Non‐formal education implementations in Turkey: issues and latest challenges

The aim of this article is to analyse the latest implementations and issues raised in Turkish non‐formal education from a historical perspective in Turkey. The high population rate and lack of adequate educational opportunities for adults and migration from rural areas to urban areas caused many educational, social and cultural problems in non‐formal education. For solving all the problems, Turkey followed the latest developments in the world about the aims and functions of non‐formal adult education and organised several different adult education programs in terms of integration to international bodies such as European Union and so forth. These programs aim to reach a wide range of people from rural and urban settings, the employees, employers, farmers, students, tradesmen, housewives, artisans and many others. The most important educational characteristic of this audience is that they are not regular students. The organisation way of non‐formal education differ from other developed countries in essence. In social terms, the non‐formal education for adults does not only provide professional and technical training; but also provides the learners with basic literacy and helps continue their educational life, contributes to preservation and improvement of national and cultural values, creates an awareness of citizenship and democratic thinking in Turkey.     

Higher education as a self‐guiding society

Abstract

Over the last two decades, there has been a significant change in the financing of higher education in the United States. A decrease in student and institutional support in real terms, tuition increases at all types of institutions, along with the view that students are the primary beneficiaries of higher education has resulted in policies that reduce the proportion of higher education costs borne by the federal and state governments. This paper will describe this financing shift in the United States, and analyse its impact on college participation with a particular focus on equity and opportunity. It will also provide an analysis of some questions that European countries should address as they implement their own policies that shift the burden of paying for college from the government to individuals, and as they consider various forms of financial assistance to help students pay for college.     

Regional solidarity undermined? Higher education developments in the Arabian gulf,economy and time

ABSTRACT

The paper theorises fragility of regional solidarities in light of the emerging ways in which two Arabian Gulf states, Bahrain and Oman, are undertaking their transition to a knowledge economy. The paper shows ways in which regional symbolic solidarity goals of common economic and educational development in the Gulf region are challenged by locally focussed priorities at the level of each nation state. These findings carry important theoretical implications as the time of transition to a knowledge economy seems to drive readjustments in thinking about what the ‘Gulf-wide unity is for’, prompting its repositioning from an alliance established to protect and facilitate regional development to a means supporting local ends. The paper therefore challenges the spatial focus in some theoretical frameworks used in analyses of the sociology of regional solidarities and calls for the need of temporal lenses in such analyses.     

Breaking Fresh Ground: Regional Co‐operation in Higher Education

One of the most recent European developments in the internationalization of higher education is the stimulation of regional co‐operation among institutions. In the so‐called border countries policy, Flanders, The Netherlands, and the German Länder of North‐Rhine Westphalia, Bremen, and Lower Saxony are collaborating in different ways to establish an “open higher education space”. Within the framework of this border countries policy, various initiatives have been taken in order to support co‐operation among higher education institutions from the countries involved. Amongst other things, research was undertaken in order to gain insight into the differences and similarities of the programmes offered in the five countries. In addition, the Ministries of Education of the participating countries have begun to allocate funds to institutions that have taken co‐operation initiatives that coincide with the policies of the countries concerned. These two aspects of the border countries policy will be discussed in this article.     

Teacher education in the generative virtual classroom: developing learning theories through a web‐delivered,technology‐and‐science education context

This paper reports the use of a research‐based, web‐delivered, technology‐and‐science education context (the Generative Virtual Classroom) in which student‐teachers can develop their ability to recognize, describe, analyse and theorize learning. Addressing well‐recognized concerns about narrowly conceived, anachronistic and ineffective technology‐and‐science education, this e‐learning environment aims to use advanced technologies for learning, to bring about larger scale improvement in classroom practice than has so far been effected by direct intervention through teacher education. Student‐teachers' short, intensive engagement with the Generative Virtual Classroom during their practice teaching is examined. Findings affirm the worth of this research‐based e‐learning system for teacher education and the power of a biologically based, generative theory to make sense of the learning that occurred.     

Higher education in further education: delivering higher education in a further education context—a study of five South West colleges

This paper comprises a summary of research into the teaching of higher education (HE) courses in further education (FE) learning environments. A comprehensive study of college management and teaching staff attitudes together with teaching practices, pedagogy and research was carried out with six partner colleges of the University of Plymouth where a substantial amount of HE teaching was delivered. A questionnaire was developed, piloted and distributed to all staff teaching HE in the colleges, with a similar but separate questionnaire being used for management. Five colleges responded. We present data relating to the differences in teaching practice and pedagogy between FE and HE teaching and the problems of realizing these in FE learning environments. We also look at the ways in which independent study and critical reflection among learners are developed. The questions of research and scholarly activity and their relevance to HE teaching are addressed. Considerable challenges are faced by staff teaching mainly FE courses, on standard FE teaching contracts, being expected to deliver HE courses effectively. We also consider the challenges of delivering ‘a real HE experience’ in FE environments and those involved with going on to university afterwards.     

Practice in planning and planning in practice: re‐assessing and clarifying action research in a multi‐national context

This paper responds to a call seeking presenters for an action‐research event for elementary‐school science teachers in Venezuela. The authors planned on the assumption that the participants would wish to leave with plans for introducing action‐research approaches into their practice. In previous writing on action research, the various protocols for action‐research planning and practice emphasize norms and regularities rather more than their opposites. This paper shows, however, that planning is transformed by multiple views of teaching and learning to create a multi‐level, multi‐faceted event within a particular context. The activity of planning parallels the pedagogy enacted in the event. The interactions of presenters and participants, of their purposes and actions, create the complex reality that is action research, where the learning and the events are often asynchronous.     

Demographic differences in changing pre‐service teachers’ attitudes,sentiments and concerns about inclusive education

The preparation of teachers for regular schools has clearly needed to undergo quite significant change in recent years. One major adjustment has been the necessity to prepare teachers for progressively more diverse student populations as they will increasingly be required to teach in inclusive classrooms. Many teacher education institutions are, therefore, offering units of work that aim to tackle this. Utilizing an international data set of 603 pre‐service teachers, consideration is given to the effect of a range of demographic differences on changing pre‐service teacher attitudes toward inclusion; sentiments towards people with a disability and in reducing their concerns about inclusion when involved in a focused unit of work. Pre‐ and post‐training comparisons are made which identify a range of variables that impact on changing pre‐service teacher perceptions about inclusion. The discussion focuses on the importance of differentiating teacher preparation courses to address these different needs of pre‐service teachers.     

Issues in science education: problem‐solving,creativity and originality

In this paper the author explores the concept of problem‐solving as generally employed in the science education literature and suggests that a useful distinction can be drawn between puzzles, for which solutions are known or assumed to exist, and problems, for which no solution may be possible. The ability to recognize a problem, it is suggested, is possibly more important than its solution and this is dependent upon the experience, knowledge and interests of the individual. Successful encountering of problems and puzzles and the relationship of this activity to originality and creativity is also discussed. It is proposed that both puzzle and problem‐solving activities are important to provide in school science but that too little attention is paid to real problem‐solving with the result that the specific skills required are not practised.     

A self‐study of a national curriculum maker in physical education: challenges to curriculum change

This paper captures a national curriculum maker’s experiences of revising the physical education curriculum in South Korea. A self‐study was conducted in order to make known the chairperson’s experiences concerning the various obstacles encountered in revising the national curriculum and to offer previously unseen insights afforded by the curriculum maker’s personal reflections. This study specifically offers a detailed analysis of four challenges the national curriculum maker encountered: (1) personal obstacles encountered as a young female chairperson, (2) environmental obstacles encountered as a marginally positioned chairperson, (3) professional obstacles faced as an innovative chairperson, and (4) institutionalized obstacles related to being named the official chairperson. In this self‐study conducted in the narrative inquiry tradition, several important findings emerge about the nature of curriculum making and how curriculum making transpires at a national level.     

Gifted,talented and high ability: selection for education in a one‐dimensional world

This article attempts to explain why it is that in England, despite twentieth‐century moves towards egalitarianism in education, the selection and segregation of those regarded as being gifted, talented, or of higher ability in better resourced schools and programmes is now increasingly acceptable. Explanations for moves away from attempts to offer a common curriculum in equally well‐resourced comprehensive schools centre round the hegemonic view that in a world of global economic competitiveness, national economies need to nurture high levels of knowledge and skills. Unsurprisingly, selective policies benefit the upper socio‐economic groups with some concessions made to selecting out the able poor. The latest set of selective policies adopted by the English government centre round programmes for the ‘Gifted and Talented’. The article uses work from the Frankfurt school of critical theorists, notably Herbert Marcuse’s notion of ‘One‐Dimensional Man’ to suggest that there is an irrational one‐dimensional view of the world economy which leads to a competitive scramble to acquire élite qualifications, abandoning notions of equality and meritocracy, and deploying ruthless strategies which require economic, cultural and social capital. Parents and students in this one‐dimensional world are subject to a permanent oppressive educational competition. The article concludes that many middle‐class parents may come to feel dispossessed as promises held out for education and employment fail to materialise, and success in a competitive global economy proves to be a one‐dimensional mirage.     

Characteristics,issues, and future directions in Chinese multicultural education: a review of selected research 2000–2018

Asia Pacific Education Review - Multicultural education has aroused extensive international attention and has been promoted by a large body of advocates due to its significance for the achievement...     

Riding over socialism and global capitalism: changing education governance and social policy paradigms in post‐Mao China

In coping with the challenges of globalization, various reform measures, in the field of social policy, have been initiated in post‐Mao China. Strategies such as privatization, marketization, commodification and societalization have been adopted to redefine the relationship between the state, the market and other non‐state sectors involved in social policy provision and financing. In particular, the restructuring of state‐owned enterprises and the de‐monopolization of the state in social policy provision has inevitably led to significant changes in the post‐Mao welfare regime. This article has chosen a theme ‘riding over socialism and global capitalism’ to examine how the Chinese government reinvents its social policy delivery by adopting new governance strategies to cope with the growing impacts of globalization. With particular reference to higher education, this article focuses on how the three major aspects of higher education governance, namely, provision, financing and regulation, have changed since the economic reform started in the late 1970s. This article concludes by asking whether the introduction of new governance strategies and new reform strategies in education have weakened the state capacity.     

Further education in England: at the crossroads between a national,competitive sector and a locally collaborative system?

ABSTRACT

During the 25 years since Incorporation, when further education (FE) colleges were taken out of local government control, FE in England has been shaped by processes of marketisation to become a competitive national sector that has increasingly diverged from the more ‘collaborative system logic’ of the other three countries of the UK. However, following recent government reforms, FE in England appears to have reached a crossroads with the opportunity to participate in a more collaborative skills-based landscape at the local and sub-regional levels. This article brings together evidence from historical and international comparative system analysis, a series of UK-wide seminars and in-depth research on the Area-Based Review of FE colleges to assess the strategic direction of FE in England at this critical juncture. We argue that English FE providers can take advantage of these trends to make a transition from a reactive, competitive national sector towards a more collaborative, regional and sub-regional system focused on inclusive economic and skills development. The article concludes that the potential for cross-UK policy learning depends on whether FE in England gradually transitions towards a more collaborative future that could bring it closer to FE and skills systems in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.     

Premature closure and guided reinvention: a case study in a web‐based learning environment

Just as linguistic errors have provided insights into the nature of linguistic competence(s), detailed analyses of blind spots or marked trajectories in the reflection cycles of novice teachers may provide a window on their underlying beliefs, and thus on relevant zones of proximal development. In this paper we analyse a case study in an experimental web‐based learning environment in which a novice teacher demonstrably just reproduces the assumptions she started out with rather than re‐inspecting them. Having located a problem of motivation uniquely inside the learners’ heads, she pointedly ignores hints in the feedback that her own verbal and nonverbal behaviour in the classroom might be a relevant domain of enquiry. Our findings show the need for structural interventions within a priori hypothesized, linearly ordered, stages in reflection models. We report on two small‐scale experiments that implement suggested changes in the architecture of the web site which yield more context‐sensitive ways of scaffolding reflection. In conclusion we argue that detailed discursive accounts of successful and less successful reflection trajectories are needed to refine and further develop models in teacher thinking.     

The adjustment of national education systems to a knowledge‐based economy: a new approach

In his article ‘Globalisation, the Learning Society, and Comparative Education’, Peter Jarvis recommends lifelong learning in the period of globalisation as a topic ripe for scholarly research. In particular, he argues for the examination of the extent of lifelong learning around the world and its relation to different levels of employment. This article contributes to this line of inquiry by analysing how education policies facilitate adjustment to economic change and examining how advanced industrialised countries (AICs) compare in their promotion. Principal component analysis is used to construct indices for education systems that reflect these two objectives, and the results reveal considerable cross‐national variation. The Nordic countries appear well‐positioned to cope with changed skill needs. A closer look at the cases of Denmark and Italy portrays how a national education system can facilitate or hinder adaptation, respectively.