Wellbeing and Education: Issues of Culture and Authority

The idea that education should equip people to lead flourishing lives and help others to do so is now becoming salient in policy-making circles. Philosophy of education can help here by clarifying what flourishing consists in. This essay examines one aspect of this. It rejects the view that wellbeing goods are derivable from human nature, as in the theories of Howard Gardner and Edmond Holmes. It locates them, rather, as cultural products, but not culturally-relative ones, drawing attention to the proliferating forms they have taken over the past three or four centuries. It looks to aesthetics and art criticism as a guide to a philosophical treatment of wellbeing goods more generally. It also takes off from aesthetics and art criticism in seeking to identify reliable authorities on the flourishing life. On this, it rejects elitist conceptions in favour of a more democratic model, emphasising its importance in education for citizenship.     

From Constructionism to Deconstructionism: Anticipating Trends in Educational Styles

This paper reviews various issues concerned with the design of computer-based learning (CBL) systems and the educational philosophies from which they are derived. It considers them from the point of view of four themes of contemporary thinking: rational, pragmatic, critical and radical. In particular, the paper considers the current enthusiasm for constructionist learning and teaching methods and how these may evolve in the light of recent research. It is seen that many of the current trends in CBL system design can be related to post-modern ideas about the role of technology in society.     

Why Minimally Guided Teaching Techniques Do Not Work: A Reply to Commentaries

Knowledge, although seemingly available, is often not used for problem solving. That means it remains "inert." Three types of explanations exist for this phenomenon. Metaprocess explanations assume that the relevant knowledge is available, but it is not used because of disturbed access processes (e.g., lacking metacognitive control). Structure deficit explanations suppose that the deficit is rooted in the structure of the knowledge itself (i.e., the knowledge is not available in a form that allows for its application). In situatedness explanations, the traditional concepts of knowledge and transfer are questioned. One basic assumption of this perspective is that knowledge is fundamentally situated (i.e., context-bound). In the last decade, instructional models have been developed that try to remedy the inert knowledge problem and take into account important aspects that have been raised by the different explanations.     

Justifying Private Schools

The paper looks at arguments for and against private schools, first in general and then, at greater length, in their British form. Here it looks first at defences against the charge that private schooling is unfair, discussing on the way problems with equality as an intrinsic value and with instrumental appeals to greater equality, especially in access to university and better jobs. It turns next to charges of social exclusiveness, before looking in more detail at claims about the dangers private schools pose for democratic government. It then examines complications arising from shifts in the notion of ‘private’ education since the 1980s, before concluding, in the light of recent articles in JOPE about criteria for admission to university, with a discussion of Brighouse's proposal for the reform of private schooling. There are also shorter discussions of other suggestions for such reform.     

A Competency-Based Approach to Adult Counseling and Guidance

This article describes the Adult Career Education Counseling Project, a special demonstration project funded by the United States Office of Education, Division of Occupational and Adult Education. The major goal of the project is to develop a competency-based individualized instructional training system for guidance personnel wanting to work in adult education settings. The article explains the rationale, development, and process used in identification of conceptual areas that were developed into modules currently being pilot tested prior to final revision. Once the total training system has been developed, adult education and counseling and guidance programs may use these materials to design a counseling and guidance program unique to local program or institutional goals and objectives.     

The Doctoral Comprehensive Examination in Counselor Education

According to recent survey results, the doctoral comprehensive examination is still the most often used method of evaluating doctoral students for candidacy. Widespread dissatisfaction, however, on the part of both professors and students continues. This article gives suggestions for improving the written portion of the doctoral comprehensive examination.     

Higher Education and Industrial Development in Ireland

In the structures of European society, the institutions of education, state, industry and others have always been quite autonomous and largely separate from each other. This contrasts with the USA and Japan, where the linkages between the university and industry sectors have always been very strong and cooperation between the two has been long established. This paper addresses itself to the situation in Ireland and reviews the many institutional structures for university industry cooperation. The specific developments in University College Dublin are described and the benefits which such cooperation bring to both the university and industrial sectors are summarised.