The End of Public Schools? Or a New Beginning?

Abstract

Public education is becoming increasingly privatized as private philanthropic organizations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and corporations, such as Pearson, dominate the policy-making process, and more students enroll in publicly funded but privately administered charter schools. The privatization of education results from the dominance of neoliberal ideals promoting market competition, individualism, and standardized testing. In response, we call for replacing neoliberalism with social democratic policies emphasizing community, trust, and democratic deliberation.     

Correction to: A Critical Review of Students’ and Teachers’ Understandings of Nature of Science

Science & Education - The original article unfortunately contains incorrect presentation of Tables 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.     

3. Nico Stehr: Die Zerbrechlichkeit moderner Gesellschaften. Die Stagnation der Macht und die Chancen des Individuums

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The Woogles' bad closet party

Martina Boone is an author who lives in Herndon, VA.     

Design Patterns for Learning and Assessment: Facilitating the Introduction of a Complex Simulation-Based Learning Environment into a Community of Instructors

Simulation environments make it possible for science and engineering students to learn to interact with complex systems. Putting these capabilities to effective use for learning, and assessing learning, requires more than a simulation environment alone. It requires a conceptual framework for the knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking that are meant to be developed, in order to design activities that target these capabilities. The challenges of using simulation environments effectively are especially daunting in dispersed social systems. This article describes how these challenges were addressed in the context of the Cisco Networking Academies with a simulation tool for computer networks called Packet Tracer. The focus is on a conceptual support framework for instructors in over 9,000 institutions around the world for using Packet Tracer in instruction and assessment, by learning to create problem-solving scenarios that are at once tuned to the local needs of their students and consistent with the epistemic frame of “thinking like a network engineer.” We describe a layered framework of tools and interfaces above the network simulator that supports the use of Packet Tracer in the distributed community of instructors and students.     

Contradictions in educational policy: implementing integrated problem‐based environmental health curriculum in a high stakes environment

In this paper, we focus on the efforts of educators at nine different research sites within the United States, funded by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), to develop and implement innovative, interdisciplinary curriculum on the relationship of the environment and human health. The NIEHS correctly maintained that the interdisciplinary nature of learning about environmental health would improve students’ learning across several subject areas and should, therefore, contribute to students scoring higher on state’s subject area based standardized tests. However, these goals were undermined by state polices linking standardized tests with student promotion and graduation, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) that required public schools and districts to aggregate test scores which might have negative consequences, such as reducing school funding or privatizing school administration and state policies. These policies resulted in deleterious effects that undermined implementing environmental health curricula.     

Tourists’ motivations for practicing physical activity: a home-holiday comparison

The aim of the study is to examine motivations for practicing physical activity on holiday. In particular, the objective is to compare home habits to holiday experiences and identify differences and commonalities in individuals’ attitude towards physical activity. The methodological approach is to conduct a survey among tourists during a holiday stay by employing a self-administered questionnaire. Findings identify three motivational factors (Decompress, Performance and Shape) and a cluster analysis reveals the coexistence of four different profiles of physical activity performers (Shapers, All-around Pursuers, Sport Performers and Decompress Seekers). Results show diffuse distinctiveness of motivations for practicing physical activity on holiday compared to the motivations for practicing it at home. Specifically, Decompress motives increase and Shape motives decrease. The study contributes to deepen the knowledge on consumer behaviour in leisure and holiday and provides useful insights to destination managers and policy-maker to address the sport tourism market.