Teacher Training in Educational Technology in Rumania

Abstract

This paper deals with four aspects of teacher training in educational technology:

• general information on the education system in Rumania

• teacher training in the utilization of educational media

• teacher training with a view to the improvement of teaching‐learning systems

• teacher training in the new information and communication technologies

In each of these areas of teacher training, the problems and perspectives related to developments of educational technology are considered.     

Essential Features of a Teacher Education Programme for Cooperative Learning

What are the main features of a successful programme for preparing teachers to use cooperative learning methods in their classrooms? In seeking an answer to this question, many researchers and educators focus on cooperation as the primary concept

1. (a) Cooperation among faculty members in university or college teacher education programmes to ensure consistency, continuity and a common set of goals for pre‐service teacher education. Some programmes have begun to emphasise the acquisition of competence in the use of cooperative learning methods.

2. (b) Cooperation between universities and schools to enable novice and experienced teachers to practise cooperative learning in the classroom.

3. (c) Cooperation among teachers in given schools to provide mutual support and assistance to maintain the long‐term use of cooperative learning.

Various programmes and projects reported in the relevant literature that have implemented these ideas are surveyed and discussed in this paper.     

The Training of Teachers for the Compulsory Cycle in Spain

The author provides an overview of the training of teachers for the compulsory cycle of education in Spain. Within this overview, two facts stand out:

• the Education Law of 1970 integrates the training of primary teachers with the first cycle of university education;

• the University Reform Law of 1983 sets in place a new structure for the universities, organised around Departments which are seen as teaching, as much as research, units.

Certain concerns emerge when a more prospective view is taken. These include youth unemployment and the persistence of the economic crisis, the imbalance between the length of compulsory schooling and the accepted right to work, the failure to adapt training programmes to educational needs.

These concerns all point to a need for further changes in the education system and also in the training of teachers.     

KINDERET: developing training for early childhood educators in information and communications technology (ICT) in Bulgaria,England, Portugal,Spain and Sweden

In the European context the continuing training of early childhood educators in terms of information and communications technology (ICT) remains limited and is in need of development. The KINDERET project has been funded through the European Commission’s Leonardo da Vinci programme aimed to identify and understand the theoretical and practical needs of practitioners and is developing course materials to support the development of courses (see www.eseb.ipbeja.pt/kinderet). The KINDERET project has therefore been structured according to five main objectives, namely to:

• identify and understand the theoretical and practical needs of kindergarten teachers with regard to ICT education;

• establish plans for the training of educators, in the application of ICT;

• develop interactive learning materials for educators in order to support the established plans for continuing training in ICT;

• implement pilot training schemes and promote transnational collaboration between tutors and students through the use of ICTs;

• evaluate the pilot training schemes.

In the framework of these overall aims set by the KINDERET project, this paper reports upon the joint work that was developed by the partnership as the first stage of analysis in the training needs of kindergarten teachers. The analysis of the information that was collected at this stage has provided an empirical basis for the development of the pilot training schemes.     

Comportements et attentes de formation continue chez les enseignants du secondaire

How do teachers in the second cycle regard in‐service training and what are their expectations? This article proposes to describe their attitudes on the basis of a postal survey carried out among a representative sample of teachers in lower and upper secondary schools and LEP (upper‐secondary vocational schools) in France. The survey brought in 2106 usable replies, of which a representative group of 988 replies have been analysed.

First it was noted that three‐quarters of the teachers had in the past had some in‐service training. It consisted of self‐training, done especially by reading and fairly short courses, bearing essentially on knowledge of the main subject and on the methods and techniques of teaching.

More than two‐thirds of the sample knew about academic plans of training, though in most Académies it was the first year of their existence. Half of them enrolled for at least one of the proposed courses and 60% of these candidates were accepted.

After multidimensional analysis of the expectations of contents, five concepts of training can be identified:

1. a traditional concept of didactic training, centred on the contents and methods of teaching, is widely shared by all the teachers;

2. a concept based on the ‘modern’ contribution of didactics, the pupil‐teacher relation and collaboration inside the institution;

3. a concept centred on pupils’ knowledge, external collaboration and innovation, (like the preceding one, this concept is shared above all by women, the young, vocational and general subjects teachers in the LEP);

4. a concept centred on interests not directly linked to classroom activities but related to teaching. It is especially held by vocational teachers in the LEP.

5. a concept centred on personal interests not directly linked to the teaching profession, especially held by men, the young, LEP teachers, auxiliary teachers and LEP teachers in technological teaching.

Teachers in the classical and modern upper secondary level and even more so the agrégé teachers are the ones who share the least in these concepts, except for the first one.     

Early Childhood Education in Poland — Changes and Threats

The article presents:

• first, the most important characteristics of the totalitarian educational system which influence current situations in many fields of education, eg.: teacher education and training, philosophy and practice of education, management of the educational system, etc.

• first, the most important characteristics of the totalitarian educational system which influence current situations in many fields of education, eg.: teacher education and training, philosophy and practice of education, management of the educational system, etc.

• second, hopes and expectations towards various institutions connected with early childhood education in a new political and social situation and in the time of implementation of free market rules which caused unfavourable phenomena in early childhood education, eg. closures of settings and increase of fees paid by parents who take children away for financial reasons,

• finally, I present my own image of early childhood setting as an institution supporting parents in fulfilling their educational and care duties and involving them in the growth process of a child.

     

Place et rôle des stages dans la formation initiale des enseignants en France

Preservice teacher education in France consists of:

subject oriented studies in a university,

recruitment by means of a state competitive examination which may be prepared in a university,

professional training in a training centre, including both subject oriented studies and practice periods in classrooms.

Preschool and primary teacher training includes two years at a university to obtain the required degree for competition and then two years in a college of education. Secondary level teacher training includes more years at a university as the level of competition is high. It takes at least three years to become a graduate, four years in the other case. But the preparation of the competition in itself requires more time for most people. When admitted to the competitive examination, the teacher has one year in a training centre.

This paper will present:

1. the legal basis, curricula, content, structure and aims of practical studies at the two levels (preschool‐primary/secondary levels);

2. the difference and convergence of thinking about practical studies at the two levels: the main principle seems to be that pedagogical and practice studies make up for a lack of theoretical knowledge, but that, consequently, they are not considered really useful for those who do have theoretical knowledge;

3. the difficulties of achieving the official objective concerning an integrated training with links between theoretical studies and practice periods,

4. an innovative approach to this problem by means of a case study which put into practice the hypothesis brought out in the research I have led at the INRP about primary school teacher training.

The organisational models and the place given to practice periods in the whole teacher education raise the problem of what is a professional teacher training and what is its aim.     

SELF‐CONFRONTATION THROUGH VIDEO‐PLAYBACK: A STUDY OF LECTURERs' REACTIONS

This paper reports a survey of higher education teachers' reactions to taking part in a project which involved them in being video‐recorded while lecturing. The nature of their reactions has importance in the context of using television to enable teachers in higher education to lecture more effectively.

Material is included on teachers' anticipations prior to being video‐recorded, and on their reactions after the session, which include their comments on personal presentation, on the anxiety of the experience and on their teaching.

The findings indicate that:

1. first reactions to viewing the playback often include comment upon aspects of personal presentation (appearance, voice)

2. relatively little comment is made about their teaching as such'(teachers may need a ‘language’ for describing and evaluating their teaching)

3. steps need to be taken by staff developers to act supportively to reduce anxieties

4. the recordings were thought by participating teachers to represent typical samples of their teaching.

Some 471 students of the teachers involved in the project completed a brief questionnaire and the largest single response supports the teachers' view that the recording was typical.     

ASSESSING LAW STUDENTS: LECTURERS' ATTITUDES AND PRACTICES

This paper reports a surrey of public sector law lecturers' methods of assessment of their undergraduate students, and their attitudes towards these processes. The survey was conducted by postal questionnaire to all public sector law teachers. The findings indicate that:

• Law lecturers are unclear about course objectives. Moreover, where course objectives are specified they tend not to be explicitly related to criteria for student assessment.

• Methods used for assessment often do not match specified course objectives.

• Law lecturers tend to be ‘conservative’ markers who use a narrow range of marks clustered round relatively low average points.

     

GOVERNMENT MEMORANDUM ON HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE NETHERLANDS DURING THE NEXT DECADE

The information below gives the basic elements of the policy memorandum entitled “Higher Education in the Future: possible development in the long‐term and initiatives in the coming years” which was submitted to the Second Chamber for discussion, and which includes proposals for basic changes in the future higher education system of the Netherlands, such as:

• creation of one system of higher education with no distinction between university and higher vocational training;

• introduction of as large a range of courses as possible;

• inclusion of student research only where the study programme requires it;

• introduction of a more general type of higher education in addition, to courses providing students with specific professional qualifications.

     

The Urban Bridge is a symbol

Response to Intervention (RtI) is a general education initiative that takes place prior to evaluation for placement in special education. Essentially, the first two tiers of RtI require general education teachers to use research-based instruction with all students and then to evaluate the effectiveness of that instruction. Given that the use of RtI as an assessment tool begins in the general education classroom, the following question remains: Are general educators aware of the development and implementation of RtI as a process for assessing and, eventually, possibly placing students into special education? The purpose of this study was to review the literature to answer the following two questions:

1. To what extent is RtI evident in the professional literature of educator groups (teachers, administrators, and teacher educators) who will be responsible for implementing these school practices?

2. What is the nature of the published literature (concept papers, assessment practices, instructional practices, and research) on RtI?

     

Identifying transcendence in educating for public service: reflections on qualifying to teach as a pedagogic example

In this critically reflective piece, I describe the design of a foundations of education course and my first year teaching experience. I discuss thematic statements of issues that emerged as I came to construct the meaning of my experience and evolving ideas about teaching for public service professions. These included that:

• Questioning is not ‘normal’ for everyone;

• The experience of classroom safety may be different for student participants than for teacher participants;

• Reflection is a situated responsibility; and

• Assessment and authority interact within the context of learning in a formal classroom.

Discussing these issues helped me in framing teaching for public service as itself a transcendent public act, one that crosses boundaries of time and space and that requires embodied, rather than idealistic, understandings of qualifying to teach.     

Cooperative Learning and Visual Organisers: Effects on Solving Mole Problems in High School Chemistry

Eighty‐seven high school students participated in the study in one of four conditions:

1. 1. Visual Organiser/Cooperative Learning

2. 2. Cooperative Learning only

3. 3. Visual Organiser only

4. 4. Teacher‐Directed

Students were taught how to use mole maps to assist them in solving single‐quantity and multiple‐quantity mole problems. A mole problem involves converting quantities of chemicals to moles, a unit of measurement used in Chemistry. Students took tests immediately after instruction and then took mid‐term examinations that included mole problems. Repeated measures analyses with post‐instruction test scores and the mid‐term scores for single and multiple‐quantity mole problems showed that student performance was significantly better immediately after instruction for both kinds of problems. Students who used visual organisers and cooperative learning outperformed students who experienced teacher‐directed instruction on single‐quantity mole problems and also on the immediate post‐instruction test of multiple‐quantity mole problems. Cooperative learning resulted in less decay in performance over time.     

Lernen an zwei Orten: das Problem des ‘Dualen System’ in der lehrerausbildung

On the basis of a study of the literature and of empirical research, the article puts forward suggestions for the improvement of teacher training programmes within a dual system.

A consecutive approach to training implies that a student spends a part of the training period in an educational institution and a part in a practical situation (i.e. on teaching practice). However, the consecutive system presents considerable problems in respect both of organisation and of the psychology of learning. Organisationally, there is the question of sequence to be faced, if the elements of theory and practice are to be brought together.

On the basis of a study of the literature of other forms of professional training, the following suggestions are made:

1. students’ activities in the school must re‐inforce their learning and be integrated with their work in the training institution;

2. their educational studies must support the acquisition of the competences needed by the teacher at the outset of his/her professional career;

3. attention must be paid to the learning needs and the potential of each student.

The article describes how a teacher training programme may follow these guidelines, leading to a ‘concurrent’ set of cycles bringing together elements of theory, practice and reflection upon practice, and in which a student may alternate between the academic institution and school practice.

After giving an overview of possible models of training the author focuses upon a specific example and provides a model of the institution‐practice link. What is important is that the learning style of the student be taken into account. Each student selects from four alternative programmes, namely: instructional variants, reflection variants, selfstudy variants, and practice variants. The contents of these four programmes are explained, and the learning outcomes of students from these differentiated programmes compared with those of students from undifferentiated, ‘normal’ programs. In summary, it is claimed that in the research project described there are positive indications for a theory‐practice link which gives students a choice of approaches and a better integration of their learning into the practical classroom situation.     

REFORM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN MALTA

>Higher education in Malta is in the process of substantial reform which, among other things, includes:

• transfer of a number of degrees and courses from the Old to the New University and as well as the creation of new courses and degrees in the New University;

• changes in the administrative structures of higher education institutions (Old and New University)

• introduction of a worker‐student scheme for university entry;

• changes in the distribution of authority on higher education.

The introduction of the reform is regulated by the Education (Amendment) Act, 1978. Outlined below are the main elements of this reform as they are introduced in the Act, with a special emphasis on the new “worker‐student scheme for university admission”     

Teacher‐college students’ opinions in Israel and on the West Bank of ‘what science‐education is supposed to be’

A three‐way comparison of teacher‐college entrants’ and graduating students’ views in Israel (both Jews and Arabs) and their counterparts on the West Bank was undertaken in order to diagnose subjects’ image of science and of science teaching. The questionnaire used permitted the gathering of subjects’ normative views as well as the application of these views in actual classroom science‐lesson planning. It was found that college entrants’ views of the Jewish subjects differed sharply from those of both Arab samples in all areas tested. While there was no difference between Israeli Arabs and their counterparts on the West Bank on matters concerning in‐school and in‐classroom affairs, the Israeli Arab subjects’ views about science and science‐teaching were midway between those of the Jewish subjects and the West Bank subjects. As to the graduating subjects’ normative opinions, no significant difference was found between Jewish and Arab Israeli subjects, with both these samples differing significantly from their West Bank counterparts. An identical situation for both the entrants and the graduating students pertained to actual lesson‐planning. The findings were interpreted to mean that:

• Arab science education in Israeli schools is at present in a transition period, tending to move away from traditional and towards ‘Western’ approaches.

• Three years of college education had been instrumental in eliminating the previously existing discrepancies between prospective science teachers in the Jewish and Arab sectors of Israel, and to widen the gulf between Israeli Arabs’ and West Bankers’ normative stances as to ‘what science teaching is supposed to be’.

     

Experimenting with group work

Summary

In order for group analysis to be successful and to achieve the atmosphere which allows student cooperation to flourish, it is essential that adequate physical and financial resources are provided. These can be summarized as follows:

• (i)Adequate budget to allow for expenditure on models, visual materials, acquisition of background information, etc.

• (ii)Secretarial staff for typing and administration

• (iii)Laboratory technicians

• (iv)Visual aid staff

• (v)All resources available to the industrialist viz: information library, telephone, typing, stationery, workspace, storage, etc.

• (vi)The active cooperation of academic and technical staff

• (vii)Flexibility in timetabling and room allocations

• (viii)Seminar members who will command the respect of the students and will readily adapt to role playing where necessary

• (ix)Studio masters who are totally committed to the group analysis method of teaching and are, therefore, willing to allot substantial proportions of their time to student consultation

• (x)A cooperative administrative staff.

It is not difficult to provide such resources to make a new experience for a considerable number of college administrators and teachers alike.     

A SURVEY OF INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION RESEARCHES

The article draws attention to severe faults in the design of the Oxford (1960) enquiry into Arts/Science specialization. Research since then (recently reviewed by Lewis, 1972) has not been unanimous in refuting the hypothesis that the most able pupils are one‐sided in their subject interests.

Evidence is offered on specialization and related issues from recent surveys (1970, ‘71 and ‘72) of the great majority of upper sixth formers in Northumberland. Findings included the following.

1. Subject choice at Advanced level is largely felt to be freely made rather than enforced.

2. Attitudes to wider courses are adverse rather than favourable.

3. High ability pupils are relatively concentrated in specialist courses, particularly the Sciences.

4. Many specialist pupils have a very wide range of achievement at Ordinary level.

5. The more able pupils make earlier subject choice decisions than the weaker: Science specialists show earliest decision times.

6. Subject choice is seen as easy rather than difficult by three‐fifths of the sample pupils, and by three‐quarters of Science specialists.

7. Science subjects are perceived, by either sex, as more closely interrelated than Arts subjects.

8. Mathematics is unusual in that it consistently attracts higher rates of dislike than other subjects, though four‐fifths of those taking it would still select it if a choice had to be made again.

9. Definitions of ‘specialization’ need reconsideration.

     

Transformations in higher education in agricultural and food sciences in Central and Eastern Europe

Abstract

Current changes in agricultural and food science higher education in Central and Eastern Europe are interesting for the analysis of the repercussions of post communist economic and social transition, particularly in the adaptation and restructuring of scientific and technical education.

Using an institutional approach and referring to their experiences of these educational systems, the authors provide a Western view of current transformations and areas of development of higher education in agricultural and food sciences in the countries concerned. The emergence of a new social demand and of new systems of access to employment implies re-evaluation and adaptation of former training models. The authors suggest that the current reflection on the question should focus on three key issues:

• -redefinition of the role and function of managers in the agricultural and food economic sector;

• -replacement of a production-oriented approach by a more comprehensive approach to the problem of rural development;

• -recognition of the educational value of biological sciences as both models and tools for the acquisition of knowledge and the management of complex systems.

     

Agricultural development; Opportunities and threats for farmers and implications for extension organisations

Abstract

In many countries agriculture is in a process of rapid change,

• - it has to meet a growing demand for food in a sustainable way,

• - the international competition is increasing,

• - the increase in labour productivity is decreasing the employment opportunities in agriculture,

• - agricultural research is offering many new opportunities to increase productivity,

• - government price support for agricultural products in industrial countries is decreasing.

These changes have many implications for agricultural extension, such as:

• - the knowledge and capabilities of farmers has become a major factor in their ability to compete in national and international markets,

• - advice is not only needed on the adoption of new technologies, but also on many other decisions farmers have to make, such as the choice of their farming system and the decision whether or not to earn an income from outside agriculture,

• - this requires a change in extension methods and in the information sources extension agents use,

• - agricultural development demands painful changes in the way of farming and of living for many farm families. It is a challenge for extension agencies to help farm families to realise this,

• - a major task for leaders of extension organisations is to manage a process of change in agricultural extension. Often the role extension has to play in agricultural development can not be performed by one extension organisation, but only by a pluralistic extension system.

Agricultural extension is often expected to contribute to a reduction of poverty among farmers and farm labourers. One has to think seriously how one can realise this objective.