The Rouge Education Project: Challenges of Implementation

Abstract

The Rouge Education Project (REP) is a school-based environmental education program that uses water monitoring, telecommunications, and student actions to improve water quality. The author carried out a program evaluation to better understand the challenges generated by such a program. She examined surveys, interviews, and focus groups to determine the level of participation, goals, objectives, value of support services, and changes in teaching and environmental awareness. The results indicated that the REP met its goals of increasing awareness and concern about the Rouge River and developing a supportive curriculum in science classrooms. This article illustrates the importance of inservice workshops and curriculum resources for successful program enactment.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

This paper examines the current status of inservice education for teachers in Nigeria with particular reference to Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. It identifies three main approaches to teacher inservice education in the two states of Nigeria, viz. the central office approach, the long vacation (sandwich) programme and Associateship Certificate in Education‐‐part‐time evening programme distance learning approach. Inservice teacher education is seen as an effective means of augmenting the inadequacies of pre‐service training. It is a process for continuous updating of teachers’ knowledge, skills and interests in their chosen field. The paper discusses the factors which should be considered when planning and implementing inservice education programme. Some suggestions on how to plan and implement inservice teacher education programmes in Nigeria are given.     

Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess perceived environmental education (EE) curriculum needs in the United States (K-16). The Environmental Education Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire (EECNAQ) was developed, validated, and direct-mailed to 169 randomly selected professional environmental educators (58.6% return rate). The EECNAQ elicited perceptions about the desired status and the current state of EE curricula, the need for curriculum development, the anticipated use of curricula teachers, and the need for inservice teacher education. These five major questions were posed relative to fifteen goals which reflected the Tbilisi objectives and four levels of environmental literacy. The findings reveal a consensus among the professional participants that the EE goals are important ones, that they are not being met to a large extent in existing curricula, that extensive needs exist for both goal-oriented curricula and teacher education, and that the goaloriented curricula would be used by teachers.     

Environmental Educators A Conversation With Bora Simmons

Abstract

As it did with the diffusion of the quality revolution in the 1970s, business education in the 1990s is lagging behind business practice in embracing the environmental revolution as a competitive reality. To accelerate support for environmental protection, business schools should reshape the prevalently anti-enviromental attitudes of present and future managers by demonstrating through outcome-oriented instruction how “green” can be profitable, particularly in the international arena. In this article, a southeastern university program of envirotech student internships in Latin America is described.     

Developing networks of grass-roots science curriculum action

This paper describes an ongoing process of participatory curriculum development. It outlines some of the tensions which need to be explored in science curriculum development: debates about the nature of science, of society, of school science content and of learning theories. The process whereby action can arise from this debate is also explored. An example will be outlined of a network of science curriculum action which has developed from the work of a range of science education projects in Natal, South Africa. Specializations: science curriculum development from primary to tertiary level. Specializations: inservice primary science teacher development. Specializations: inservice teacher development, biology education. Specializations: environmental education, teacher development. Specializations: environmental education, teacher development.     

Toward Conceptual Clarity: A Scoping Review of Coteaching in Teacher Education

Abstract

While coteaching is not a novel or even new approach in P–12 classrooms, its application in teacher education contexts has become increasingly prevalent. Coteaching in teacher education has been touted for its potential to promote collaborative classroom practice, connect theory and praxis, counteract sociocultural disparities in classrooms, and improve outcomes for teacher candidates as well as P–12 students and inservice teachers. This article presents a scoping review of the 103 empirical studies focused on coteaching in teacher education to enhance conceptual clarity and heighten understandings of the nature and extent of such research. We map the methodological characteristics of these studies that serve to the breadth and depth to which coteaching in teacher education has been examined. Next, we describe the outcomes and phenomena explored by the 103 studies to reveal the intended results as well as points of tension for coteaching in teacher education. Finally, we couple an analysis of coteaching definitions within these studies with an analysis of the ways in which coteaching is implemented in teacher education. Notable findings of this scoping review include the extensive range of ways coteaching is implemented across the preservice teacher education curriculum, the variety of aims for coteaching in these contexts, and the need for continued grounding in frameworks to enhance understandings of coteaching practices and impacts for stakeholders including P–12 students, inservice teachers, teacher candidates, and university faculty.     

Notes and news

Abstract

This paper argues that two areas vital to the teaching profession's own development and to the development of its standing in society have been neglected in inservice education and training. The first, an understanding and development of the ‘public’ dimension of teaching, suggests that teachers have duties and concerns which transcend those of professionals in the private sector because the public domain is a necessary focus for the promotion of collective life as opposed to individual interests. The second, an appreciation of the ‘ecological’ context of teaching, locates its practice within wider political and social issues and deepens the teaching profession's understanding of itself The evidence of neglect of these areas is derived from questionnaire data drawn by the authors from primary and secondary schools on their inservice priorities.     

A history of the right: The battle for control of national curriculum history 1989–1994

Abstract

This paper explores the manner in which educational and political conservatives attempted to control the content and purposes of the history curriculum in English schools during the period 1987–1994. It focuses upon this particular coalition because, since the late 1970s, it has set the agenda for the debate and dominated the race to produce a history curriculum designed to help produce a particular kind of society. The paper argues that the New Right's claim to be engaging in an educational debate is spurious. Rather, its concern is primarily ideological and only educational in terms of its use of history education as a vehicle through which to disseminate a specific set of values and beliefs.     

Using a storybook prompt to uncover inservice and preservice teachers’ dispositions toward struggling students

Abstract

The NCATE performance standards include “dispositions,” which validate the importance of teacher beliefs and attitudes. This project was designed to measure preservice and inservice teachers’ beliefs and potential dispositions toward struggling students. The children's story, Next Year I'll be Special, was read to preservice teachers from two teacher education programs (n = 139) and one group of inservice teachers (n = 41). Marilyn, the main character, is struggling in first grade, but she anticipates second grade will be better because she will have a new teacher. Participants were asked to write their prognoses for Marilyn's second‐grade year. Responses were coded into three categories, Overall Impression, Ownership of Academic Challenges, and Ownership of Social Challenges. Respondents (56%) indicated that second grade would be as bad as or worse than first grade for Marilyn. Further, results revealed that experienced teachers were more negative in their predictions than beginning teacher education students. Results were replicated in the second teacher education sample.     

Teachers for all seasons

Recent national reports stress the importance of inservice education in helping schools face a period of great change. This small study examines the relationship between inservice education and educational change in a large and successful comprehensive secondary school

Teachers outlined their involvement in inservice education and other professional activities and assessed the usefulness of each in the maintenance and development of the school's curriculum and pastoral care.

They rated inservice education courses less useful than other professional contacts and sources of information

School‐focused policies must provide facilities which give direct support to schools facing educational change in a form teachers recognize as relevant, taking account of these other professional activities.     

Addressing the Sociopolitical Realities of Teaching through Standards-Based Reform to Post-Licensure Master’s Degree Programs

ABSTRACT

Physical education teacher education programs have a responsibility to prepare preservice teachers in the technical aspects of teaching while also preparing them for the sociopolitical realities of teaching a marginalized subject. There is also a need for inservice teachers to engage in continuing professional development related to socialization and school sociopolitics to build upon lessons learned during initial teacher education. In the United States, one such professional development opportunity is reflected in master’s degree programs. These programs are typically guided by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education advanced standards for physical education teacher education. However, these standards do not currently have any reference to socialization or sociopolitical learning. The purpose of this article is to propose that an additional standard focusing on sociopolitical skills and teacher socialization be added to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education advanced standards for U.S.-based post-licensure master’s degree programs.     

The third wheel ‐ to be a respite caregiver by profession

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on respite caregivers (i.e. the professionals) and is a complement to previous studies on municipalities' and parents' views on respite care for families of children and adolescents with disabilities. Three parties are involved in the support service and this explains the title of the paper ‐ the ‘third wheel’. The paper is based on a pilot study and reports the results from a questionnaire answered by 10 respite caregivers and personal interviews with 6 of them. It appears that respite caregivers need basic education and inservice training in functional impairments, and that they require supervision.     

Technology,Professional Development and Innovations: assessing change

ABSTRACT

A telecommunications and multimedia inservice project, called Telecommunications, Environmental Education, and Multimedia (TEEM), in Arizona USA, includes the study of an evolving professional development venture that connected university‐based preparation with the ongoing education of teachers that was school based, teacher determined, and aligned to K‐12 content. This paper describes that project, its components and its intent to pro‐actively move beyond traditional forms of inservice efforts through a number of innovations which create change. Within the context of this project, the authors describe a “circling” process that accompanies the continuously evolving professional development efforts to remain teacher and school focused.     

Outdoor education: Research topic or universal value? Part Two

Abstract

This paper follows the theme of part one in that it sets out to discover if the history of outdoor education provides its modern exponents with a legacy of prescribed conservatism or alternatively a form of education which embraces, or is capable of embracing, diversity of theory and practice. Focusing on local authority residential outdoor education centres it begins with the 1970s through the 1980s and ends with the 1990s.

Secondary sources are used and include government and civil service education circulars as well as the body of literature that relates to outdoor education. The paper analyses how discussions of philosophical underpinnings and aims, together with the public perception of safety and risk came to influence the practice of outdoor education. This leads to a discussion of terminology and the role of outdoor education as a curricular subject. The influence of market forces on the provision of outdoor education and the increasing call for cost effectiveness is analysed in relation to the increasingly diverse range of activities coming under the umbrella term of outdoor education.

The evidence shows that throughout this period significant changes regarding the nature of outdoor education are observable. However, within this flux one point is clear. The body of outdoor education literature attaches more importance to outcomes relating to personal and social education than environmental education and this point will be the bridge between part two and part three.     

Issues and challenges regarding environmental education policy implementation

Abstract

In this article, the authors have chosen to inquire into a topic that has specific relevance to the status and inclusion of environmental education in the curriculum at a stage when the translation of policy into practice stands at the crossroads: the transition of environment as phase organiser to environment as integral to all learning areas. In education praxis, the translation of policy into practice is in the hands of educators and teachers (using the terminology as suggested in this article). The issues and challenges regarding the implementation of environmental education policy as experienced by educators and teachers are identified through examining this phenomenon as portrayed in two case studies where in-service education and training (INSET) in relation to environmental education occurs. This study is one of the first to provide a researched background that identifies issues and challenges that impact on the implementation of environmental policy in formal education contexts.     

Preparation never ends: Sustaining a mentorship model in early childhood teacher education

Abstract

This paper documents the development of a mentorship project for both inservice and preservice early childhood teachers. This mentorship model was conceived by university faculty who were concerned that developmentally appropriate practice was fast becoming a casualty of the present accountability reform in education, and distressed by the disconnect between the university and the prek‐grade three classroom. The first two years of the model are described with particular emphasis placed on the second year efforts to increase the interaction of preservice and inservice teachers. Central to these efforts has been the two‐way communication resulting from video mentorship, and this paper documents the reactions of the stakeholders to this initiative. The paper closes by discussing the challenges that lie ahead as the mentorship model continues to evolve.     

Continuing evolution: The Rhode Island early childhood summer institute

Abstract

This narrative chronicles the continued evolution and development of the Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute, an intensive 5‐day inservice professional development program designed for educational leaders from various sectors of the early care and education field. The goal is to review the continued use of successful practices implemented in the 1993 through 1997 programs and to highlight new programmatic features that were introduced in the most recent 2000 and 2001 programs. The Rhode Island Early Childhood Summer Institute program may serve as a model to others responsible for designing inservice professional development experiences to enhance the capacity of the early childhood workforce.     

Schools and the Environment

Abstract

Content analysis was used to determine the environmental content in a selection of national award-winning children's literature from 1960 to 1982. All but six of the seventy-two books analyzed had some type of environmental content, but with the exception of one book, the messages did not constitute themes. Many books used both social and environmental issues as backdrops to the main action of the story. Environmental messages related to human physical and emotional needs occurred more frequently those those related to animals and plants. Environmental messages occurred most frequently in stories set in rural, non-farm settings. It appears that this selection of children's fiction literature was influenced by the environmental awareness generated by Earth Day 1970, in that somewhat more environmental content was found after 1970.     

Environmental literacy and nature experience in Chengdu,China

Abstract

This research investigated environmental literacy and nature experience among 1433 children and adults in Chengdu, China. Utilizing a standard measure of environmental literacy modified to be culture- and age-appropriate, we found almost universal agreement that nature should be protected. Although our results showed that older groups were less likely to enjoy experiences in nature compared to the younger ones, this was not reflected in a reduced appreciation for nature, which was high in all age groups. Within each category of student, age was associated with increased knowledge but decreased enjoyment of nature experiences and environmental concern. In contrast, among the adult residents, increasing age was associated with less objective knowledge but with more liking and concern about nature. Based on these results, we provide recommendations for environmental education that incorporates time in nature in order to foster environmental concern and behavior as well as knowledge.     

The development of secondary education from 1902 to 1970 in the Borough of Bedford

Summary

Bedford in 1902 had an enormous advantage in the substantial provision made by the Harpur Trust. She has consequently been able to provide, through little effort of her own, excellent opportunities for selective secondary education for most of the century, especially when a meagre scholarship ladder was improved after the Great War and the opening of Pilgrim School ended a second lean spell in selective secondary education in the 1950s. However, concern for those with fewer financial or intellectual advantages has not been conspicuous; a central school was forced through because the Board demanded improvements in the school buildings, the rise in population more than anything else caused partial reorganization in 1937 and government pressure helped to produce a scheme for reorganization on comprehensive lines. Usually a Conservative M.P. sits for Bedford (Labour won narrow victories in 1945 and 1966) and this perhaps indicates the nature of the town's political attitudes. There has also been a habitual reliance on the Trust. These factors may account for the town's moderate concern for the child of average and below average ability. Finally in 1970 the Harpur Trust, which in the first half of the century was such a boon to the town in its efforts to develop secondary education, was proving a stumbling block to the reorganization of the Borough's schools; Sir William's gift now presented nearly insuperable problems to the development of a truly comprehensive system of secondary education and this, in the eyes of many, was once more to the detriment of the ordinary child. The provision of secondary schools in Bedford was for so long the pride of the town, but no longer seemed so splendid to many living in a more egalitarian educational climate.