Ways and means of reducing early student drop‐out rates

This paper begins by defining the term ‘student drop‐out’. Data are presented showing that the time that an external student is at greatest risk of becoming a drop‐out is during the first term, semester or year of study.

The reasons for this phenomenon are explored in the light of the theories of three writers in the field of distance education, namely, Otto Peters, Börje Holmberg and David Sewart.

The paper concludes by listing a number of suggestions that might be adopted in order to reduce early attrition rates and generally improve the functioning of distance education institutions.     

Book reviews

Learning and Teaching in Distance Education: Analyses and Interpretations from an International Perspective. Otto Peters. (London: Kogan Page, 1998, 248 pp., price not listed).

Information Technology in Higher Education: Assessing Its Impact and Planning for the Future. Ed. Richard N. Katz and Julia A. Rudy. (San Francisco, CA: Jossey‐Bass Inc., 1999, 89 pp., $23.00).     

Reviews

Smith , P. (1977). Developing Handwriting. Mc Kenzie , Moira and Warlow , Aidan (editors) (1977). Reading Matters, Selecting and Using Books in the Classroom. Otto , W., Peters , C. W. and Peters , N. (1977). Reading Problems: A Multidisciplinary Perspective.     

R. S. Peters and J. H. Newman on the Aims of Education

Abstract

R. S. Peters never explicitly talks about wisdom as being an aim of education. He does, however, in numerous places, emphasize that education is of the whole person and that, whatever else it might be about, it involves the development of knowledge and understanding. Being educated, he claims, is incompatible with being narrowly specialized. Moreover, he argues, education enables a person to have a different perspective on things, ‘to travel with a different view’ [Peters, R. S. (1967). What is an educational process? In R. S. Peters (Ed.), The concept of education (pp. 1–23). Routledge and Kegan Paul]. In asserting this about education, Peters has more in common with another great English educator, John Henry, Cardinal Newman, than one might expect, given they are separated by about a century and start from different philosophical perspectives, namely Kant to a significant degree in the former and Aristotle in the latter. Both nevertheless acknowledge the importance of reason and its development in any education worthy of the name. I will argue that in describing the ‘educated person’ Peters is not far from the view of Newman, who saw education as being about the ‘enlargement of mind’. Although Newman hesitates to call ‘enlargement of mind’ wisdom, and Peters does not use either term, there are good grounds for proposing that in distinguishing between education and training, and in asserting education is moral education because it is concerned to improve persons, Peters acknowledges the higher purposes of education and hence, we can add, its connection with wisdom. Significantly, what such a reading of Peters emphasizes is his insistence on the intrinsic value of education, a view seemingly lost in modern market-driven conceptions of education.     

Symposium on Thinking Again: Education After Postmodernism by Nigel Blake,Richard Smith,Paul Standish & Paul Smeyers

This paper notes how Jim influenced my own use of Foucault and also focuses on two of James Marshall's New Zealand oriented texts. In the first, Discipline and Punishment in New Zealand Education () he provides a Foucauldian genealogy of New Zealand approaches to both punishment and discipline, in particular corporal punishment. The second, his 1996 book co‐written with Michael Peters, Individualism and Community: Education and Social Policy in the Postmodern Condition, analyses political philosophy and social and educational policy as New Zealand changed from being a welfare state since the 1930s to a neoliberal one since the mid 1980s. Foucauldian understandings about power, bio‐power, governmentality, autonomy and subjectivity are brought to bear in their analysis.     

R.S. Peters and Moral Education, 1: The Justification of Procedural Principles

Abstract

In this article, which is the first of two to examine the ideas of R. S. Peters on moral education, consideration is given to his justificatory arguments found in Ethics and Education. Here he employs presupposition arguments to show to what anyone engaging in moral discourse is committed. The result is a group of procedural principles which are recommended to be employed in moral education. This article is an attempt to examine the presupposition arguments Peters employs, to comment on the procedural principles he believes are presupposed, and to consider the strength of the presupposition argument. My conclusion is that Peters's arguments fail to establish the conclusion he arrives at, and that any gains from the form of argument he uses are hollow.     

The Path Not Taken

In a response to critics, R.S. Peters acknowledged that a more general concept of education exists than the ‘school-related’ one he analysed and defended his decision to ignore it by saying that it ‘indiscriminately’ marks out the ‘mundane, instrumentally oriented operations’ involved in rearing children. In this paper I sketch in the portion of the educational landscape that Peters left out of the picture. Once seen, it becomes apparent not only that he staked out just one small part of a vast domain but also that he rendered invisible some of the most basic philosophical issues and problems that confront humankind.     

The Place of Philosophy in the Training of Teachers: Peters revisited

Abstract

In 1964, Richard Peters examined the place of philosophy in the training of teachers. He considered three things: Why should philosophy of education be included in the training of teachers; What portion of philosophy of education should be included; How should philosophy be taught to those training to be teachers. This article explores the context of the time when Peters set out his views, describes philosophy of education at the London Institute of Education at one period in Peters’ time there, and then discusses the current state of philosophy of education, using New Zealand as an example of opportunities and challenges. Finally, asking whether Peters was nearly right about the place of philosophy in the training of teachers, it is concluded that he was right about its importance but got it wrong about his conception of philosophy.     

一种新的基于灰度冗余的红外图像均衡技术

针对红外图像的特点,文章提出一种新的基于灰度冗余的红外图像均衡技术.通过设定合适的阈值,将图像灰度直方图中像素分布为零的灰度级进行完全压缩,将小于阈值的灰度级映射到最近的大于阈值的灰度级,然后将有效灰度级做基于幂函数的拉伸变换后进行直方图均衡,最后将均衡后的图像灰度级等间距排列.该算法在压缩灰度冗余的同时进行直方图的无损均衡,保留了图像细节部分,避免了常规直方图均衡所带来的图像细节丢失和灰度断层现象,提高了图像质量.     

John Dewey’s conception of education: Finding common ground with R. S. Peters and Paulo Freire

John Dewey adopted a child-centered point of view to illuminate aspects of education he believed teacher-centered educators were neglecting, but he did so self-consciously and self-critically, because he also believed that ‘a new order of conceptions leading to new modes of practice’ was needed. Dewey introduced his new conceptions in The Child and the Curriculum and later and more fully in Democracy and Education. Teachers at his Laboratory School in Chicago developed the new modes of practice (1896–1903). In this article, I explore Dewey’s new conception of education and compare it with the apparently opposed views of R. S. Peters and Paulo Freire. In doing so, I show that, despite their criticisms of Dewey, whether explicit (Peters) or implicit (Freire), these influential philosophers, representing quite different traditions in philosophy of education were in substantial agreement with him. I also show that, despite our own differences, as important as they are, seeing teachers and learners at work in a rapidly changing society, now on a global scale, in classrooms which are also changing, driven largely by new technologies, the conception of education Dewey, Peters, and Freire developed can provide us with the foundation we need to understand the changing teacher–learner relationship and the purposes their shared activities serve.     

The ‘Physically Educated’ Person: Physical education in the philosophy of Reid,Peters and Aristotle

Abstract

This article will derive a definition and account of the physically educated person, through an examination of the philosophy of Andrew Reid, Richard Peters and Aristotle. Initially, Reid’s interpretation of Peters’ views about the educational significance of practical knowledge (and physical education) will be considered. While it will be acknowledged that Peters was rather disparaging about the educational merit of some practical activities in Ethics and Education, it will be argued that he elsewhere suggests that such practical activities could be educationally worthwhile in and of themselves. In Education and the educated man he specified that practical activities should be regarded as educationally important if they are either transformed by theoretical understanding and/or pursued to the point of excellence. In suggesting that education involves the cultivation of both theoretical and practical human excellences it is argued that Peters’ philosophy of education begins to take on a more Aristotelian bent. After exploring Aristotle’s notion of virtue (human excellence) and his discussion of physical training in The politics, it is claimed that physical education activities might be most worthwhile when they extend the moral habits and/or modes of thought of pupils, towards excellence. It is concluded that physically educated persons should be defined as those who have learned to arrange their lives in such a way that the physical activities they freely engage in make a distinctive contribution to their long-term flourishing.     

从规模经济到范围经济——远程教育经济规律的变迁

远程教育的经济规律是远程教育实践发展的重要理论基础,本文旨在对现代远程教育的经济规律进行定位.研究从彼得斯的远程教育工业化理论出发,分析了不同时代远程教育的社会需求和个人需求,以及从而引致的远程教育经济特征的变化.从需求一供给的角度论证了现代远程教育经济特征的变化,为远程教育办学机构改善成本和质量提供了参考,也为国家发展现代远程教育的战略决策提供了参考.     

THE CHANGE FROM TRANSFER TO CAREER EDUCATION AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE 1970s

For most of the twentieth century, up until the 1970s, the transfer curriculum, which prepared two‐year students for continuing their education at a four‐year school, was dominant in the community college; the ratio of enrollment in transfer programs to enrollment in occupational or career programs varied only between 2:1 and 3:1. In the 1970s, a dramatic shift occurred. Students began abandoning the transfer curriculum for the career curriculum in record numbers, and fewer decided to transfer to four‐year schools. This phenomenon has been widely quoted as fact, yet little has been done to document it, with actual figures from individual states. This paper first presents difficulties posed by this area for the researcher. Second, it examines the rise of career education and the decline of transfer education on a state‐by‐state basis. Finally, it concludes with a call for future researchers to study the repercussions of this change on the community college as a whole.     

远程高等教育产业市场结构分析

研究远程高等教育产业市场结构,并通过市场结构分析来研究我国的远程高等教育产业的市场行为和成本效益形成机制,是一件非常有意义的事情。本文通过实证分析发现,中国远程教育产业市场的寡头垄断特征十分明显,声誉和品质越高的学校,平均市场份额越低;学习中心设置规模分别与市场份额之间存在正相关性,公共服务体系在扩大远程高等教育市场份额方面作用显著;中国远程高等教育产业进入既存在政策壁垒又存在规模壁垒。在分析的基础上本文提出了改进管理体制和结构布局的四点政策性建议。     

关于图像时代的意识形态问题

图像时代,意识形态的运行方式发生了本质性的变化。以往的意识形态通过＂不可视＂拉开与受众的心理距离,权力者魅力的获得要经过人们情感的＂升华,＂以＂距离＂来凸显其＂崇高＂,以＂崇高＂来赢得人们的信仰。而在图像时代,意识形态通过＂可视＂拉近与大众的心理距离,越是接近大众深层欲望的就能获得越多的支持。图像以它最为感性的面目占据人的心灵,被图像包围的大众在其虚拟＂魅影＂的笼罩下,丧失了对于真实世界的认识能力,图像以其感性的客体实现了对大众意识形态的控制。     

Toward a Postmodern Notion of Human Rights

Abstract

A central element of Richard Peters’ philosophy of education has been his analysis of ‘education as initiation’. Understanding initiation is internally related to concepts of community and what it may mean to be a member. The concept of initiation assumes a mutually interdependent, dynamic relationship between the individual and community that claims to be justified on cognitive, moral and practical grounds. Although Peters’ analysis is embedded in a different discourse, his insights are relevant to current discourse on the individual in community. A fruitful conversation can be developed between Peters’ account of the learner’s ‘initiation’ into ‘bodies of knowledge and awareness’ and Alasdair MacIntyre’s concept of ‘practices’; and how both assume a notion of ‘tradition’ within partly overlapping accounts of ‘community’. Secondly, I will consider how ‘initiation’ touches the concept of ‘social justice as membership’ developed by current philosophers, Michael Sandel and Michael Walzer, and what import Peters’ analysis has for different degrees of active and passive membership and participation. Thirdly, I will consider Charles Taylor’s ‘social imaginary’ as a contextual framework for processes surrounding ‘education as initiation’. This article does not argue that Peters’ concept of initiation cannot be contested at some points but rather that it can inform, and be informed by, the conversation with those who contend that community is itself a good essential for human flourishing.     

The Revolutions in English Philosophy and Philosophy of Education

Abstract

This article was first published in 1982 in Educational Analysis (4, 75–91) and republished in 1998 (Hirst, P. H., & White, P. (Eds.), Philosophy of education: Major themes in the analytic tradition, Vol. 1, Philosophy and education, Part 1, pp. 61–78. London: Routledge). I was then a lecturer in philosophy of education at Sheffield University teaching the subject to Master’s students on both full- and part-time programmes. My first degree was in philosophy, read under D. W. Hamlyn and David Cooper and, given their interests, inevitably emphasized the philosophy of language, in particular the work of Wittgenstein in this field. When I subsequently turned my attention to the philosophy of education it seemed obvious to me that there were serious problems with Professor Peters’ approach to language, and I had particular difficulties with his approach to criteria, meaning theory and what seemed an odd interpretation of a transcendental argument. This article thus set out to show that the then dominant form of philosophy of education seemed not to take account of developments in the philosophy of language that preceded Professor Peters’ early work by at least a decade and which cast serious doubt on the enterprise as it was then understood. As the articles in the 1998 collection indicate, I was not alone in thinking there was something amiss, although at the time I seemed to be ploughing a somewhat lonely furrow. In revisiting this early article some 30 years after it was first published I have found to my surprise that there is little I would now change, although I have been forcibly reminded of the very lively discussions Professor Peters and I had over these issues. The fact that there is little I would now add to, or subtract from, my critique is in itself a telling comment on the enduring and influential legacy of the approach to the philosophy of education that Professor Peters championed so powerfully.     

Michael Sadler and the German Connection

Abstract

The peoples of Germany and their culture were a major preoccupation of Michael Sadler from his first visits to eastern Germany in the 1890s to his ultimate analysis of the Nazi‐zeit in 1940. Whilst holding the post of first Director of the Office of Special Inquiries and Reports (1895‐1903) he organised the publication of 11 massive volumes of reports and it is significant that papers dealing with German themes are numerous. Volume IX in 1902 is devoted to Education in Germany. In 1907 he published the results of his study of continuation schools and the pioneering of his friend Georg Kerschensteiner and in 1908 he edited the report of an international enquiry into Moral Education with a keynote essay by another of his German friends Professor Rudolf Eucken. The quintessence of all this pre‐war study is contained in an address on England's Debt to German Education which Sadler gave in Frankfurt‐am‐Main in 1912 when he suggested eight lessons that could be learnt from the German experience. Throughout the first world war Sadler wrote and spoke much about parallel movements in German and English education. Between the first and second world wars he watched apprehensively the emergence of Nazism. In his diary of November 1940 he attempted to identify seven tendencies of the 1930s which, had the Nazi leadership not been so powerful in curbing public opinion and ensuring totalitarian control, would have proved constructive and made a contribution towards unifying Europe economically andpolitically.     

Television: The performance of nonresident students in the “economics U$A” telecourse

Abstract

Correspondence study represents the first and most persistent distance education format in American universities. Later called independent study, it enabled universities to disseminate instruction far beyond their campuses. Yet, national‐level leadership provided by the National University Continuing Education Association (NUEA) and its divisions has been relatively restrained. In contrast, leadership in the private correspondence school sector has been assertive, and sometimes even aggressive. The NUEA and its members shunned this approach, choosing instead to lead by persuasion and example. The NUEA developed standards of practice concerned primarily with replicating on‐campus teaching styles and values, rather than the promotion of distance education. With the abolition of its division structure, the NUEA's successor, the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA), has opted out of a leadership role in independent study. This paper concludes that the NUEA's initial attempt at leadership in distance education— while reasoned and principled—contained flaws that made failure inevitable.     

Teaching Chemistry at Canada's Open University

University‐level courses in science that contain a substantial practicum or laboratory component have always been a problem to deliver through distance education. Because of the potential hazards inherent in the equipment and chemicals commonly used, chemistry is among the more challenging disciplines to teach at a distance. Athabasca University (AU) ‐ Canada's Open University ‐ has been successfully running chemistry courses for over two decades. The development and delivery of AU chemistry courses are described and the approaches that have been developed to meet the challenges of a North American distance‐education university, including the use of new technologies, are discussed. The problems associated with providing distance students with appropriate laboratory experience are also examined. The first‐year general chemistry courses are compared to an equivalent course at a neighbouring traditional university and an analysis of student performance in AU chemistry courses is presented.