Concept Mapping, Community...
Research suggests that the majority of U.S. undergraduate students have engaged in some form of misconduct while completing their academic work, despite knowing that such behaviour is ethically or morally wrong. U.S.-based studies have also identified myriad personal and institutional factors associated with academic misconduct. Implicit in some of these factors are several institutional strategies that may be implemented to support academic integrity: revisiting the values and goals of higher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Undergraduate Students, Integrity, Cheating,...
A school's curriculum can appear unrelated, fragmented, or somewhat disjointed if not done with an end in mind. This fragmentation or disjointedness often affects students and their views of the experiences being given them in school. Various curriculum-integration techniques, however, can be used to help make the big picture more understandable to students; and these have the added benefit of allowing teachers to focus better on teaching and student learning. In effective...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Curriculum Development, Interdisciplinary Approach, Curriculum...
This article argues that education has a role in promoting young people's wellbeing. It draws on research on young people's lives to highlight the changing world for which educators prepare young people. While older educational agendas such as literacies and numeracy remain significant, it is argued that education is increasingly important for its role in assisting young people to develop the capacities and skills that will enable them to live well and that will enhance social cohesion....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Young Adults, Role of Education, Well Being, Education Work Relationship,...
For centuries Canadian First Nations education has been a substandard, abusive means of dealing with the "Indian Problem." In recent decades Native education has been under-funded and employed non-indigenized models. Despite these facts, many are surprised when these efforts fail another cohort of children. This article outlines Canadian Native education including attainment and attrition, curriculum, Native epistemology, and Indigenous practice and theory. Finally, a Curriculum Model...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Objectives, American Indian Education, Outcomes of Education,...
With the still relatively recent advent widespread technological innovation in the global marketplace, leading to the "information age," massive automation, and corporate capital flight to Third World labor markets, future leaders are still needed, but increasingly, future workers are not. As result, students previously educated to be future workers are now educated, or rather miseducated or even diseducated, to be future prisoners. In 1977, Foucault posited the society as one...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Sanctions, Social Control, Educational Practices, Leadership...
The third recommendation in ACTE's postsecondary reform position statement is to develop curriculum and instructional offerings that link to careers, foster lifelong learning, and encourage completion. Concrete linkages must be developed between middle and high school, postsecondary education and work, with lifelong postsecondary learning a part of this cycle. In this article, the author discusses how the Construction Apprenticeship Program at Central New Mexico Community College (CNMCC) and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Lifelong Learning, Educational Change, Case Studies, Student Educational Objectives,...
Over the past two decades, the technology "revolution" has evolved to touch nearly every aspect of the people's lives. More than just a convenience, this force has become a necessity throughout business, government, and education. One of the most invasive forces of technology is the way in which it plays a role in the types of instructional constructs, or lessons, that are used in schools, especially in social studies classrooms. The difference in how technology is applied in social...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Behavior, Educational Technology, Social Studies, Democratic Values, Student...
It is believed by many that unsophisticated notions of elitism are the bane of the field of gifted education. Some claims of elitism are based on an interpretation of the founding of their country as inherently egalitarian. Educational opportunities that are tailored to student abilities are determined to be inherently elitist and therefore anti-egalitarian. Humility is often described as a corollary to egalitarianism. Obviously then, swagger would not be acceptable to those who hold these...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Objectives, Academically Gifted, Ideology, Educational Opportunities,...
This article examines the contribution of the No Child Left Behind Act. The authors believe that the "other means" that can substantially advance equal educational opportunity are to provide "meaningful educational opportunities" for all children in each of the schools that they attend. In this article, the authors discuss meaningful educational opportunity and describe the statutory framework for implementing this standard.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Equal Education, Federal Legislation, Educational Opportunities, Federal Programs,...
The purpose of this study was to investigate the objectives of roadside mechanic apprenticeship programs in mid-western Nigeria. Seven statements of objectives were derived for the study, and respondents were required to score each of the seven statements between "1" and "7" in their order of importance and representative of the objectives. The instrument was administered to 150 master craft trainers and 750 apprentices. Four out of the seven statements were rated the most...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Apprenticeships, Foreign Countries, Employment Opportunities, Educational Objectives,...
In this paper, the authors explore the latest manifestation of backward curriculum discourse, namely, a theory of "backward" unit design. The authors view this "backward" curriculum discourse as foundationally positivist and/or structural, yet they adopt a poststructural point of view. This theoretical undergirding makes it possible to rethink underlying, taken for granted assumptions. Their focus is on illuminating the potential problems of "structure-based,"...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Design, Models, Educational Trends, Outcomes of Education, Educational...
This article describes a physical education program self-assessment tool, "The Physical Activity and Fitness Promotion Checklist," which was developed by a panel of nationally recognized physical education teachers. This checklist, which specifically addresses national physical education standards three and four, includes 20 items organized into five areas. Items describe specific strategies that physical education teachers can use to increase the physical activity and fitness levels...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Check Lists, Physical Education, Physical Activities, Elementary Secondary Education,...
Goal-directed reflection (GDR) is a strategy that targets the contemplative examination of specific aspects of teaching. The GDR process can be used by a PETE program that uses a systematic approach to supervision. The process consists of identifying specific teaching behaviors, aligning these target behaviors with Praxis III/Pathwise domains, collecting and analyzing data to determine the achievement of goals, and setting new teaching goals. The candidates benefit from a focus on specific...
Topics: ERIC Archive, National Standards, Beginning Teachers, Teacher Attitudes, Teacher Education...
In 1897 Gauguin painted "Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?", which now hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In typical Gauguin style, the painting depicts primitive Tahitians looking in wonder at the tropical paradise surrounding them. There is sunlight and freedom, the vibrant colors of Tahiti, a river in the woods, a blue sea and misty mountains. On closer look, however, one sees that the painting is divided into three parts. "Where we come...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Fine Arts, Teaching Methods, Religious Factors, Religion, Curriculum, Creationism,...
Two children with similar physical disabilities were paired as mentor and mentee as a strategy of teaching self-determination skills. In this case study, the mentor was a junior in high school with a physical impairment and had possessed the desired qualities of self-determination according to transition rating scales. The mentee was a fifth-grade student with the same physical impairment, but according to adaptive behavior rating scales, needed to acquire self-determination skills as a means...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mentors, Physical Disabilities, Behavior Rating Scales, Adjustment (to Environment),...
These are challenging times for teachers. Mixed messages, conflicting demands, and increasing needs on all fronts surround them. Each day, teachers face increasing requirements and significant pressures on their daily practice from administrators and policymakers. It is hard to be, or remain, a teacher of quality committed to one's ideals. In this article, based upon data from interviews and observations drawn from a larger study, the author explores the experiences of one teacher as she...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Nontraditional Education, Standardized Tests, Science Teachers, Accountability, High...
This article argues that, with all of its language about reaching "100% proficiency for all students in twelve years" as an "ambitious, but achievable" goal, the current federal administration seems to be on the side of the children in its No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but further investigation reveals that many of the practices mentioned in the act may cause more harm than good. The key component in NCLB is to establish an "accountable" education system in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Academic Achievement, Politics of Education, Accountability,...
In 1993, William E. Doll, Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University, created a post-modern curriculum matrix. Instead of the old three Rs, reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic, the curriculum framework Doll envisioned is compromised of the four Rs: richness, recursion, relation, and rigor. The different categories of the four Rs are not mutually exclusive. The overlap and the boundaries that differentiate them are blurred, not hard and stable. As elsewhere in the post-modern paradigm, the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Attitudes, Case Studies, Postmodernism, Elementary School Teachers,...
In the last 20 years, public education in the United States has been transformed under the pressures of high-stakes testing. Some argue that right wing ideologues are out to privatize the public school system in order to wring as much profit from the system as they can. Others argue that the new reforms are needed because for too long, teachers have allowed working class students of color to fail in schools. Both of these views and their variations, however, suffer from a lack of historical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Stakes Tests, Public Education, Educational Change, Educational Objectives,...
Although outcomes for alternative schools may be mixed, it is generally agreed that counseling, therapy, group work, case management, and family-community involvement have been credited in some effective programs. This study examined program evaluations from 1994-1999 for an alternative school for chronically disruptive students (599 students, ages 9-22) that was funded by a state grant to assure safer, drug-free public schools. School-based mental health services were mandated by the grant....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Services, Locus of Control, Nontraditional Education, Grade Point Average,...
Cosmopolitanism is a worthy educational goal, perhaps more important now than ever before. Its possibilities, however, cannot be adequately realised unless people develop a different way of thinking about issues of global interconnectivity and develop in students a set of epistemic virtues with which they can critically explore the ways in which global flows are now shaping, and will continue to re-shape, both their identities and their communities--their life styles as well as their life...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Philosophy, Educational Objectives, Global Approach, Social Influences,...
Over the next decade, businesses in New England will be facing a complicated set of problems in finding a reliable and prepared workforce. Businesses are now spending as much as $23 billion a year to train their employees. Community colleges have believed from their inception, that, given the opportunity, they could offer the solution to business' labor-supply problem. However, while community colleges have been the educators and trainers of choice in some fields, they have not always been able...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Colleges, School Business Relationship, Student Educational Objectives,...
The organization of institutions of higher education has been seen as operating with ambiguous purposes in vertically oriented structures that are only loosely connected. The rationale for this ambiguity is twofold: (1) to allow for creative thinking, and (2) to respect--and even encourage--the autonomy of different disciplines. But ambiguity of purpose and vertical organization are at odds with thinking and expectations in an era of accountability and assessment, in which cross-institutional,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Organizational Effectiveness, Vertical Organization, Student...
This article investigates a potential way ahead for music education in the 21st century. Drawing on material from the case study of a Manchester-based composer in northern England, it argues that those within formal education should examine more carefully the musical values and practices of artists and composers working with "technologically-enriched" contexts. It describes the need for the reconsideration of the role of technology in music education along with expanding the aims of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Music Education, Technology Uses in Education, Information Technology, Case Studies,...
My subject is what the practice of education can learn from the arts. I describe the forms of thinking the arts evoke and their relevance for re-framing conceptions of what education can accomplish. (Contains 1 note.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Standards, Educational Improvement, Educational Practices,...
In recent years the arts have been introduced into many pre-service and in-service professional development programs for general education teachers. At the same time, pressure for immediate test-score improvement and standardization of curriculum has limited the creativity and autonomy of teachers. This study, the qualitative part of a mixed-methods investigation of teachers across the U.S., involved six New York City elementary school teachers who found ways to use the arts in their classrooms...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary School Teachers, Creativity, Urban Teaching, Art Education, Integrated...
Since 2004, a number of Canadian provinces have initiated comprehensive reviews of their respective public post-secondary education systems. This paper examines the ways in which these provincial post-secondary education reviews are consistent with the pervasive influence of economic globalization on higher education and a more market-driven and commercially-oriented ideological outlook on post-secondary education's raison d'etre. Taken together, these provincial reviews provide an informative...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Postsecondary Education, Public Education, Evaluation, Global...
In an illustrative case study we describe the process and outcome of class wide behavioral consultation with a public school teacher to improve her implementation of instructional procedures. Consultation emphasized formulation of a classroom behavior support plan, selection of mutually determined intervention objectives, data-based decision making, and performance feedback. Evaluation conducted in an AB design showed that consultation was associated with improved teacher and student behaviors....
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Psychologists, Consultants, Student Behavior, Intervention, Behavior...
In addressing the issue of educational inequality and achievement gap, this research article demonstrates that critical implications could be gleaned from listening to the authentic voices of students by using a social justice lens. A social justice perspective in educational leadership is essential in evaluating the impact of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, poverty, and disability on the educational outcomes of students in urban schools. (Contains 2 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Justice, Urban Schools, Equal Education, Educational Objectives, Outcomes of...
The goal of the study was to explore post-secondary students' purposes for blogging with particular attention to the social and instructional purposes. The sample of blogs came from an all-women's college in the United Arab Emirates. Content analysis was conducted on eight blogs using previously tested instruments to identify social presence and knowledge construction. Authors of the blogs participated in a focus group discussion about the purposes for blogging. Findings revealed that the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Electronic Publishing, Web Sites, Females, Foreign Countries,...
This paper is concerned with the pathways students take through their studies at university. A critique of current research demands a fresh approach to explaining student progression, in particular within Australian higher education. To date, theories of student progression commonly consider the fit of the person to the university environment within one rather homogeneous socio-cultural milieu. Socio-ecological approaches provide a new, more appropriate framework for investigating the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Undergraduate Students, Higher Education, Student Characteristics, Foreign Countries,...
Many researchers conclude that assistive computer technology (ACT) has the potential for improving educational outcomes and improving the quality of life for those with disabilities (Blackhurst & Edyburn, 2000; Fisher & Frey 2001; Lewis, 1993; Lindsey, 1993). While it is recognized that ACT can have a positive impact on learning for students with learning problems, the process for the integration of assistive technology into the curriculum is more complex. A well documented gap exits...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Strategic Planning, Learning Problems, Educational Objectives, Learning Disabilities,...
This article looks at ways to ensure client quality in continuing education part-time programs. It identifies the stakeholders involved in these programs as the instructor, the student, the college, and the employer. It then addresses methods of feedback to close the quality loop thus ensuring alignment of outcomes for all stakeholders. It was concluded that specific instructor tools and training are required to better prepare the instructor for the task at hand. The responsibility for some of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Feedback (Response), Continuing Education, College Faculty, Part Time Faculty,...
This paper is intended as a broad, conceptual and theoretical treatise on the aims of teaching art in the age of global digital media. To contextualize a set of general recommendations for art education technology pedagogy, I first provide an overview of the meteoric rise of on-line social networks, and consider questions about the nature and status of these networks as virtual communities, looking at both recent studies of Internet users and at contemporary discussions about what actually...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Art Education, Educational Objectives, Social Networks, Internet, Community, College...
Rather than regard frequent and subjective testing as a negative, it should prove more beneficial for educators to offer students an opportunity to acquire life skills that will carry them through any test-taking situation. Offering students the skills necessary to succeed not only in the classroom but also through testing is where accountability begins. In this article, the author proposes attaining accountability both in the classroom and on standardized assessments. She stresses that nothing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Testing, Accountability, Teaching Experience, Educational Objectives,...
Educational technology-related professional development (ETPD) can be designed in many different ways. ETPD varies by general purposes and goals, specific learning objectives, curriculum content, student grade levels for which the strategies and tools presented are appropriate, professional development models used, how it is matched to participating teachers' characteristics, and the ways in which it is evaluated. Providers can ensure the effectiveness of technology-related professional...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Technology, Professional Development, Change Strategies, Teacher...
The previous article reviewed the range of educational technology professional development session and program goals. In this article, the second part of four-part series, the author presents and explains educational technology-related professional development (ETPD) models. ETPD models can be classified into five general types of professional development, according to the kinds of professional learning that characterize each: (1) instructor-organized sessions (6 models); (2) individualized...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Technology, Professional Development, Change Strategies, Teacher...
Now more than ever, education leaders must focus strategically on educational technology professional development (ETPD) for teachers. Research evidence indicates that 30 hours of focused professional development is required to change teachers' professional practice. So despite positive opinions about the importance and efficacy of educational technology use, most teachers have not had sufficient time or opportunity to engage in the professional learning necessary to use educational technology...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Technology, Professional Development, Change Strategies, Teacher...
This study investigated the relationship between intercultural perceptions, identity, and academic achievement among African American males. Specifically, this study investigated the relationship of academic achievement, cultural mistrust, oppositional cultural attitudes, ethnic identity development and educational outcome expectations and value, and socioeconomic status among African American male high school students (N = 115). We hypothesized that a negative perception of the dominant...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African American Students, Ethnicity, Educational Objectives, Outcomes of Education,...
The move to a market model of schooling has seen a radical restructuring of the ways schooling is "done" in recent times in Western countries. Although there has been a great deal of work to examine the effects of a market model on local school management (LSM), teachers' work and university systems, relatively little has been done to examine its effect on parents' choice of school in the non-government sector in Australia. This study examines the reasons parents give for choosing a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Choice, Foreign Countries, Competition, Free Enterprise System, Models,...
This paper explores the role of home-school conflicts in the educational failure of children of Latin American immigrants and examines how these conflicts have been framed and understood in the existing research literature. It argues that structural analyses of barriers to educational attainment alone fail to capture the multiplicity of forces that contribute to negative academic outcomes. Instead, understanding this phenomenon requires a fusion of structural and cultural analytic perspectives...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Objectives, Outcomes of Education, Educational Attainment, Educational...