Nonformal Education, Distance Education and the Restructuring of Schooling: Challenges for a New Basic Education Policy

This article argues that the present crisis of basic education for young people in Africa reveals problems that are more fundamental than enrollments, inputs and costs. They are related to the very structure and substance of educational provision. Of particular concern is the fact that schools find it difficult to respond to the different needs and circumstances of their pupils and to organize learning experiences that are sensitive to the social, cultural and economic environment. The author maintains that non-conventional approaches to learning, associated with nonformal education and distance education, have important but distinct contributions to make to the reform of mainstream schooling and could help to open up the formal system from within.     

远程学习者的负面学习心理及疏导策略

对远程学习者的研究是保障远程教育质量的一项重要内容。了解部分远程学习者在学习过程中呈现出来的负面学习心理,并针对这些心理提出相应的建议和对策,希望能对远程开放教育的进一步发展有所启示。     

Nonformal Education,Distance Education and the Restructuring of Schooling: Challenges for a New Basic Education Policy

This article argues that the present crisis of basic education for young people in Africa reveals problems that are more fundamental than enrollments, inputs and costs. They are related to the very structure and substance of educational provision. Of particular concern is the fact that schools find it difficult to respond to the different needs and circumstances of their pupils and to organize learning experiences that are sensitive to the social, cultural and economic environment. The author maintains that non-conventional approaches to learning, associated with nonformal education and distance education, have important but distinct contributions to make to the reform of mainstream schooling and could help to open up the formal system from within.     

Commentary: Accountability Policy and Scholarly Research

Since 2001, considerations of school reform have been dominated by performance-based accountability. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has changed the way policymakers and educators talk about education, look at educational performance, and think about educational challenges. Nonetheless, NCLB and the state accountability systems it has spawned have been subjected to little careful scrutiny. This article discusses four recent research contributions and considers how they might inform policymaking on accountability. While scholarly scrutiny will not necessarily settle debates, it can help yield more constructive and informed decisions. In particular, research can clarify the actual consequences of policy decisions; highlight and refine approaches that may be more reliable, stable, and effective than those in use; flag the unanticipated or overlooked effects of design decisions; and ensure that both policymakers and the public are aware of the costs and benefits of accountability.     

Approaches to studying in distance education

Responses to the Approaches to Studying Inventory were obtained from 2,288 post-foundation students taking courses by distance learning at the Open University. A factor analysis of their subscale scores produced a solution that was commensurable with results of earlier research carried out with campus-based students. Indeed, their approaches to studying were more appropriate to the avowed aims of higher education, but this could be attributed to age differences between campus-based and distance-learning students. The approaches to studying of distance-learning students were affected by background variables such as gender, age, academic discipline and prior education, and they were more appropriate to the avowed aims of higher education than those of other students taking foundation courses by distance learning. Even when effects of background variables were taken into account, the distance-learning students' approaches to studying were related to pass rates and final grades. In particular, there was a strong negative association between reproducing orientation and academic outcome.     

Comparing the effectiveness and costs of different approaches for educating primary school teachers in Sri Lanka

The effectiveness and costs of three approaches to elementary teacher education in Sri Lanka — preservice, conventional inservice, and distance inservice — are examined. The effectiveness of these approaches was measured by teachers' theoretical and applied knowledge, classroom performance, and pupil achievement. Costs borne by the sponsoring institution and the teachers were evaluated. Although distance education was the most cost-effective of the approaches, graduates of colleges of education were significantly effective in producing high achievement in their pupils in mathematics and language. This finding is particularly important given the more difficult teaching situations in which they taught.     

Cost Analysis of a Distance Education MSW Program

The use of technology to facilitate education and the provision of an entire higher education degree has exploded in the last two decades. Social work educators have been a part of that trend and have started to utilize distance education (DE) technologies. There is a growing literature regarding the efficacy of DE instruction in social work, and scholars are actively developing best practices. However, there is little research in general to support the cost of DE, no cost studies in social work, and none comparing costs of DE delivery to costs associated with a face-to-face program. This study hopes to fill this gap by providing an analysis of the direct costs of an MSW DE program in comparison to similar costs of a face-to-face program.     

Academic Engagement and Perceptions of Quality in Distance Education

The development of e-education has enabled distance education to overcome the lack of interactivity inherent in earlier forms of distance education based on correspondence and mass media, but it looks as if it is also pushing up the costs of distance education. In the 1960s and 1970s, the cost structure of distance education, and its ability to lower educational costs, was seen as a distinct advantage in the face of the need to expand educational provision. With the world population forecast to grow by over three billions in the next 50 years, the need for cheap ways of educating people must be paramount. This article asks just how relevant it is to global educational needs to develop more expensive forms of distance education that, in the absence of public funding, place increased financial burdens on the students.     

Avoiding the industrialization of research universities: Big and little distance education

Abstract

The pressure to increase access to higher education while reducing costs raises serious questions with regard to the purpose and goals of the traditional research‐intensive university. Moreover, there is considerable rhetoric about reinventing universities based on adoption of communications and learning technologies without clearly defining or articulating educational goals. In contrast to the big industrial model of distance education, an approach to distance education is described that is consistent with the traditional goals and values of creating knowledge through a critical community of learners. This approach, or model, is labeled “little distance education,” and its characteristics are defined. Meeting the needs of a new market for continuing professional education available at a distance is also discussed.     

国外关于远程教育辍学理论的研究综述

本从目前远程教育中普遍存在的高辍学率问题出发，介绍了国外自20世纪70年代以来关于远程教育辍学理论的研究成果，并对这些研究进行了总结和反思。从这个研究视角出发，希望能够对我国远程教育的质量保证起到一定的启发作用。     

近十年远程教育学术群体及研究热点分析

远程教育的发展日新月异,开放性、灵活性的特点使其成为我国教育体系不可或缺的一部分。采用作者共被引分析、社会网络分析、多元统计分析等方法,系统梳理了近十年发表于五大核心期刊的5203篇文献。研究发现:一方面,远程教育学术群体已经形成了规模较大的网络,小世界效应明显,中心性差异甚微;另一方面,远程教育领域海纳百川、热点多元,然而需要注意的是,远程教育发展史、多模态学习分析的研究亟待加强,学分银行体系、教师角色定位的理论与实践脱节现象较为严重,基础设施建而不用、知识图谱浅层解读的问题依然突出。为突破现实困境,探寻远程教育的未来之路,最后从课程资源开发、学习支持服务、学科专业建设等三个方面提出建议。     

Contribution of Distance Education to the Development of Individual Learners

An important touchstone of distance education has been to contribute to the development of individual learners whatever their life circumstances. The first half of the article provides an overview of this contribution and of the understanding and awareness that has been developed about distance learners in their individual learning contexts. The overview is based around five themes: access to education, adjustment to new learning environments, individual development, knowledge and awareness of learners in context, and the importance of understanding the learner’s perspective of distance education. In the latter part of the article it is argued that the way ahead for distance education requires attention to more than technological approaches to learning, and that the field is well placed to provide an informed critique of current trends and developments, to focus on the student experience, and to contribute to learner development and practitioner development.     

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。     

现代远程教育方式下班级管理的新探索

现代远程教育的发展对班级管理提出了新的要求,班级组织形式更加松散和多元。通过对现代远程教育方式下班主任角色转换的研究,明确了班主任组织者、协调者、服务者的角色定位。通过对培养学生自主独立学习习惯的研究,明确了班级管理的目标。     

What is the nature of the achievement gap,why does it persist and are government goals sufficient to create social justice in the education system?

The ‘achievement gap’ – the term typically used to refer to differences in pupil attainment associated with social class, ethnicity and gender – remains an enduring obstacle to government goals of creating a socially just society. This article explores the nature of the achievement gap and some of the mechanisms that serve to perpetuate disadvantage in education systems providing a context in which to consider the appropriateness of government policies aimed at addressing the gap. Accessing predominantly English research but also consulting studies conducted in other education systems including the US and elsewhere in the UK, we argue that in contrast to its noble rhetoric, government approaches to addressing the achievement gap are preoccupied with standardised assessment and accountability (such as the latest attempt at raising pupil standards in England, the introduction of Academies) while paying little more than lip service to the persistent, underlying roots of inequality.     

论构建远程教育媒体的理论体系

该文根据远程教育与媒体同生、共存、齐发展的特点,提出了在远程教育媒体日趋多元化的今天,进行远程教育媒体理论研究的必要性,并从概念混淆需要理论厘清,追新汰旧的媒体观违背规律,国外学者已经关注媒体理论研究等方面作了具体的说明。同时提出了以绪论篇、理论篇、实践篇、研究篇等四篇为基础的理论架构的设想。     

Cost‐benefit analysis of telelearning: Developing a methodology framework

Although costs and benefits of distance education have been evaluated, there are few examples where a cost‐benefit analysis has been applied to a variety of different educational technologies. This paper summarises some of the cost‐benefit methodologies expressed in the academic literature. The examples presented here have been categorised into four main groups, representing the different approaches to cost‐benefit analysis for technology and distance education: values, mathematical models, comparative studies, and return of investment Finally, an integrated methodology useful in the evaluation of educational technologies is presented.     

对远程高等教育明瑟教育收益率的实证研究——以宁波电大本科生为例

本文首先回顾了几位学者对远程高等教育明瑟教育收益率研究的成果,接着阐述了本文回归模型的选择和数据来源,然后运用回归模型对363份问卷调查所获得的实际数据进行了回归分析,最后提出了本文的基本结论。本文的基本结论是：远程高等教育的收益率低于普通高等教育的收益率,但是远程高等教育的收益率仍然是正的;鉴于远程高等教育的收益率低的现实,各提供远程教育的学校应该努力提高教学质量,加强对学生各方面能力的培养。     

Accounting for structure and agency in ‘close-up’ research on teaching,learning and assessment in higher education

This paper examines research into teaching, learning and assessment (TLA) in higher education in terms of structure and agency. It argues that although issues of structure and agency are seen as crucial in social theory, they are very little discussed in research into TLA in higher education and that a consideration of structure and agency raises some important questions about this research and the quality of the explanations that it generates. It is therefore time to reconsider this research from the standpoint of structure and agency so that more sophisticated approaches to researching, and generating explanations of, teaching, learning and assessment in higher education can be developed.     

从经济学、会计学视角看我国公办高校的"成本"

高等学校的成本是教育经济领域一个重要的基本概念,但是在理论研究中一直以来主要重视的是社会和个人教育成本,高等学校作为成本发生主体之一和社会、个人教育成本发生的“媒介”,却较少受到关注.笔者尝试从经济学、会计学及教育学的视角分析我国公办高校成本概念的内涵和外延,为实践操作寻求合理依据.