‘Distance education’ and ‘e-learning’: Not the same thing

This article examines the distinct differences between ‘distance education’ and ‘e-learning’ in higher education settings. Since the emergence of the new information and communication technologies (ICT), many have related to them as the new generation of distance education, and some have referred to their implementation in academia as challenging the very existence of campus-based universities. Many policy makers, scholars and practitioners in higher education use these two terms interchangeably as synonyms. But the fact is that distance education in most higher education systems is not delivered through the new electronic media, and vice versa – e-learning in most universities and colleges all over the world is not used for distance education purposes. ‘Distance education’ and ‘e-learning’ do overlap in some cases, but are by no means identical. The lack of distinction between ‘e-learning’ and ‘distance education’ accounts for much of the misunderstanding of the ICT roles in higher education, and for the wide gap between the rhetoric in the literature describing the future sweeping effects of the ICT on educational environments and their actual implementation. The article examines the erroneous assumptions on which many exaggerated predictions as to the future impact of the ICT were based upon, and it concludes with highlighting the future trends of ‘distance education’ and ‘e-learning’ in academia.     

Two is the Beginning of the End: Peter Pan and the Doctrine of Reminiscence

This article considers J.M. Barrie’s satirical treatment of the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence in Peter Pan, and how Barrie’s work both honors and undercuts it. It will first analyze the Platonic notion of the doctrine of reminiscence in Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1807). It will then show its influence on Victorian literature in the depiction of the exalted perception and moral purity of children, and how Barrie satirizes these ideals by underscoring the ignorance and savage qualities of the children in Peter Pan. The essay will also explore the portrayal of the Eden of childhood in Wordsworth’s poem (as influenced by Plato), and how Barrie subverts this utopia by presenting a dystopic world where Darwinian principles rule. Like Darwin, Barrie argues for a natural rather than a divine origin of species and demonstrates the struggle for existence in a profoundly disturbing way. Finally, the essay will contemplate the subject of immortality and how, far from being an idealized condition as in Wordsworth’s poetry, it is a far more ambivalent state in Peter Pan.

Social science, social relevance and the politics of educational development

This article raises some broad questions about the relevance of the current content and teaching methods in undergraduate social science generally. First, it examines critically the general teaching patterns which often stress the teaching of concepts, theory, history and techniques in isolation from current or historical problems. It next argues that our major methods of teaching—notably the lecture—contribute little to achieving the widely advertised pedagogic objectives of independent, critical thinking by students. Thirdly, it argues that we need to inject more relevance into the content of social science courses by shifting the emphasis towards a greater use of contemporary or historical problems or incidents as the starting point for the appreciation of theory and methods. It suggests that the teaching methods best suited to this are the various versions of the ‘case’ or ‘enquiry’ or ‘problem’ approach, which involve a more active participation by students in the process of learning, rather than their current passive role as consumers of teaching. Some illustrations of how this can be done are given. The article concludes by indicating some of the problems which are likely to be encountered in educational development of this kind. These problems are considered to be ‘political’ ones in that they involve a changed use and distribution of resources (of staff, students, times and buildings), which are likely to run counter to current systems of academic and institutional power, social organization, culture and ideology.     

Issues of relevance in Kenyan mathematics and science curricula

Are ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Science’ such universal notions that one curriculum can serve equally well in all societies, subject only to exemplification from local circumstances? Or do different human cultures construct and use ‘Mathematics’ and ‘Science’ so differently that each culture needs to construct its own curriculum to teach its own children? At issue is whether curricula developed in industrialised states can be readily transferred or adapted to developing countries.Taking as its starting point the fates of the Scools Mathematics and the Schools Science Projects in Kenya, — both adaptations of British models, — this paper reviews the research addressed to these questions. Its conclusion is that definitive answers are not yet possible. Nevertheless, what evidence there is seems to question the possibilities of transferability or even of simple adaptation.     

Secular and Koranic literacies in South Asia: From colonisation to contemporary practice

This paper explores the distinction between ‘secular’ and ‘Koranic’ schooling and literacy in South Asia. It begins by tracing an archaeology of the distinction between secular ‘literacy’ and religious ‘illiteracy’. It locates the emergence of the distinction in the colonial census of the 19th century, in the development of ‘English’ education, and the responses within madrasa schools. The second part locates these debates and their on-going importance within a contemporary ethnographic setting. It examines the relevance of the distinction in relation to women's literacy practices. The paper argues that both secular and religious literacy practices are significant for women's status and well-being, and illustrates the centrality of religious reading and learning in Bangladesh. The paper challenges the conventional distinction between religious and secular schooling and literacy, noting their complementary and overlapping nature.     

The adolescent novel of ideas

Peter Hollindale first developed critical interests in children's literature during postgraduate teacher training at the University of Bristol, where he was taught by Margaret Meek. After teaching for several years in secondary schools he was appointed to the University of York, where he is senior lecturer in English and educational studies. He now teaches an undergraduate special paper on children's literature in the Department of English there. His bookChoosing Books for Children, a guide for parents, was published in 1974, and he has since written extensively on children's literature in academic and professional journals. His article “Ideology and the Children's Book,” which appeared inSignal 55, received the Children's Literature Association Prize for the best essay in the field of children's literature published in 1988. In recent years he has worked closely on J. M. Barrie. His edition of the “Peter Pan” prose texts was published by Oxford University Press in 1991, andPeter Pan and Other Plays appears from the same publisher in 1995. He is interested in reworkings and adaptations of classic children's texts for film and television, and his study of Steven Spielberg'sHook was published inSignal 72 in 1993. For Thimble Press he is currently completingSigns of Childness: A Short Philosophy of Children's Literature. He has contributed a number of articles toCLE, the most recent being “Westall's Kingdom” in the 1994 Autumn issue.     

School systems and social equity in western and communist countries: A historical-comparative appraisal

In outlining the problem of this article the author discusses the conceptual relationship between ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ with regard to educational opportunity and to their controversial interpretation in Western and Soviet sources. After a historical retrospective the analysis is focused on the clarification of ‘equality of educational opportunity’, its implementation in school systems and its differentiating definition by James S. Coleman. The recent development characterised by a turn from exaggerated optimism to disillusion is explained by actual events and trends as well as by reference to sociological and genetic works, published in Western and Communist countries.The outline of some essential obstacles to the realisation of equality of educational opportunity paves the way for concluding remarks in which possible ways of overcoming these obstacles (confined to the Western scene) are proposed. They are rooted in the thesis that ‘equality’ and ‘equity’ are less easy to define as objectives than reduction in unjustifiable deficiencies. Stress is laid on the thesis that the concept of equality of educational opportunity through education is in danger of being reduced to a programme of minimal knowledge and the tyranny of meritocratic examination systems, not of humane and individual personalities, potential good citizens. Admitting, therefore, that ‘equity’ deserves to be given priority over ‘equality’ the author concludes by emphasising that efforts to foster equity must not supersede the inclusion of reduction in inequality in educational programmes.     

The British response of higher education to changing educational perspectives

The primary purpose of this paper is to examine the objectives of higher education provision in Britain. The perspective of ‘educationists’ are compared with those of ‘economists’. In particular, the paper argues that the Department of Education and Science (DES) has moved substantially in the direction of the economists' approach to educational resource allocation. The paper also argues that the partticular characteristics of higher education (HE), where it is state-provided and free at the point of consumption, imbue it with the properties of a Niskanen-type bureau. This paper suggests that the current DES policy with its considerable implications for HE resource allocation can be rationalised in terms of the human capital approach and the problems of managing a bureau.“A professor was supposed to be a venerable kind of person, with snow-white whiskers reaching to his stomach. He was expected to moon around the campus oblivious of the world around him. If you nodded to him he failed to see you. Of money he knew nothing; of business far less. He was, as his trustees were proud to say of him, ‘a child’.On the other hand, he contained within him a reservoir of learning of such depth as to be practically bottomless. None of this learning was supposed to be of any material or commercial benefit to anybody. Its use was in saving the soul and enlarging the mind” (Leacock, 1922).     

The Holmes reports: perils and possibilities

There has not yet been an attempt to categorize or critique the substantial body of literature that has arisen around the Holmes Group’s three reports regarding the treatment of teaching and teacher education: Tomorrow’s Teachers (1986), Tomorrow’s Schools (1990) and Tomorrow’s Schools of Education (1995). This article represents an initial attempt to do so, as well as to discuss what impact, if any, the Holmes suggestions have had on current practice. This literature revolves around the themes of gender, professionalism, and epistemology—themes which have dominated discussions of American teacher education for at least 150 years. Criticism of the reports accuses the Holmes Group of covering over and even perpetuating dilemmas related to thee issues with politically calculating pseudo-solutions. Favorable responses to the Holmes reports generally claim that they ‘professionally’ empower teachers by showing increased respect for teachers’ ways of knowing and doing in the classroom.     

How to conduct research on the inherent moral significance of teaching: A phenomenological elaboration of the standard repertory grid application

George Kelly’s repertory grid application seems a promising method for researching the moral significance of teaching from a ‘life world’ perspective. However, we encountered several challenges employing the repertory grid in its standard form for an inquiry into the inherent moral significance of teachers’ everyday classroom interactions. In this article we will set out in detail how, on the basis of the standard repertory grid application, we developed a repertory interview method that can be used to collect data that could foster a thorough understanding of the inherent moral significance of teachers’ day-to-day classroom interactions.     

Socio-Cultural Analysis of Two Cases of Distance Learning in Secondary Education

Virtual Schooling for primary and secondary students is becoming increasingly common across the United States. Although distance education has typically been used to address the needs of adult U.S. learners, its use with schoolchildren has been limited. The rapid development and diffusion of ICT has prompted advances in the use of distance education to serve these students educational needs—particularly those in remote rural settings. In this paper we analyse and contrast two case-studies that were gathered to inform researchers and practitioners of online schooling—a case in which two rural schools ‘coordinated’ the use of two-way interactive video to provide live synchronous learning, and a school ‘replacement’ model that provided an interactive online course for dispersed students with periodic live interactive synchronous learning sessions. Analysis drew on Cobb and his colleagues’ (2003) techniques to delineate communities of practice and Wenger’s (1998) work on boundary encounters, brokers, and boundary objects.     

A Glimpse Through the Magic Door: Ursula Moray Williams, Gobbolino and the Little Wooden Horse

The first full biography of Ursula Moray Williams has been published to mark the centenary of her birth. In this article, its author, Colin Davison, assesses her work in the context of her life, paying particular attention to the way that her extraordinary childhood influenced her writing. He also examines new evidence about where her ideas came from for some of her best-known works.     

Globalization and educational restructuring: University merging and changing governance in China

This article sets out in the context of globalization to identify, examine and discuss issues related to structural adjustment and educational restructuring in China, with particular reference to university merging and changes in higher education governance models. While it is basically an historical and documentary analysis of policy change in Chinese higher education, this article focuses on restructuring strategies that the Chinese government has adopted to make its university systems more competitive and efficient in the global market context. University merging in China should not be simply understood as a pure higher education reform but rather a fundamental change in higher education governance model from an ‘interventionist state model’ to an ‘accelerationist state model’. Rather than globalization bringing about the decline of the nation state, this article shows transformations taking place in Chinese universities may not necessarily diminish the capacity of the state but instead make the Chinese government a more activist state in certain aspects.     

Watching the Detectives: Mark Haddon’s <Emphasis Type="Italic">The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time</Emphasis> and Kevin Brooks’ <Emphasis Type="Italic">Martyn Pig</Emphasis>

Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was the cross-over publishing sensation of 2003. It has been the subject of widespread critical and commercial acclaim and has won prestigious UK prizes including the Whitbread Book of the Year and the Guardian’s Children’s Fiction Prize. It is still enjoying considerable commercial success in the best-seller lists. This essay reads Haddon’s novel alongside Kevin Brooks’ Martyn Pig (2002), winner of the Branford Boase Award and short-listed for the Clip Carnegie Medal. Brooks’ hero, Martyn has a troubled teenage life, and like Haddon’s Christopher, he turns to detective fiction in order to shape his own experience. The essay develops the idea that “every life is in search of a narrative” (Richard Kearney, On Stories, p. 4) and argues that detective fiction, in particular, provides structures that allow Brooks’ and Haddon’s first person narrators to make sense of their confusing worlds.Ruth Gilbert is senior lecturer in English at University College, Winchester, England. She has published on gender and sexuality in early modern literature. Recent research has focused on memory and identity in contemporary British Jewish fiction. This article stems from an ongoing interest in teenage and “cross-over” fiction and creative writing. She is currently writing a novel for teenagers.     

Research on education in the developing countries

Developing countries are in a major educational crisis. Educational opportunity has expanded but quality has been sacrificed. In some instances the quality of education has become so low that one might do well to question whether the costs of expansion do not outweigh the benefits. Research on education has not prepared the developing countries to meet the crisis at hand. The article mentions three examples—in pedagogy, in curriculum and in ‘deschooling’ theory—where educational research has not been helpful. On the other hand, the article points to several areas where there has been useful work, and where new work might make a substantial contribution in the years ahead.     

In search of “the vibe”: Creating effective international education partnerships

In common with universities in the United Kingdom, Canada and NewZealand, increasing numbers of Australian universities have established offshore education partnerships, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. More than one-third of international students currently enrolled in Australian university courses study at a campus in their home country or somewhere other than in Australia (IDP 2002). Suchpartnerships, also assumed under the rubric of ‘transnational education’ and ‘franchising’, add additional challenges, complexities and risks to the roles of international education managers and administrators. Using convergent interviews and case studies, this paper identifies and examines the critical success factors for the successful establishment and development of relationships between Australian universities and their international partners. Critical among these are the development of effective communication structures and frameworks, the building of mutual trust, and the encouragement and demonstration of commitment between relationship partners.     

Teaching in transition: Examining school-based gender inequities in central/southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union

In the last decade, gender equity has become one of the most prominent issues in education reform efforts worldwide. Yet, questions of gender equity have received very little attention in the education reform efforts in the post-socialist countries during the transition period. Focusing on the political, economic, and social changes of the 1990s, this article examines school-based gender equity as it is treated in textbooks, curriculum, teacher attitudes, school environment, leadership and tracking. The article presents gender-sensitive strategies for reform and explores how existing ‘gender-neutral’ education practices detrimentally affect gender equity in schools, providing country-specific examples. The article concludes with recommendations for teaching in transition, given the education sphere's strong potential to redress gender inequities.     

The Light-Velocity Postulate

Einstein, who had already developed the light-quantum theory, knew the inadequacy of Maxwell’s theory in the microscopic sphere. Therefore, in writing his paper on special relativity, he had to set up the light-velocity postulate independently of the relativity postulate in order to make the electromagnetic foundation of physics compatible with Planck’s radiation formula. This constitutes the essential difference between the theories of Lorentz-Poincaré and Einstein. The reason that students of the history of special relativity hitherto overlooked this fact lies in a crucial error contained in Einstein’s ‘Autobiographical Notes’. The correction, introduced first in the German edition of 1955, revealed that the first core ingredient of Einstein’s research program was ‘thermodynamics’. Einstein’s theory survived the quantum revolution, while Lorentz-Poincaré’s did not. Some educational implications are also discussed.     

Selectivity in Learning: A Theme in the Application of Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions to Education

This paper, which is particularly centered on the student’s learning process, is the first half of a detailed study of selectivity in Whitehead’s philosophy of education. Here, by setting forth the analogy between the creative process exhibited in Whitehead’s Theory of Prehensions and the learning process through an interpretation of the term, ‘prehending subject’ as ’learner,’ I argue that selectivity, via ‘negative prehensions,’ is the efficient motive power at work in the process of learning. Various concrete classroom examples of selectivity are alluded to, which lend support to this thesis. With clues from the Aims of Education, by reading the theory of prehensions with some conceptual modifications made for the purposes of education, I present the perspective that, as one side of a logical contrast, Whitehead’s theory of prehensions can be said to be conducive to a critical pedagogy.     

Practical Considerations When Using Benchmarking for Accountability in Higher Education

The qualitative study on which this article is based examined key individuals’ perceptions, both within a research university community and beyond in its external governing board, of how to improve benchmarking as an accountability method in higher education. Differing understanding of benchmarking revealed practical implications for using it as an accountability tool. A change model is presented for enhancing the effectiveness of benchmarking in higher education communities.Sue D. Achtemeier received the B.A. in mathematics and computer science with High Honors and the M.S. in mathematics from Florida State University and the Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Georgia. She has held teaching positions in Illinois and Georgia and is now Assistant Director for Institutional Effectiveness for the University of Georgia with particular interest in accreditation and accountability. Ronald D. Simpson is Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Science Education and Director Emeritus of the Office of Instructional Support and Development at the University of Georgia. He holds degrees in the biological sciences and in science education from the University of Tennessee and the University of Georgia and continues to teach and advise doctoral students in UGA’s Institute of Higher Education.