Social responsibility in community colleges: Rethinking the commitment to alternative education

Because high school dropouts are among the least advantaged members of American society, the educational system that has failed them has the social responsibility for remediating their educational and developmental needs. The community college is proposed as the institution most able to develop policies and programs that will enable these least advantaged members of American society to overcome the educational system that has failed them. This paper discusses the responsibility of providing a quality education to all individuals, examines the role the community college can play in meeting the educational and social needs of dropouts, and presents an innovative program at a community college that has been particularly effective in meeting the needs of dropouts.     

The concepts of science in Japanese and Western education

Using structural linguistics, the present article offers an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. In Japan, science education has been free from epistemological reflection because Japan regards science only as effective technology for modernization. By not taking account of the world-view aspect of science, Japan can treat science as not self-referential. Issues of science education are then rather simple; they are only concerned with the question of how to, and answers to this question are judged according to the efficiency achieved for modernization.Science, however, is a way of seeing nature. This word is generally translated into Japanese as shizen which has a totally different connotation and therefore does not lead to an understanding of the Western scientific spirit. Saussure's approach to language is used to expose the consequences of the misinterpretations that spring from this situation. In order to minimize or prevent these misinterpretations, it is emphasized that science education should be identified with foreign language education in the non-Western world.     

Mature-age students-how are they different?

Mature-age students have formed a significant proportion of preservice students in primary teacher education over recent years. Academic staff have reported a difference between mature-age students and school-leavers, particularly in motivation and achievement. This report examines part of a study which explored mature-age students' views about aspects of teaching science and technology, compared to the views of students who came to university straight from school. It examines, in particular, students' personal feelings of adequacy in teaching science and technology in primary schools. Specialisations: primary teacher education, teaching strategies in science.     

Problem solving in science lessons: How students explore the problem space

This report examines, from a constructivist framework, how students presented with discrepant event problems during science lessons begin the problem solving process by exploration of the problem space. Three discrepant events were presented to five classes of eleven to thirteen year-olds using three different teaching strategies identified from the literature. The teaching strategies used teacher demonstrations followed by students asking the teacher questions, teacher demonstrations followed by an explanation by the teacher, and small groups of students under the guidance of the teacher. Data were collected from field notes, video tapes of the lessons, and student interviews using a stimulated recall technique to elicit the students' thinking during the lessons. The extent to which students could explore the problem space was found to be determined by the teaching strategy used, as the first and last strategies encouraged students to find their own explanations. Different information sources were also available in each of the teaching strategies. That is, exploration of the problem space was inextricably linked to the social context, partially determined by the teaching strategy. Because of constraints imposed by each teaching strategy none of those used was considered entirely satisfactory. An alternative strategy is suggested from a combination of aspects of the strategies trialled.     

The veridicality of punitive childhood experiences reported by adolescents and young adults

OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of the present research was to determine whether retrospective reports of childhood disciplinary experiences and perceptions of that discipline correspond to actual childhood events and whether the accuracy of that report was influenced by the affective state of the respondent. METHOD: Eighty-three adolescent and young adult males completed a retrospective measure of physical child maltreatment, Assessing Environments (AEIII), and the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). As children the participants had been observed naturalistically in their homes interacting with their parents an average of 10 years earlier. RESULTS: Analyses were consistent with the hypothesis that both current mood and actual observations of parent-child interactions during childhood predict self-reported recollections of childhood maltreatment by one's parents. Further the veridicality of such recollections appears to depend upon the objective specificity versus the perceptive nature of the questions used to elicit the recollections. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that assessment instruments suitable for obtaining information regarding earlier childhood victimization must utilize behaviorally specific items. Thus, items that are either global or intimate a normative comparison should be avoided.     

Quality of Learning in Nigeria's Universal Primary Education Scheme—1976–1986

The paper critically examines the quality of education in Nigeria's Universal Primary Education (UPE) scheme from 1976 to 1986. The author argues that the positive impact of the UPE scheme was that more people went to school, and many of them can now read and write their names and seem to be better informed. But the standard of Seaming fell far below what it was before the introduction of the UPE scheme in Nigeria. Those who planned the scheme apparently forgot to consider the importance of the availability of qualified teachers, adequate learning environments, equipment and textbooks, classroom management and supervision, and the content of the curriculum. Since availability of the above facilities is integral to effective teaching and classroom performance, the inevitable outcome was the erosion of standards in Nigeria's primary education. The author advises other developing countries to act cautiously when embarking on prestige educational projects, such as the UPE scheme, as a means to combat ignorance and illiteracy. It is also hoped that the Nigerian experience will lead to a further understanding of the postulation by educational analysts of school facilities as major factors in effective teaching and determining the quality of learning in the developing countries.     

Changes in primary science over the past decade: Implications for the research community

During the early 1980s in Australia there was a new wave of expectancy about primary science as new curricula were being considered or introduced and research findings were beginning to identify new directions for both teaching and research. In an expression of this, six authors were invited to present papers to a symposium on primary science held in 1984 to address the question: “What do you believe should be the state of primary science (in Australia) in 1995 and what are the steps which need to be taken to achieve the desired state?” This study set out to identify what had been said at that time, to compare that with actual developments, and to identify possible future directions for research. Relevant publications includingResearch in Science Education were analysed as a means of comparing what had happened since 1984 with the hopes of those authors. It was only in the latter half of the decade that some of the scenarios painted by the authors in 1984 began to emerge. A key implication for the research community drawn from the analysis shows that science education researchers have tended to neglect working in collaboration with education departments and authorities for the improvement of primary science education.