The higher education dilemma in developing countries: Thailand's two decades of reform

Many developing countries are faced with the dilemma of whether to expand their higher education systems rapidly, in the face of demand and regardless of the social and employment consequences, or whether to curtail enrolments by some means of cut off or selection at the end of secondary school. This article discusses the dilemma in the context of Thailand. It discusses a variety of higher education models in use in the Third World countries and then shows how Thailand has modified its closed-access European-style universities through expansion and diversification in the 1960s and how it has experimented with open-access institutions during the 1970s. There have undoubtedly been problems but the experiment has eased some of the social pressures and tensions and it remains to be seen if the government can control an ever expanding pool of university students. Other countries faced with a similar dilemma could well learn from the Thai experience.     

New educational technologies: Their impact on relationships of dependence and interdependence for Third World countries

The widening gap between North and South is more than economic: it is a knowledge and power gap. The influence of the present information revolution on education in the West, unprecedented in its rate and scope of expansion, is increasing the information gap at an alarming rate. Should Third World countries use new educational technologies (NET) as a tool for development? Can they afford it? Will borrowing NET perpetuate the present dependency of the Third World? This paper argues that Third World countries will continue to be technologically dependent because of research and development in the West. The solution lies in the balance of power theory — selective transfer of NET appropriate for their level of development, to strengthen their bargaining position. Mass education and the development of indigenous technological capacity are implied. Bargaining capacity would reduce dependency, create greater interdependence and change the equation of power.     

The effects of armed conflict on schooling in Sub-Saharan Africa

In the past decades, most of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by armed conflicts. By means of a time-series cross-sectional (TSCS) database, we attempt to measure the impact of war on a sample of 43 countries in Africa from 1950 to 2010. These conflicts, and especially civil wars, are shown to have a strong negative effect on the educational performances of the countries studied. The rate of children not attending school, as well as secondary school enrollment rates, seems particularly sensitive to periods of conflict. It also appears that government expenditures in social sectors including education are a positive factor in increasing school enrollment. In contrast, military expenditure is significantly and inversely related to schooling opportunities. Thus, if an extra 1% only of the GDP were allocated to education expenditure, the rate of children not attending school would decrease by 1.7%, the primary and secondary completion rates would increase respectively by 4.4% and by 2.6%. The gender analysis shows that education expenditures provide a better retention of girls in the school system.     

Limits to vocationally-oriented education in the third world

With reference to selected Third World countries, the paper generalizes, within a broad analytical framework, the underlying reasons for the formulation of policies and practices to abate the growing problem of the ‘educated’ unemployed through the initiation of vocationally-oriented educational programmes. It outlines the main reasons why the implementation of vocationally-oriented educational strategies did not converge with and reinforce other related employment initiatives to achieve their intended goals. Discussion is then focussed on why there is a mismatch between educational training and work, which has given legitimate grounds to many Third World countries to question whether the assumptions that underlie vocationally-oriented education are a ‘fallacy’. In conclusion, an alternative educational strategy is suggested. This strategy not only outlines how it may be possible to interface education and work, but also how greater efficiency and equity can be brought about in this relationship.     

数字教育电视节目的设计与传播策略分析——借鉴韩国电视剧的成功经验

数字教育电视节目作为一种有效的现代教学手段,在现代教育和培训中发挥着重要的作用。首先对教育电视节目的类型作出了划分,接着借鉴韩国电视剧的成功经验,并将其与国内的教育电视节目作比较分析,提出教育电视节目的设计策略,最后提出传播策略,以期为国内数字教育电视的发展提供有益借鉴。     

The costs of secondary schooling in developing countries; patterns and prospects

This research is concerned with the problems that may arise in paying for the costs of secondary school places in developing countries, which have experienced a rapid increase in primary school enrolments since the World Conference on Education for All at Jomtien. Many, but not all, of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Case studies are being conducted six African and Asian countries. The basic argument is that cost structures, which may have been appropriate for systems that had low gross enrolment ratios and modest transition rates from primary to secondary are unlikely to be sustainable as enrolments become universalised. The challenge is to identify opportunities to expand quality secondary schooling to meet new needs while reducing costs to levels which can be afforded. Access to and quality of secondary schooling is likely to dominate the educational planning agenda in many developing countries in the early part of the twenty-first century.     

Television and Secondary School Children

Abstract

The way in which children judge the general output of television, and the way in which it affects them, should be prime factors in considering programming for educational television, particularly in areas where educational television is still in its infancy, asin the Third World.

Dr Collin's article looks at the effects TV can have on young people, and considers the general programme output. From survey results he draws important lessons about these effects and how, for young people, the world of television translates into real life.     

Jamaica's work-experience programme

Conclusion This article has sought to highlight a work-experience programme in a Third World country, pin-pointing the factors that militate against the achievement of its desired objectives. Among such factors are problems associated with curriculum organization at the secondary level, not least the negative attitudes that the society generally has towards a practical curriculum. Inadequate funding, largely due to governments aloofness, against a background of pressure on schools to become more selfreliant; wastage of human resources in relation to programme organization; and the lack of effective communication both within the school system and between the school and the community generally-all these are proving to be constraints on the achievement of objectives. Our discussion lends support to Sinclair's (1977) observation, referred to earlier, that Third World countries lack the institutional framework for conducting real-world assignments by pupils in factories and offices. Before curriculum innovations like the WEP can have the desired effects, Third World countries will not only have to deal constructively with negative attitudes and values in relation to practical and manual labour, but they will also have to find ways of initiating employment-generating strategies, so that students who have been prepared for the world of work will have the opportunity to enjoy the right to work. In Third World countries like Jamaica, which are caught in the grip of political and social strife exacerbated by a vicious economic squeeze, these are gulfs which seem too wide to breach at present.     

Determinants of Academic Success within Classrooms in Trinidad and Tobago: some personal and systemic variables

Within the context of expanding placements for secondary education and the call for improvement of quality within the educational systems of developing and developed countries, this paper considers who and (comparatively) how well students are succeeding in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The paper notes that there have been a limited number of studies in the Republic which provide information on opportunities for school success at the macro level of the school system. Additionally, there is much conflicting information published which explores factors determining success and failure in developing and developed countries; such factors include personal/biographical and systemic/school focused variables. There is also very little information concerning whether these variables have a similar effect at the micro/classroom level. In relating determinants of classroom level success to the expansion in quantity (and supposedly quality) of the educational system in Trinidad and Tobago, we question whether a greater opportunity for education actually results in a greater probability for all students to succeed. A proportional, stratified, random, clustered sample of 992 secondary school students (5% of the 2nd and 5th form population in half of the educational districts in Trinidad and Tobago) was selected for study. Information obtained for each student included systemic information (school attended, type of school, school size, education district, locality, managing authority, single‐sex or coeducational school, form level and class size) and personal information (sex of student, age, occupation of father and mother, religion and classroom based end‐of‐term test scores in each of the curriculum areas studied — with an average overall score). Analyses of the within‐class test scores showed that a large amount of variance was accounted for by the systemic and personal variables, and the most telling of the variables were the type of school attended and gender of the student. Students in traditional schools obtained higher scores in traditional curriculum areas than other students, and girls consistently gained the highest of the scores. Further analyses showed significant differences with reference to parental occupation, the size and locality of the school and school sexual make‐up. The results show a consistent bias to success of female students, from a middle class home, attending an urban traditional school, in all curriculum areas except social studies. Students attending government managed schools at the 5th form scored higher in social studies than those in traditional schools. The results confirm that the quantitative expansion of the secondary school system in Trinidad and Tobago did not expand in quality educational opportunity for all, except in the new curriculum area of social studies. Interpretations of the results relate to the existing literature on developed and developing countries and the particular situation in Trinidad and Tobago.     

Brauchen Jungen m?nnliche Vorbilder, um in der Schule erfolgreich zu sein?

Not just in Germany, but also in other countries of the western world, gender-specific educational success has changed within the last decades: Whereas boys showed higher educational achievements in the 1960s, today it is the girls who obtain higher educational certificates. A number of scholars have pointed to the absence of male role models in boys?? social environment (family and school) as a reason for their worsening school performance. In this article, we use data from the German Micro-census 2008 to analyze the following question: Does it make a difference for boys?? and girls?? transition to academic track secondary school (Gymnasium) whether they grow up in a nuclear family or with single-mothers or single-fathers? The results of the analyses yield no evidence for the claim that the absence of fathers in the family has a negative impact on boys?? performance at school.     

Fighting for social democracy: R.H. Tawney and educational reconstruction in the Second World War

R.H. Tawney (1880–1962), a leading English economic historian and prominent socialist, was vigorously involved in educational reconstruction during the Second World War. For Tawney, the war was a war for social democracy. His ideals of social democracy formed a basis for his case for Public (independent) School reform and free secondary education for all. Despite this, the connection between Tawney’s ideals and his perspectives on educational issues has not been addressed fully by historians and thus there has been a lack of a proper explanation for his often criticised sympathy for the public schools and his indifference towards the multilateral school. Hence, this paper aims to re-examine the link between them in greater depth. It concludes that, according to Tawney’s ideals of social democracy, the abolition of the public schools was not necessary for the establishment of a democratic educational system. Moreover, Tawney did not launch an attack on the tripartite system proposed by the Norwood Report of 1943 since it was not against his ideal of equality as long as different secondary schools were equal in quality and status. Equality, he believed, must be advanced through the raising of the school leaving age to 16 and the abolition of fees in all secondary schools. Thus, he laid more emphasis on the school leaving age and tuition fees than on the multilateral school. In brief, on various issues pertaining to secondary education, Tawney’s opinions and actions were deeply grounded in his distinctive ideals of social democracy.     

THIRD AGE EDUCATION: QUESTIONS THAT NEED ASKING

In many respects the third age is newly discovered territory, and it is therefore instructive to ask whether our understanding of the problems posed for education in the later years can in any way be aided by current developments in thinking about education in the Third World. In this paper the author, who brings to educational gerontology the experience of several years of specializing in education in developing countries, asserts that there are indeed intriguing and illuminating parallels to be drawn. In particular, education for the third age calls into question the social and economic imperialism of established patterns of formal education, while recent Third World examples of alternative development values suggest ways in which the educational contribution of the later years can be given the recognition that is not only its due but also its responsibility.     

Television Image Degradation and its Impact on Learning

An experiment in which four qualities of screen image from the same educational television programme were presented to randomised groups of school sixth‐form students is described. Picture quality was found to influence significantly short‐term recall of factual visual information from the programme, a matter having implications for broadcast standards and capital investment in ETV. Subsidiary findings regarding performance differences on visual recall tests according to sex and sixth‐form subjects studied are also reported.     

Using computer-assisted instruction to enhance achievement of English language learners

Computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in English-Language environments offer practice time, motivates students, enhance student learning, increase authentic materials that students can study, and has the potential to encourage teamwork between students. The findings from this particular study suggested that students who used computer assisted program had a greater chance of closing achievement gap and meeting NCLB requirements than those students who did not use computer-assisted instruction. Additionally, the students that used computer-assisted classroom instruction gained scores in reading and math. Based on these findings, teachers, school administrators, and other educational stakeholder should explore strategies for technology integration to close the achievement gap.     

Predictors of teachers’ use of ICT in school – the relevance of school characteristics,teachers’ attitudes and teacher collaboration

This paper is based on the research question of what predictors (school characteristics, teachers’ attitudes, teacher collaboration and background characteristics) determine secondary school teachers’ frequency of computer use in class. The use of new technologies by secondary school teachers for educational purposes is an important factor regarding school and teaching processes. The use of digital media in schools is, among other things, associated with the goal of supporting learning processes and improving the quality of education. This contribution identifies relevant factors by means of multiple regression analyses of the teachers’ frequency of computer use for instruction in five countries (the Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Poland and Germany) to get an idea of how to support the frequency of the use of computers in class. The analyses and findings are based on the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) study of International Computer and Information Literacy Study 2013 (ICILS), which investigates the computer and information literacy (CIL) of secondary school students and the contexts in which students develop CIL in 21 countries. Antecedents concerning school characteristics, teachers’ attitudes and teacher collaboration on the process level and background characteristics of secondary school teachers (N = 8.920) are examined in order to gain further insight into the nature and effect of predictors for secondary school teachers’ in-class use of information and communications technology. The analyses show that there are more country-specific results than similarities between the countries selected. In all countries, antecedents concerning teachers’ attitudes are more relevant for teachers’ in-class use of computers than school characteristics or teacher collaboration on the process level.     

Development of CAI Presentations for Science Teaching and Overview of Research Findings

Research suggests that information and communication technologies (ICT) used in the form of computer assisted instruction (CAI) may benefit student learning. There is, however, limited research about the application of CAI in non-Western educational contexts. Here I describe the use of CAI in the learning of science in India. Evaluation of student learning by quantitative and qualitative means suggests that CAI has led to enhanced learning for a variety of science topics in this educational setting. I also reflect on issues germane to the Indian context and provide guidelines for the use of CAI in science instruction in countries for which ICT facilities in schools are somewhat compromised.     

Factors that Influence the Use and Impact of Educational Television in School

The main arguments in this article were presented in a paper at a European Broadcasting Union (EBU) seminar on research into educational television. It focuses on factors that influence the use and impact of educational television in school, drawn from an overview of international research on educational television, mainly in the eighties. The critical factors influencing the use and impact of educational television in schools are described as quantity and variety of educational television broadcasts available, easy access to equipment, regular transmission slots in the broadcast schedule with repeats, programme series, information, support material, relation to the curriculum, new demands, attitudes to educational television and teaching style and philosophy.     

International assistance to third world educational management training—A critical examination of alternative strategies

Recent years have seen an increase in international assistance to Third World educational management training. A range of strategies have been adopted by Third World governments and donor agencies to promote training improvement. The paper examines these strategies, drawing on the literature and the author's direct involvement in a U.K. funded research project concerned with developing materials for Third World Educational management training. The lessons from experiences are considered and an attempt is made to identify factors influencing the impact of alternative strategies, which may have implications for international assistance in this field. It is concluded that strategies can at best be catalytic and that a combination of integrated strategies focusing on all components of institutional and personnel development is most likely to contribute towards improvement. It is suggested that more flexible and innovative strategies could offer considerable potential and warrant greater attention by those concerned with educational management training development.     

Index Bibliographicus

This paper argues that the global communications revolution of the last twenty years has been mainly confined to the wealthy, urbanised and educated countries of the world, to the detriment of the development of education, culture and progress in the largely rural Third World. Advances in communications technology have, almost by definition, been confined to urban areas with developed infrastructures and a skilled and educated workforce. The global economy to which improved communications in all fields has given rise is largely concentrated in the densely populated highly urbanised OECD countries, from which corporate wealth and power exercise hegemony, particularly in the educational and cultural spheres. Neoliberalism, the ideology of globalisation, has fashioned a concept of education to suit the needs of Western industrial nations. Education is seen at the engine of the economy, propelling the curriculum in the direction of the utilitarian and the vocational, with an emphasis on science, mathematics, computer and business studies, and the promotion of the entrepreneurial spirit. Economic competition has led to a move away from input or process standards towards performance and outcome standards, with frequent testing and the listing of scores in tables, as measures of international comparison. Concomitantly, an urban based "Western" consumer culture, embracing pop music, Hollywood films, fast-food chains, branded soft drinks, "airport" novels, "infotainment", etc., is spreading to all parts of the world, threatening indigenous educational-cultural values in the largely rural Third World and developing countries. Globalisation, and the neoliberal educational programme and urban cultural values it espouses, would appear to offer little in the way of remedying the educational problems of these regions, which need, in the first place, a massive improvement in material resources - schools, equipment and facilities and textbooks, as well as other social service infrastructures. Globalisation has given rise to economic and social inequalities, particularly between north and south and seems unlikely, in the short term, to be able to correct them. In recent years, however, a worldwide anti-globalisation movement has sprung up, and demonstrations against international capital and its agencies - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organisation - are commonplace. Several grass-roots bodies opposed to specific aspects of the global project have also arisen, and the World Social Forum attempts to unite these movements on a programme for socio-economic justice and educational equity in opposition to the market-driven globalisation of international capital. This project would appear to offer hope for a more equitable future.     

计算机辅助体育教学探讨

计算机辅助教学(Computer Assisted Instruction缩略CAI)是现代信息技术应用于教育的核心内容和主要技术手段。CAI作为一种新的现代教学方法和手段，已广泛应用于教育教学的各个领域。然而，作为学校教育教学的重要组成部分的体育教学，无论是CAI在体育教学令的应用理论研究，还是在实践运用、软件开发与应用等方面都已相对滞后，不适应现代教学的需要。