Non-formal education in Cuba

Conclusion In Cuba the sixties coincided with a unique national liberation movement which, supported by such fundamental achievements as agrarian reform and nationalisation, brought about the organisation of a national effort on the part of all the social sectors anxious to play their part in these changes.These unleashed forces have been both protagonists and apprentices in the accelerated campaign against underdevelopment. The work of transformation and social and economic construction has also logically included an educational effort, the success of which can be measured by such achievements as the literacy campaign of 1961 and the doubling of school enrolment during the decade. The first fruits of this drastic educational effort were the establishment of mass education groups in 1961, since when old structures and concepts have been rejected and an action programme has been emerging with ever greater forcefulness aimed at shaping and adapting education to the characteristics and needs of a socialist society.This tremendous undertaking, with service to all society as its major principle, is the fundamental reason for the many novel experiments made at all levels of education. It forms the basis of the search for a new kind of education which will correspond to current educational trends in the world and at the same time meet the exceptional situation of Cuba, where priority is given to education as a duty and a right of all and where everyone, from the humblest worker to the Prime Minister, is aware of the vital need for education and its inseparable links with development plans.Adapted by permission of UNESCO from Innovating Experiments in Education in Cuba by Raúl Ferrer Perez. International Commission on the Development of Education, Series C: Innovations, No. 4. Paris: UNESCO, 1973 (mimeographed).     

Supporting students’ mental health in schools: what do teachers want and need?

There is a growing expectation in the UK for teachers to have an understanding of common mental health problems in young people. This study aims to identify the training needs of secondary school teachers to enable them to adequately support and educate their students around mental health. Nine focus groups, each with between four to eight participants, were conducted with secondary school teachers in the UK. Discussions were centred on the needs and wants of teachers in terms of mental health training, provision and advice. Participants were also shown three online resources as an example of existing training. Thematic analysis was used to structure the data. Participants wanted training on how to identify and provide early support for students who are struggling, without taking on the perceived role of a therapist. Participants also emphasised the strong need for practical, interactive and expert-led training that provides resources that can be adapted to individual settings. Implications and recommendations are discussed.     

Facilitating integrated agricultural technology development through participatory research

Purpose: In this paper, we discuss the role of participatory research in integrated agricultural technology development using the example of a solar fruit drying project in Mozambique.

Design/methodology/approach: We engage in seven participatory exercises with groups of farmers from two farmers’ associations in Inharrime district in Mozambique to identify their needs for solar fruit drying that are crucial for solar dryer technology design. We focus in the analysis on three of these exercises including a daily schedule exercise, SWOT (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats) analysis and technology requirement exercise.

Findings: Participatory research takes a dual function for integrated agricultural technology development. First, it can help to identify the technology needs of farmers and second it can enable the exchange and creation of different sets of knowledge for agricultural technology development between multiple stakeholders.

Practical implications: Participatory research provides a tool for joint knowledge exchange and creation, which allows the identified technology requirements to be translated into practical technology design.

Theoretical implications: This paper extends the concept of integrated research to integrated agricultural technology development and shows how participatory research is a tool that enables transdisciplinarity, which presents the most desired form of integrated research.

Originality: This research is highly relevant for researchers working in an interdisciplinary environment with agricultural technology development in cross-cultural contexts. From a meta-level perspective, it provides insights for joint and integrated technology development.     

A National Analysis of Noncredit Community College Education: Enrollment,Funding, Accountability,and Contextual Issues

ABSTRACT

Noncredit community college enrollment accounts for approximately 40% of all enrollment in the two-year sector, or five million students (American Association of Community Colleges, 2016). Yet, this population is seldom discussed in the higher education literature due to inconsistent definitions, funding, and data reporting at the state level. Many of the structural elements (e.g., funding, enrollment) have not been documented recently or completely. This study used data from the 2015 Survey of Access and Finance Issues, administered annually to the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges. The authors calculated noncredit enrollment by function and frequencies on funding mechanisms, funding by function, noncredit data reporting, and the measures captured at the state level. The study also employed polychoric and polyserial correlations examining the relationships among structural, contextual, and perspective-based items. This was done to capture the national landscape on this important community college function through the lens of state-level community college leaders.     

In search of a consistency model for evaluation of student performance in nontraditional education

In nontraditional education we believe that learning how to learn should be the major objective. Helping students learn how to learn should be a major teaching objective and a major teaching skill. This skill involves helping a student recognize that learning involves personal change and that no one is so knowledgeable and so skilled that he or she need not learn. One of the major problems in learning how to learn for educators is being able to play a concurrent role—that of an evaluator and that of an academic advisor. Inherent in this double role is the concept that an evaluator should provide a learning experience that is planned as an integral and continuous part of a student's education. Evaluation processes, both in planning and implementation, should be consistent with knowledge, values, and goals of nontraditional education. Their basis should be a theory of adult learning.     

High-frequency resistance training does not promote greater muscular adaptations compared to low frequencies in young untrained men

The aim of the study was to compare the effect of resistance training (RT) frequencies of five times (RT5), thrice- (RT3) or twice- (RT2) weekly in muscle strength and hypertrophy in young men. Were used a within-subjects design in which 20 participants had one leg randomly assigned to RT5 and the other to RT3 or to RT2. 1?RM and muscle cross-sectional area (CSA) were assessed at baseline, after four (W4) and eight (W8) RT weeks. RT5 resulted in greater total training volume (TTV) than RT3 and RT2 (P?=?.001). 1?RM increased similarly between protocols at W4 (RT5: 55?±?9?Kg, effect size (ES): 1.18; RT3: 51?±?11?Kg, ES: 0.80; RT2: 54?±?7?Kg, ES: 1.13; P?P?2, ES: 0.54; RT3: 22.0?±?4.6?cm², ES: 0.19; RT2: ES: 0.25; 23.8?±?3.8?cm²; P?2; ES: 0.69; RT3: 23.6?±?4.2?cm², ES: 0.58; RT2: 25.5?±?3.7?cm²; ES: 0.70; P?2; RT3: 21.2?±?4.0?cm²; RT2: 22.9?±?3.8?cm²). Performing RT5, RT3 and RT2 a week result in similar muscle strength increase and hypertrophy, despite higher TTV for RT5.     

Was the Portuguese Led Military Campaign against Alcácer do Sal in the Autumn of 1217 Part of the Fifth Crusade?*

In 1213, Pope Innocent III issued his letter Quia maior asking Christendom to rescue the Holy Land. He also appeared to suspend the indulgences offered for fighting in Iberia so that the crusading forces could concentrate their efforts on the venture to Egypt. Despite this, Innocent was unprepared to totally disqualify the Iberian Christian efforts against al-Andalus – a situation that created an artificial separation between Iberian Christians and the rest of Christendom. Notwithstanding, in 1217 when a fleet of northern crusaders arrived in Lisbon, they were invited by its bishop to join an expedition to conquer the Muslim-controlled city of Alcácer do Sal. This article discusses the evidence available to explain what the real status of this campaign was in the eyes of the papacy and the participants themselves within the evolving concept of “Crusade”.