Online special education courses and programs are widely available and provide pathways for both initial certification and in-service professional learning. Despite the wider availability of online special educator courses and programs due to the COVID pandemic, very limited research about special education candidates and educator preferences for…

This paper considers online courses in human resources, public budgeting, and public procurement, within a public administration program, developed and taught during one calendar year at a public regional university in the southeastern United States. Each course had an underpinning of required reading, but also included individual and…

The authors surveyed student teachers in a yearlong internship and their peers in a traditional semester-long internship to compare perceptions across different practice teaching experiences. All participants were enrolled in the same university and were similar across gender, age, ethnicity, and undergraduate educational experiences. The students…

Faculty and administrators often believe that abbreviated courses are less effective than the same courses taught during a full semester. This study examined student academic performance and course evaluations for identical courses taught during abbreviated summer sessions or during regular semester sessions. Contrary to popular convention,…

A study indicates that spending less than nine weeks of instructional time on a death education unit does not change students' attitudes. College students were given three-, six-, or nine-week sessions on death education. Only students in the longest session displayed any change in death attitudes. (Author/PP)

Reports on college-level microeconomic classes to compare learning in short-term intensive course with traditional semester-length course. Found students in three-week courses performed better on achievement tests than those in traditional semester courses but this advantage disappeared when knowledge retention was measured. Raises policy…

A University of South Florida program giving medical students four years of primary care training was found to have little effect on specialty choice of its graduates (n=93 students), when compared to students who volunteered for the program but did not enter it or who did not volunteer. (MSE)

Researchers compared an eleven-week term student teaching program with a fifteen-week semester program. Examined were the effects of the length of the student teaching experience on student teachers' perceptions regarding teaching skill development and on the amount of time spent in actual classroom instruction. Subjects were nine 15-week semester…

The University of New Hampshire's five-year teacher education program attracts students who are academically able and compare favorably with students in other graduate departments. The program is described, and information about students' attitudes and aspirations is given. (PP)

This paper summarizes and critiques the literature concerning the development and use of time-compressed, intensive course formats in colleges and universities and suggests directions for future inquiry. The paper begins with a discussion of the origins of intensive courses and their development over time. Briefly reviewed are related educational…

Students and faculty at the University of Arizona College of Medicine found the three-year medical program to be an unsatisfactory educational experience due to excessive intensity of classroom work, insufficient vacation time, and inadequate time to teach basic science. Measures of student performance showed no differences between three- and…

Results of an open-ended, five-question inquiry sent to sample members of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) are presented and discussed. The questionnaire sought to probe into how AACTE members feel about the concept of an extended or five-year program for preparing prospective teachers. Questions concerned: (1)…

This study examined whether increased exploratory field experiences affected the perceptions and evaluations of secondary school student teachers at Indiana State University. Studied were 238 student teachers who were simultaneously undergoing two different professional preparation programs: 154 were in a program requiring only one field…

PREVIOUS RESEARCH HAD SHOWN THAT SIMULATION COULD BE SUBSTITUTED FOR THREE OF SIX HOURS OF ACTUAL DRIVING INSTRUCTION, A CONCENTRATED COURSE OF INSTRUCTION COULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ONE OF SEVERAL WEEKS OR MONTHS, AND USE OF SIMULATOR MOVIES WITHOUT THE EQUIPMENT HAD VALUE. IN THIS STUDY, DATA ON HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA…

Media adjunct programing (MAP) techniques for presenting individualized, self-paced instruction were compared to traditional instructor-classroom (TIC) techniques in an undergraduate pilot Weather course. The MAP group completed the course in significantly less time than did the TIC group, representing a 29 percent time savings. In addition, MAP…