IBM's view of distance education: Speaking personally with Susan Leslie,Dick Scott,and James Tomsic of IBM

Abstract

This paper describes the application of evaluation methods to a distance course and discusses the need for ongoing evaluation to control the quality of distance education courses. During the last quadrimester of 1996, a course in Graphic Mechanics was offered in Brazil through a distance education program entitled “Programa Educ@r”¹ via the World Wide Web. Evaluation methods and data analysis were developed and applied during the period of the course, and results of the evaluation are discussed.     

How and where we live,learn, and play matters: An introduction to the special issue

Abstract

A holistic approach to providing health education and services integrates the Social Determinants of Health (SDH)—an approach Healthy Teen Network calls Youth 360°—to recognize that where youth live, learn, and play matters. Long promoted by such stalwarts in the public health field as the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease and Control, the SDH are now broadly recognized, including in the field of adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH), as the only way to engage and address the needs of all youth. But stating this and truly understating how to make this happen are very different animals.     

The World Wide Web,Computers and Teaching Literature

Abstract

Students in my on‐campus literature classes have made good use of a series of computer programs that I have created for text analysis. I offered a course via the World Wide Web that provided 14 of my programs to students throughout the world. My course taught those students how to use the programs, and as they completed the assignments, students not only learned to use software for literary analysis, but they also often gained new kinds of insights into the study of texts.     

Lots of Fun,Not Much Work,and No Hassles: Marketing Images of Higher Education

ABSTRACT

The college viewbook has come to play an increasingly important role in the marketing of American colleges and universities. Offering appealing images of student life and campus activities, college viewbooks are potentially powerful segmenting tools when the visual symbolism used connects with the demands of the market niche. This segmentation is seen in the present study which content analyzed the visual material of college viewbooks from top- and lower-ranked American college and universities, as determined by the 1998 U.S. News and World Report. Drawing on advertising message strategy, the results of the analysis are interpreted in four parts: the “face” of the organization, the package, the promise, and the “Big Idea.”     

“There are carers,and then there are carers who actually care”; Conceptualizations of care among looked after children and care leavers,social workers and carers

BackgroundLooked after children and care leavers (LACCL) are some of the most vulnerable and marginalized young people in our communities. Existing research demonstrates that this group often interprets care in terms of genuineness and tends to feel uncared for. Less work exists from the perspective of social workers and formal carers.ObjectiveThis study aims to explore how care is perceived and practiced among LACCL and those with a duty of care for them. We use a theoretical lens of care ethics to compare and contrast understandings in order to explore how they affect the delivery and receipt of care.Participants & settingThere were 44 participants from four local authorities in north-east England including nineteen LACCL aged 12–20, eight social workers, and nineteen formal carers.MethodTwenty-eight semi-structured 1:1 interviews, four dyad interviews and three focus group interviews.ResultsLACCL desired care that felt familial, went beyond minimum standards and involved understanding. Social workers had to manage LACCL expectations and build relationships by both rationing care according to role constraints whilst sometimes going ‘above and beyond’ statutory care. Carers conceptualized care in terms of dedication and discipline but felt limited in their ability to achieve care in this way.ConclusionBridging different conceptualizations of care is necessary to achieve integrated support for these vulnerable young people whilst also helping them to develop key skills for later adult life. A deeper understanding of frameworks of care has implications for social worker and formal carer training and practice.     

Criminal justice resources on the internet

We identify World Wide Web (WWW) and gopher sites containing information of interest to criminology and criminal justice professionals, educators, and students. Internet addresses and brief annotations are provided for federal and international resources, law library resources, civil liberties, police and prison information, crime-and addiction-related sites, and criminal justice educational and discussion groups.     

A task force to reduce prison overcrowding: Implications for criminal justice policy,planning and research methods courses

This article describes an undergraduate criminal justice research methods course that uses interactive teaching methods to explore the dynamics of policy analysis and program evaluation. The issue of prison overcrowding is introduced after a solid base of research methods concepts has been mastered. Prison overcrowding is presented in a detailed scenario that includes changes in state and local policy. Student workgroups explore issues involved in prison overcrowding using multiple sources of information, including the World Wide Web.     

Sport,Homelessness, and Capability: Voices from the Street

ABSTRACT

To what extent does soccer increase the capability of the homeless and those living on the street? This study addresses this question by focusing on the ways in which the Homeless World Cup and Street Soccer (Scotland) have impacted upon the lives of some individuals. Primary source data obtained from a series of interviews are situated within Sen’s capability approach to social choice theory. The implications of the study contribute to policy by supporting the idea that sport can contribute as a resource of hope through the development of capability that impacts upon life chances and choices. It adds to a growing number of applied studies of sport that have critically used the work of Sen and it advances the way in which this body of work has been utilized in sport and related areas.     

Weaving the Arts into Jewish Education: Integration at the Blossom School,an Arts‐Based Jewish Day School

The Baltimore Hebrew College

I came to the U.S. from my home town Jerusalem in 1929, when I was 16 years of age. My father had emigrated from Eretz Israel in 1921 because of the severe economic conditions that prevailed after World War I. Gradually, he brought over all the members of his family. He hoped that he and his sons would save enough money in the New World to establish a vital profitable enterprise in Eretz Israel, and the family could then return to its native land. In New York, we lived at first in Brownsville, at that time the most dynamic center of Brooklyn Jewry. A year later, I moved to Baltimore where my father was employed.     

Secondary school students’ attitudes to practical work in biology,chemistry and physics in England

ABSTRACT

Background: In England, practical work is a major part of secondary school science and yet little research has examined students’ attitudes specifically to practical work.

Purpose: To examine students’ attitudes to practical work in biology chemistry and physics in secondary schools in England.

Sample: The study involved 607 students from Year 7 to Year 10 (aged 11–15) drawn from three state-maintained secondary schools in England. The schools were, broadly speaking, representative of schools in England in terms of academic measures such as GCSE outcomes, value-added performance and socio-economic area.

Design and methods: The research considered students’ attitudes in terms of an established analytical framework incorporating the affective, behavioural and cognitive (ABC) domains and used a mixed methods approach involving questionnaires, lesson observations, and focus group discussions.

Results: Whilst secondary students’ attitudes to practical work were, generally speaking, positive they were not constant and homogenous but change over time. The affective value of practical work was found to vary by subject although in all three sciences this value decreased, albeit at different rates, as students approached their General Certificate in Secondary Education examinations (GCSE) taken at age 16.

Conclusion: The affective value of practical work needs to be considered on a subject by subject basis, rather than, as is often the case currently in school, in terms of a generic attitude to science practical work. Furthermore, the affective value of practical work can be maximised by using more at the start of secondary education (Key Stage 3 – ages 11–14) with a gradual, subject-specific, reduction as students approach their summative public examinations (age 16) when their preference for non-practical, exam orientated, teaching increases.     

Traditional mentor relationships,intimacy and emotional intelligence

This paper presents selected findings from a PhD study into traditional mentor relationships (TMR) in the lives of creative people, from the perspective of intimacy and communication. Methodological considerations are those of heuristics and hermeneutics. A model for TMRs is described. Intimacy within the TMR is viewed positively and acknowledged as essential. Mentors display emotional maturity and the criteria for emotional intelligence. Issues of methodological process are discussed in terms of communication and Heidegger's concept of authenticity.     

Practice and Experiment in the Equipment Development Process within the Model of the Hungarian World Bank Project for the New Vocational Education

Abstract

This article looks at the setting up, operation and areas of interest of the Media Group within the Hungarian World Bank project for the new vocational education.     

The ‘World Politics’ course: changing thinking on international relations education in Ontario Secondary Schools, 1850–1970

ABSTRACT

What do secondary school students in Ontario, Canada, need to know about the world in which they live in? How did a secondary school ‘World Politics’ course that emerged in Ontario in the 1960s address this question? The ‘World Politics’ course that emerged in the 1960s clearly came about as a result of societal and educational developments. Educators in nineteenth-century Ontario felt no need for such a course. In more recent times, post-Second World War, the discipline of history underwent dramatic upheavals. The opportunities for new courses meant possibilities to reach out to new groups of students. Simultaneously, with this change, the importance of international relations in the history curriculum was reduced but this also allowed for its re-emergence elsewhere. Finally, ‘World Politics’ emerged as one of the responses to the need for an understanding of a much more complex world.     

The rise of the transnational capitalist class and World Bank 'aid' for higher education

This article looks at globalisation as a process of replacement of the global political order of nation states with the global economic order of transnational corporations. It is argued that this process carries far-reaching consequences, in which a growing number of spheres, including education, are subjected to the interests of the global economic order. Under the disguise of global economic development activities the new world system strives towards maximising the short-term profits of the transnational capitalist class. Following Sklair's global systems theory, this article looks at the World Bank as a transnational organisation. Based on recent World Bank higher education reform loan projects in Eastern Europe, it is argued that the primary outcome of the World Bank loan projects is the redistribution of the resources of the so-called 'recipient countries' to the transnational capitalist class.     

School leadership and school improvement: an examination of school readiness factors

ABSTRACT

This article reports on an investigation into the influence stemming from school leadership as an important consideration in relation to school improvement. School readiness, based on [Schiemann, W. A. 2014. “From Talent Management to Talent Optimization.” Journal of World Business 49 (2): 281–288. doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2013.11.012]. Accountability, Capability and Engagement (ACE) leadership model, was assessed through self-reported school leader behaviours, attitudes, perceptions, and school improvement attributes. To clarify, school readiness refers to how a school principal optimises staff and other school resources to best achieve school improvement agendas. School readiness survey results and student achievement outcomes for one entire school district were analysed, indicating that school readiness did indeed impact student achievement. Findings reveal a need for school leaders to focus more clearly on overall school alignment and optimisation behaviours, and these are discussed in relation to specific leadership recommendations and how leadership can better support and encourage school improvement in terms of educational accountability.     

Science Curricula as Cultural Misfits

Summaries

English

In this article, which is based on a paper read at the International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris in July 1979, we shall first review the impact of science curriculum development on Third World countries and the effect of Western science education on those changes.

We shall then outline some of the ways of thinking that the pupils of different cultures bring to school that appear to differ from, or even to conflict with Western scientific modes of thought.

This will lead us to an analysis of the factors responsible for the predicament in science education today. In the light of this analysis we shall suggest some courses of action for the future progress of science teaching in the Third World.     

Reliability,validity, and all that jazz

Summary

In this article my purpose has not been to indicate what kinds of things can and can't be assessed appropriately with tests. Rather, I have tried to illuminate how the key ideas of reliability and validity are used by test developers and what this means in practice — not least in terms of the decisions that are made about individual students on the basis of their test results. As I have stressed throughout this article, these limitations are not the fault of test developers. However inconvenient these limitations are for proponents of school testing, they are inherent in the nature of tests of academic achievement, and are as real as rocks. All users of the results of educational tests must understand what a limited technology this is.     

Teacher collaboration: 30 years of research on its nature,forms, limitations and effects

ABSTRACT

This article reprises and reflects on 30 years of the author’s work on teacher collaboration. The distinctive nature of this work has not been in making a case for teacher collaboration in terms of its benefits for students, teachers, or educational change. These arguments are widely available elsewhere. Rather it has examined ways of collaborating that are available to teachers, how formal or informal collaboration should be, how collaborative efforts can be misused or misdirected, and what factors must be considered when deliberately designing teacher collaboration so it will have the most beneficial effects. The article discusses the explanatory and strategic power of three concepts in particular—contrived collegiality, professional capital, and collaborative professionalism. Conclusions are drawn about next steps for educational research in terms of establishing clear typologies of teacher collaboration in relation to their impact and appropriateness in different circumstances.     

UNESCO's World Education Report: its evolution,strengths and possible futures

We assess UNESCO's biennial World Education Report. We begin with some basic background information and a discussion of the purpose of this report, its function and intended readership. We describe part of the process by which the report developed into its present form and some details about how the report is put together. We then address issues of scope and content: themes selected, the rationales for their selection, and how they are treated. We place particular emphasis on how the policy-messages are ultimately conveyed (in terms of initiatives to be undertaken, priorities to be set, goals and the recommended means for their accomplishment). The discussion is illustrated by comparing the UNESCO report with those put out by three other major international agencies, namely UNICEF, The World Bank and the UNDP. A final section provides a short summary and concluding remarks.