Benefits of an Ed.D. program in deaf education: a survey

Ten graduates and 3 ABD (all but dissertation) students in Lamar University's doctoral program in deaf studies/deaf education were surveyed about their perceptions of the benefits of earning a doctorate of education (Ed.D.) in their field. The program comprised course work on current content information on deaf education, an educational research component, a cognate area, and electives. As part of the program, researchers and scholars in areas related to deaf education were invited to campus to consult with doctoral students. Graduates found jobs at universities, community colleges, and departments of special education. Graduates ranked program components on the basis of perceived value; they rank-ordered the courses on the basis of their value to them in their current work. Graduates also commented on how the program enhanced their professional growth.     

Educational generations and the futures of adult education: a Nordic experience

In this study of the meanings of education and learning in people's lives, educational generations in Finland were investigated. The analysis is based on Karl Mannheim's concept and theory of social generation. This approach resulted in the differentiation of four educational cohorts living in contemporary Finnish society, three of which provided distinct core life experiences and educational experiences for analysis. These are: the war generation with scant education (born before 1935); the generation of structural change with growing educational opportunities (born 1936–55) and the welfare generation with many educational choices (born after 1955). This article, reviews the characteristics of these generations, and analyses the dynamics of their educational courses and experiences. It is concluded that their core experiences of education can be summarized in two basic narratives: the narrative of national culture and that of economic structural change. Finally, it is argued that such generational change reflects the more general rationalization of Western culture and society. Based on this argumentation, the future of adult education based on the application of Weberian social theory and its conceptions of material and formal rationality are considered.     

An evaluation of an alternative placement experience for students undertaking primary initial teacher training

This study is an analysis of the impact on students of their experience of an alternative placement. The placement was run with Year 2 students on a three-year undergraduate initial teacher education degree programme (primary, 3–11) in England. The placement enabled students to have a practical teaching experience in any setting outside the age phase they were training to teach. The analysis is based on a cohort evaluation of the placement (170 students). Data were collected in two ways: through students’ written reflections and their identification of the standards required for Qualified Teacher Status that they experienced. This approach was selected owing to the strong expectations by the UK Government to meet set criteria to qualify as a teacher. There is one direct reference in the standards to learning outside the classroom, but it was found that the students considered they had benefited from the alternative placement by offering opportunities for their professional and personal development in many more areas. The research study found that these areas included learning from other experts, working with colleagues, gaining confidence to teach, experiencing other cultural settings, working with children in informal settings, the importance of personalising learning and, in some cases, experiencing second language teaching.     

Distance education: relationship between academic performance and technology-adept adult students

Advances in technology assisted education are revolutionizing the educational process as most know it today. What impact, if any, does technology-assisted education have on the future of higher education? In this study, we examine data from an ongoing evaluation of the distance education program for graduate level business students in a private university. The study addresses the impact of technology-assisted learning on academic performance among distance learners and their on-campus counterparts. The study further explores the relationship between academic performance and students' technological adeptability. The findings indicate, when adjusted for gender (females out-performed males), there were no significant differences in academic performance between distance learners and their on-campus counterparts. Analysis also shows no significant differences in overall academic performance between technology-adept students and those without technological skills. These findings may remove at least some perceived barriers in the decision to initiate distance education programs.     

Marketisation of adult education: principals as business leaders,standardised teachers and responsibilised students

The marketisation of education is a global phenomenon and has attracted increased interest during the last three decades, not least in terms of research on school choice and its consequences. However, while much research has been conducted on the marketisation of schooling, less attention has been directed at adult education. In this paper, focus is directed at institutional logics and institutional responses to the process of marketisation of adult education. More specifically, we focus on how a procurement system, implemented in order to create competition and to increase quality in adult education, influences how students construe themselves, as well as the way principals and teachers work. Our results indicate that teachers emerge as the main source of resistance towards an institutional logic emerging in the wake of marketisation, while principals and students to a large extent conform to the emerging institutional demands.     

如何提高成人教育学员学习积极性

本文主要目的是通过研究怎样提高成人教育学院学员学习积极性来研究如何才能在全国大力提倡终身教育背景下提高我国成人教育的整体水平的。本文从多个方面:面授教师的择优选择,多媒体教学,学习方法传授,班主任的选择,教学管理的改革,互动式教学的积极推行,网络自学课程的学习等,提出了提高成人教育学员积极性的建议和具体措施。     

Cooperative learning in latin America: A perspective from the alternative education experience

Alternative education experiences in Latin America which have been inspired by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's ideas are analyzed in the light of cooperative learning. Critical awareness and process-centered education are compared to values inherent in cooperative learning. Cooperative learning in Latin America is studied from the viewpoint of community and alternative projects.     

Artistic creativity across the adult life span: An alternative approach

Conclusion The foregoing discussion attempts to present a preliminary exploration of the relationship between selected aspects of creative activity and life span developmental processes. It proposes some degree of synchronism between the maturational needs of the creative individual and both the forms of expression available to the artist through his/her selected artistic idiom and the predominant art ideology (or ideologies) of his/her cultural milieu. I believe this synchronism is necessary for the maintenance of creative effectiveness during certain definable life transitions, such as the approach to midlife, to which I refer in some detail in the discussion of Wordsworth's Immortality Ode and, more briefly, in the case of other distinguished Romantic and Victorian authors.As this has been an initial exploration, the developmental linkages proposed are, by nature, quite broadly conceived. It will take substantial effort to elaborate these claims, but the effort should be weighed against the opportunity of eventually being able to formulate a coherent, albeit tentative, theoretical model of artistic creativity in the life cycle. For this to be made plausible, other life stages and transitions should be approached in the same comparative manner, investigating the developmental significance of certain established thematic and structural recurrences in the works of, for example, elderly artists. While practically every art historian or biographer mentions the artist's later works in relation to earlier ones, a direct, systematic exploration of the subject has rarely been attempted. The tendency for art critics to overemphasize the formal analysis of isolated works of art and the reluctance of experimental psychologists to develop qualitative methods of creativity assessment have combined so far to arrest the evolution of appropriate paradigms for life span creativity research. It is my hope that this paper will make a modest contribution to changing this situation.     

浅论高校成人教育学生诚信教育与考风建设

在当前人们对教育越来越重视的大环境下,高校举办成人高等教育的自主权也逐渐增大,高校成人教育的发展呈上升趋势。同时,也存在一些不诚信现象,尤其是考试作弊现象严重。本文结合高校成人教育学生的实际,阐述加强诚信教育的重要意义以及主要做法,考试的重要性和考试作弊的危害性,探讨了新时期建设优良考风的具体措施。     

教育博士研究生教育的实践性及其强化

对国外教育博士发展历史,以及教育博士与哲学博士区别的研究,显示实践性是教育博士的显著特征。重视大学与工作场所和职业之间的联系,重视提升学生对职业实践问题的理论反思、研究能力与问题解决能力,是教育博士研究生培养的重要特色。通过问卷和访谈调查我国教育博士研究生培养状况,结果发现当前教育博士研究生在专业理论知识和研究方法教育上表现良好,但在科研实践能力和职业实践能力训练上比较薄弱,教育博士研究生培养表现出一定的学术化倾向。     

Professionalising Ph.D. education to enhance the quality of the student experience

Ph.D. student numbers have been increasing in Australia as has government interest in the economic and social outcomes of graduate education (Moses 1994, Cullen et al. 1994). Yet the position of Ph.D. students can still be seen as marginal within universities and the institutional organisation of Ph.D. education as problematic. This situation can be related to the highly individualistic nature of research and supervision which is both a barrier to and part of the argument against efforts to examine and discuss in general the processes of research training and supervisory interactions across disciplinary and departmental boundaries. This article positions all Ph.D. students, in all fields of study, as learners in a form of professional education -a perspective which offers a way out of this apparent dilemma. Drawing on data from a study reported in Cullen et al. (1994) the following topics are explored: Ph.D. students as learners of the knowledge and skill of the professional practice of research and scholarship; the role of the supervisor in assisting students to become independent practitioners; and the complementary professional role of student participation in the academic community. Implications for policy and practice to professionalise Ph.D. education and enhance the quality of the student experience are discussed.     

Degree credits,academic learning,and job mobility for adult students through field experience

This paper examines the adaptation of experimental learning modes to the situation of the working adult student who are an increasingly important group on many campuses. Just as the younger student can learn from job situations, so can the adult student. However, there are special situations or problems that are unique to this group. These are illustrated, and methods of designing learning objectives and student, reports are presented.     

谈成人高校学生的素质教育

本主要探讨了当前成人高等学校学生素质教育的内涵，成人大学生应具备的基本素质以及培养和提高其素质的方法和途径，以期增强学生的综合能力，促进成人教育质量的提高。     

The Ph.D. versus the Ed.D.: Time for a decision

In this study, U.S. institutions that offer doctoral programs in education were surveyed and institutional catalogues of the past decade were reviewed to determine trends regarding the Ph.D. versus the Ed.D. Results of the study showed that (a) there is no clear institutional movement toward one degree title or the other; (b) research universities are increasingly reluctant and comprehensive colleges and universities are increasingly likely to offer the Ed.D. as their only doctoral degree title, and (c) requirements for the two doctoral titles are remarkably similar, including competencies in research and statistics. Findings are discussed in relation to three common positions of those who favor the Ed.D. over the Ph.D.: (a) the professional school argument, (b) the unification argument, and (c) the autonomy argument. The article concludes with a call for increased national dialogue to strengthen the education profession by reducing confusion between its two doctoral degree titles.Russell T. Osguthorpe, Associate Dean of Brigham Young University's College of Education, has done research in special education, instructional design and technology, and teacher education. He is presently responsible for graduate programs, research, and technology in the College. Dr. Osguthorpe received his education at Brigham Young University. Mei Jiuan Wong, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Instructional Science, Brigham Young University, has done research on instructional design and technology and teacher education. She is currently completing her dissertation on decision making in instructional design.     

The pathways to higher education: lexical availability in adult candidate students and in young first-year students

In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of adult students in higher education courses, many of whom have returned to school after a break. Most of these students do not intend to continue their studies from the point where they stopped; rather, they want to prepare for specific tests in order to have direct access to higher education courses, which in Portugal is a legal option for students over the age of 23. In response to this new cohort, higher education institutions need to find out what kind of students these are, determining their characteristics, capabilities and major problems, if they are to provide them with successful learning opportunities alongside younger students. This article presents a comparative study of lexical competence, focusing on lexical availability, contrasting those adult applicants to higher education who are attending a course preparatory to higher education with first-year students who have just entered higher education. The results show significant differences between the two groups, the adult group in general showing poorer results. Their withdrawal from schooling is clearly reflected in their vocabulary activation with regard to transversal themes. The most salient contrasts are related to the number of words mentioned and the frequency of words in the group, as well as the greater or lesser proximity to the topic of the terms mentioned.     

The place of theory: locating the New Zealand ‘education’ Ph.D. experience, 1948–1998

The year 1998 marked 50 years of doctoral study in New Zealand, and in 1999 I embarked on a history of Ph.D. theses in Education. Influenced by Foucaultian genealogy, this employed a fusion of bibliographic, archival and life‐history interview methods. One hundred and eighty‐three Education theses were identified and 57 of these graduates interviewed. How has New Zealand’s ‘corpus’ of Education Ph.D. thesis production been enabled and constrained by its temporal/spatial location? To address this, I draw on geographical debates on ‘space’ and ‘place’. The first part contextualises thesis topics, theories and methods in discourses of international scholarship, New Zealand politics and social change. The second part narrates a parallel history of the changing circumstances and sites of thesis production—biographical, domestic and institutional. It integrates students’ accounts of thesis work’s epistemological, methodological, spatial and technological dimensions to suggest a history of New Zealand doctoral candidates’ experience.