Audio-visual education in urban school systems

Summary impressions In some ways, this report shows progress in audio-visual education. The work is being headed up by more widespread adoption of central coordination, more classroom teachers are prepared to use audio-visual materials in their classes, and there is more wide-spread use of the materials. On the other hand, there are some urgent needs that become so evident from these data. “More time” is the need, “more central coordination” is the need, “more adapted classrooms” is the need, and separately and behind all these is the need for “better support.” This article is a digest of a report given at the DAVI national convention in Los Angeles in April. The address was entitled “A First Look at Findings of the NEA Survey of the Status of Audio-Visual Education in City and County School Systems.” Victor Hornbostel is assistant director of the Research Division of the National Education Association and supervisor of the survey which is reported.     

Comparing higher education systems

This paper discusses the range of comparative studies which might legitimately be attempted. It considers the separate issue of whether they must necessarily be directed towards the testing of pre-constructed hypotheses. It describes how the Brunel-Gothenburg-Bergen international team is attempting to compare their three national systems and academic working within them.     

Combining video and bulletin board systems in distance education systems

This article proposes a computer-mediated education system, which uses discussion-embedded lecture videos. Currently, lecture videos and online discussions exist separately, and discussion topics are managed without reference to the lectures. However, when the discussion is based on the lecture, this separation makes it difficult for the participants to comprehend the discussion and contribute to it. In this article, the author proposes a system that works on the basis of a close relationship between the lecture video and the discussion. In the proposed system, the contributed comments are embedded into the corresponding parts of the video. Therefore, participants can read related discussions while watching the lecture video and they can watch the corresponding part of the lecture video while reading the discussion. Participants can appreciate the relation between the discussion and the lecture and understand the content and background of the discussion more deeply. These advantages facilitate further discussion. Thus, a more effective distance learning education environment can be achieved.     

Integration v. Segregation in Ontario

'What seems to be lacking in Ontario currently is realisation that mainstreaming also means special provision' writes Dr. Griffith Morgan, director, Centre for Educational Disabilities, University of Guelph, Ontario. Elsewhere in Canada, too, the effectiveness of integration seems questionable     

Relationships between motivational strategies and cognitive learning in distance education courses

This study examines the relationships between students’ academic levels, the use of motivational regulation strategies, and cognitive learning strategies. A total of 141 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in online distance courses participated in the study. The findings show that students use different motivational regulation strategies and cognitive learning strategies depending on their academic levels. Additionally, hierarchical regression analyses using two dependent variables (i.e., surface level learning strategy and deep processing level learning strategy) indicate that a surface level learning strategy (i.e., rehearsal) and deep processing level strategies (i.e., elaboration, organization, and critical thinking) are predicted by different sets of motivational regulation strategies after controlling for academic level and age. The results provide distance educators and instructional designers with practical suggestions on how to support undergraduate and graduate students’ motivational needs and further promote their use of cognitive learning strategies in online distance education programs in higher education.     

From Brown to Ayers v. Fordice: the changing shape of racial desegregation in US higher education

Racial desegregation in higher education is taking on a new direction as the twenty‐first century approaches. The Brown v. Board of Education decision brought down legal racial barriers to segregated education, and this landmark US Supreme Court ruling was implicitly intended to apply to higher education as well. The positive changes for African Americans in removing racial barriers contributed significantly to the civil rights movement and opening avenues of opportunity. Yet, there has always been a fundamental tension between the removal of the vestiges of racial segregation to create equal educational opportunity, and the activist stance of addressing historical and current discriminatory educational policies. This is evident in the recent higher education desegregation and affirmative cases as the Federal Courts advocate the colour‐blind interpretation of higher education desegregation law and educational policy, while African Americans argue in favour of the enhancement of the public Historically Black Colleges and Universities and the explicit use of race as a form of diversity. This article examines the salient positions and racial identity politics surrounding this tension. I also argue that broader issues of racial control and power need to be addressed by educational institutions, the courts and the larger society in the debate about race, social justice and the removal of the vestiges of segregation.     

Cain v. Weiss

University of Texas (1974–1991)     

A systems view of learning in education

As the sophistication of technology has increased, so has public demand for quality. This expectation of quality has occurred across a broad range of products and systems, including education. To meet the demand for quality, many products and systems (including educational ones) have become increasingly complex. Within education there are also other factors which have driven up levels of complexity. These factors include increased diversity in the student body, a greater emphasis on collaboration and the drive to replace simple “delivery models” of teaching. It is well known from other fields, though, that as systems become more complex, they become more vulnerable to failure. For this reason, a formalised methodology known as “systems engineering” is often applied in industry to the management of large systems. The author argues that the use of systems engineering concepts in education would be likely to reduce failure rates and improve quality. This is particularly so in large-scale complex learning systems. The paper also discusses some implications of trying to use systems engineering methodology in modern educational systems.     

Marketization and privatization in mass education systems

Recent education reform in many countries has sought to dismantle centralized educational bureaucracies to create systems that emphasize parental choice and competition between schools, thereby creating quasi-markets in educational services. In addition to this widespread marketization of public education systems, publicly financed and provided education services have been privatized. In this paper, marketization and privatization policies are compared, and initial research evidence on the impact of marketization and privatization in England, the USA, Australia and New Zealand is examined in the light of the claims about diversity of provision, efficiency, effectiveness and equity. Also considered in the significance of attempts currently underway in the UK and elsewhere to temper the emphasis on consumer rights within policies of marketization and privatization with a renewed concern for the citizen rights traditionally associated with social-democratic approaches to education policy.     

Emerging systems of recurrent education

Author ofRecurrent Education: Earnings and Well-being (1989) and several articles on the economics of education.