ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF ENGINEERS ‐‐UNESCO ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FOR ENGINEERS

The impact of engineers on the environment, particularly in the processes of urbanization, industrial production and in the search for energy resources is generally recognized.

Ecological repercussions of the project or construction where there has been a lack of appreciation of environmental harmony might have negative consequences affecting many people. Recognition of this situation is reflected in the numerous efforts of national and international organizations to reorganize engineering studies and to in‐corporate environmental education in the training of engineers.

The following article was written, for “Higher Education in Europe” and deals with Unesco's activities in the area of development of environmental education of engineers. It was written by Albert Sasson from the Division of Ecological Science of Unesco.     

关于发展高等职业技术教育问题的几点思考

高等职业技术教育是我国高等教育事业的重要组成部分。高职教育在现实中要得到广大考生和家长的青睐 ,必须首先以市场为导向 ,调整专业结构 ,按需培养 ,办出特色。其次 ,以经济建设为中心 ,培养高素质的复合型人才 ,达到一专多能。再次 ,大胆探索 ,勇于实践 ,进一步完善办学机制 ,构筑中高职衔接的教育“立交桥” ,用改革的办法解决改革中出现的新问题     

THE BRITISH SYSTEM OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION

This paper follows the publication in 1974 of the brochure of information about the education of engineers in the Federal Republic of Germany and in France (published in this Journal, Autumn 1977). The arrangement of this new contribution is similar to the latter work. It is hoped that a comparison of procedures in the three countries may be of value to all concerned with the long-term organization of education.     

THE RE-EMERGENCE OF CHARACTER EDUCATION IN BRITISH EDUCATION POLICY

ABSTRACT:  Character education is a specific approach to morals or values education, which is consistently linked with citizenship education. But how is it possible for a heterogeneous society that disagrees about basic values to reach a consensus on what constitutes character education? This article explores how character education has returned to the agenda of British education policy, having been largely neglected since the 1960s in response to unsatisfactory attempts at character education going back to the nineteenth century. Between 1979 and 1997 Conservative governments attempted to reverse a perceived decline in moral standards, established State control of the schools curriculum, imposed on State schools the duty to provide for moral and other development, and established a National Forum which attempted to articulate a set of consensus values in education. Labour has extended these developments in the curriculum, introduced compulsory citizenship education, and its White Paper of September 2001 speaks of 'education with character'. The character and virtues Labour seeks to promote through schools are pragmatic and instrumental in intention, linked to raising pupil school performance, meeting the needs of the new economy, and promoting democratic participation. Otherwise the vision is pluralistic and evades explicit directives, and there is no explanation or analysis of its theoretical basis.
  The question of how agreement can be reached on what counts as character education may benefit from Sunstein's analysis of how law is possible in a heterogeneous society –'incompletely theorized agreements on particular cases' allow for common laws without agreement on fundamental principles. Many schools in fact operate in this way, but such a consensus is not entirely stable and runs the danger of teaching character education as a series of behaviour outcomes taught in a behaviourist fashion.     

THE PEDAGOGY OF TECHNICAL HIGHER EDUCATION: ITS POSSIBILITIES AND LIMITS

The improvement of teaching and learning in university‐level education is of interest as well as importance to all concerned with problems in this domain. The following article, which analyses this issue in the context of technical higher education, was written for “Higher Education in Europe” by Professor Gheorghe Buzdugan, Head of the Department of the Strength of Materials, Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. Professor Buzdugan is also a Member of the CEPES Advisory Committee.