Simulations: Using experiential learning to add relevancy and meaning to introductory courses

Over the past two years the authors have provided experiential learning in the form of a simulation exercise to help 240 college students relate personally to the foundations of education. Introductory courses, with a preponderance of facts and breadth of content, can easily overwhelm students. The simulation not only energized the students but also personalized an in-depth understanding of educational issues. This theoretical knowledge was applied practically, a link which may often be missing in many introductory courses.Kathleen K. Montgomery holds a D. Ed. from The Pennsylvania State University. She is Assistant Professor of Education at Elmira College, where she teaches Introduction to Education, Instructional Strategies, and Curriculum and Instruction for Elementary Education. Professor Montgomery's research interests include the design of experiential learning and assessment methods used to evaluate such learning. She is currently working on a book about authentic assessment methods useful for elementary teachers. Susan C. Brown holds an Ed.D. from the University of Central Florida. She is the Assistant Director/Assistant Professor of Education at Elmira College, where she teaches Introduction to Education, Instructional Strategies, and Multicultural Education. Professor Brown has recently published articles on multicultural education for perservice teachers in theJournal of Curriculum and Supervision andCurriculum, a British Journal of educators. She is on the Editorial Board of the Educational Forum. Cathleen M. Deery holds the M.S. degree for Syracuse University. She is lecturer at Elmira College, where she teaches Introduction to Education, Educational Psychology, and Inclusionary Education. Professor Deery has designed numerous experiential learning components for her classes, and she is currently working on a book with Kathleen Montgomery about authentic assessment methods.     

Investigation of preservice elementary teachers' thinking about science

It is not uncommon to find media reports on the failures of science education, nor uncommon to hear prestigious scientists publicly lament the rise of antiscience attitudes. Given the position elementary teachers have in influencing children, antiscience sentiment among them would be a significant concern. Hence, this article reports on an investigation in which preservice elementary teachers responded to the Thinking about Science survey instrument. This newly developed instrument addresses the broadrelationship of science to nine important areas of society and culture and is intended to reveal the extent of views being consistent with or disagreeing with a commonly held worldview of science portrayed in the media and in popular science and science education literature. Results indicate that elementary teachers discriminate with respect to different aspects of culture and science but they are not antiscience. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 1016–1031, 2002     

Management priorities of college presidents

All U.S. college and university presidents were recently surveyed to determine their priorities among potential planning and management improvements at their institutions. Based on 900 returned questionnaires, the highest priority areas were: (1) communicating institutional strengths to potential students, their parents, and the general public; (2) communicating institutional strengths to the state legislature and state budget officials (for public institutions); (3) integrating program-review results in program-planning and budget processes; (4) resource allocation and reallocation; (5) faculty vitality and renewal; (6) implementing institutional goals and objectives through the planning and budgeting process; and (7) forecasting institutional revenue needs more accurately. Most of these high priority areas were interpreted as reflecting the current invironment of retrenchment and the need to prepare for a noor slow-growth era.     

Erziehungswissenschaft im Spiegel ihrer Studieng?nge

What happens to study programs for a major in education science in the wake of the Bologna reform? What are the consequences of the transition to Bachelor and Master degree programs for the institutional organization of the discipline in the form of its study programs and thus for the position of the discipline in the university system? This contribution investigates both the structural characteristics and the subject-related orientation of these new training models on the basis of a survey of the current study programs offered in education science major programs. The technical terms used and the module manuals are compared with the ??Core Curriculum Education Science?? proposed by the German Society for Education Studies (DGfE). Despite the limited validity of this investigation, it is clear that the clash of political reorganization of higher education processes with an identity-seeking discipline has drastic consequences for the institutional organization of education science. This is reflected in an increased differentiation of the major study programs within education science, which can affect both the position of the discipline in the academic system as well as the disciplinary self-reproduction.     

Book Reviews

The Accidental Webmaster by Julie M. Still Information Today, 2003. Pp 192. Paperback $29.50. ISBN 1‐57387‐164‐8 Clark's Publishing Agreements – A Book of Precedents, 6th edn, General Editor Lynette Owen Butterworths Lexis Nexis, 2002, £70.85. 615 pp. Hardback and CD‐ROM. ISBN 0‐406‐93916‐0     

Academic Reform in Fractured Disciplines – On the Interaction of Bologna,New-Public-Management and the Dynamics of Disciplinary Development

Minerva - At the intersection of science studies and higher education research, this contribution looks at the way in which the requirements of universities as organizations release development...     

Personalised learning: lessons to be learnt

Personalised learning is now broadly endorsed as a key strategy to improve student curricular engagement and academic attainment, but there is also strong critique of this construct. We review claims made for this approach, as well as concerns about its conceptual coherence and effects on different learner cohorts. Drawing on literature around differentiation of the curriculum, self‐regulated learning, and ‘relational agency’ we propose a framework for conceptualising and enacting this construct. We then report on an attempt to introduce personalised learning as one strategy, among several, to improve student academic performance and wellbeing in four low SES regional secondary schools in Australia. We report on a survey of 2407 students’ perceptions of the extent to which their school provided a personalised learning environment, and a case study of a programme within one school that aimed to apply a personalised approach to the mathematics curriculum. We found that while there were ongoing challenges in this approach, there was also evidence of success in the mathematics case.