Current Status of Graduate Education in Physical Education: Program Demography

The extent of specialization that exists among graduate students, faculty, and program of physical education was explored, particularly as it relates to published rankings of doctoral programs and other sources. Comparisons were made among data obtained from a questionnaire constructed by the investigators, the Gold Book: Directory of Physical Educators in Higher Education 1982–84, and two unpublished reports for the Research Council/Consortium. In addition, comparisons were made with results from other published sources. The graduate programs appeared to be meeting departmental employment needs, with the newly appointed faculty members having specializations consistent with the most prevalent departmental research specializations. Graduate programs were also shown to be fragmented and specialized in multidimensional aspects. As one might expect, the largest proportion of graduate programs and faculty specializations are in the areas of exercise physiology, administration, and professional preparation. However, the dissimilarity in the graduate programs was so diverse that evaluations and comparisons on global scales appear to be useless.     

Tertiary teachers and student evaluations: never the twain shall meet?

Internationally, centralised systems of student evaluation have become normative practice in higher education institutions, providing data for monitoring teaching quality and for teacher professional development. While extensive research has been done on student evaluations, there is less research-based evidence about teachers’ perceptions of and engagement with student evaluations, the focus of the research reported in this paper. An interpretive approach framed the study in which data were gathered through questionnaire and interview responses from teaching staff at three New Zealand tertiary institutions. Results highlighted the general acceptance of the notion of student evaluations, recurring ideas about the limitations of evaluations and significant gaps in the way academics engage with student evaluation feedback. Recommendations for enhancing teacher engagement with student evaluation are made to optimise the potential for student evaluations to inform teaching development and to improve students’ learning experiences.     

Education the Handmaid of Philosophy

Abstract

This article addresses how we might teach for global citizenship in world history classrooms. Despite the name, secondary world history courses in the United States have not consistently focused on global interconnections, multiple perspectives, and inquiry into global issues. We explore why this might be, as well as suggest specific learning activities and curricular topics in world history that could help meet global citizenship goals.