In many countries, strategies to further develop services and institutions for the education and care of young children are linked to a discourse on professionalism. Ambitious policy goals, it is argued, can only be achieved by a skilled and qualified workforce whose practice is guided by a professional body of knowledge. This article argues that…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how science and engineering graduates can be recruited and trained to Masters level in precision engineering as an aid to reducing the skills shortage of mechanical engineers in UK industry. Design/methodology/approach: The paper describes a partnership between three UK academic institutions and industry,…

Background: A growing literature is questioning the appropriateness of a research dissertation for practitioners in education doctoral programs. Although this literature persuasively critiques the prevailing theory-research orientation of most programs and theses, it goes little beyond exhorting change and describing extant alternatives in a few…

This article traces the role of the non-communist, late Tsarist, "new education" movement in shaping early Soviet views of teacher-training. Comparing the teacher-training approach of one of the leaders of this Tsarist educational movement--Stanislav Shatskii--with that of the Soviet Commissariat of Enlightenment (Narkompros), the…

Through case studies of adult literacy learners and the volunteer tutors who instructed them, this article illustrates the strengths and challenges faced by these kinds of instructional pairs. The descriptions help to reveal critical issues that can inform researchers' and practitioners' thinking and practice with regard to tutor training and…

The Institute for Scholarship on Engineering Education (ISEE) team of the Center for the Advancement of Engineering Education, designed and implemented a 120 minute interactive session called "Communities In Practice--What Are We Learning?" for the 2006 Frontiers in Education Conference in Indianapolis. Six story posters were provided by 8…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to call attention to the fact that conferences for professionals rely on massive one-way communication and hence produce little learning for delegates--and to introduce an alternative, the "learning conference", that involves delegates in fun and productive learning processes.…

A transformation model of engineering education at the undergraduate level is constructed to define the human and technical resources that contribute to the production of a university-trained engineer. The theory of technical systems is applied in the development of the model to transform a graduating pre-university pupil into a university-trained…

There are two main claims in this article. First, that the classic pillars of engineering education, namely, traditional mathematics and differential equations, are merely a particular, if not old-fashioned, representation of a broader mathematical vision, which spans from Turing machine programming and symbolic productions sets to sub-symbolic…

Beginning educators who have disabilities may have additional challenges to face besides those commonly experienced by new teachers, challenges that are then extended to mentoring programs provided to support them. Are initial difficulties the result of their novice situation, their disabilities, or a combination of the two? What kinds of…

This Support Document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Investigating Learning through Work: The Development of the 'Provider Learning Environment Scale'" (ED503392). It provides readers with a complete copy of the "Provider Learning Environment Scale" (version 2.0); and an accompanying user…

Study aim: To determine the knowledge of participants and their attitudes towards sport of the disabled, in the basic and intermediary coach education. Material and methods: A group of 20 instructors, running a coach education course organised by the Institute of Coaching and Sport Education (ICSE), Semmelweis University (Budapest), were…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to assess the performance of a sample of Lebanese organizations vis-a-vis some of the core learning organization dimensions identified in the literature, focusing specifically on those dimensions that are considered most salient and relevant in the Lebanese context. Design/methodology/approach: The paper…

Is it possible to educate a fire officer to deal intelligently with the command and control of a major fire event he will never have experienced? The authors of this paper believe there is, and present here just one solution to this training challenge. It involves the development of an intelligent simulation based upon computer managed interactive…