These are the inspiring and illuminating stories of women professors who first broke into the exclusive, all-male academic club of educational administration. Women of this pioneering generation tell how they overcame daunting challenges, traumas, the naivete of others, sexual harassment, and retaliation, as well as how they encountered unexpected…

This qualitative within-case study explored how planned educational change in universities can be facilitated through academic professional development strategies. Thus this study attempted to shed some light on the dynamics of educational planned change in universities and their implications for academic professional development of faculty. The…

The past two decades have seen an emerging trend in urban school governance: mayors taking the reins of school district leadership. The impetus for putting the mayor in charge of a city's schools usually stems from at least one of the following being documented or generally perceived about an urban school district: (1) Lack of accountability; (2)…

The TOEFL iBT[TM] has increased the length of the reading passages in the reading section compared to the passages on the TOEFL[R] computer-based test (CBT) to better approximate academic reading in North American universities, resulting in a reduced number of passages in the reading test. A concern arising from this change is whether the decrease…

The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) was added to the Individuals with Disabilities Act in 2004. The purpose of this standard is to provide guidance to schools to ensure that students with print disabilities have access to the general education curriculum through specially adapted print materials. In 2007, Project…

Since the launch of far-reaching higher education reforms several years ago, many institutions across Morocco have begun revamping their English for Special Purposes (ESP) programs to bring them in line with the needs of local employers. These reforms recognize the correlation between what students learn in class and success in their future…

This article draws on exploratory qualitative interviews with German education policy experts. We ask whether, as Germany faces new challenges, changes have occurred in respect of the education ideal of the democratic citizen; perceived implications for civic education and schooling are also drawn out. Interviews were conducted with senior…

There is overwhelming evidence of the benefits of out-of-school learning. It is likely to be particularly important for disadvantaged students who have fewer material and cultural resources in the home to supplement their classroom work. However, despite the research evidence and political moves to promote out-of-school learning, it would appear…

In 2005, a total of approximately 2, 915 student teachers were placed for practicum purposes in Alberta's schools by the five Alberta universities which offer teacher preparation programs leading to the Bachelor of Education degree: the University of Alberta, the University of Calgary, the University of Lethbridge, King's University College, and…

So far, e-learning has primarily been used when there are many learners involved. The up-front investments related to e-learning are relatively high, and may be perceived as prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Some e-learning is, however, getting less expensive, and some e-learning models are more suited for small-scale…

Significant research has been conducted into the positive effects of arts education on social and intellectual development of students across the ages of 10-15 years. Teacher competence for teaching the arts however does not appear to be as positive. A worldwide trend suggests pre-service teachers exhibit low confidence and content knowledge for…

This study examines a semester-long service learning course. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that were responsible for the successes and failures of the projects. There is a profusion of literature that underscores the positive aspects of service learning. However, literature is scarce on why service learning may not always…

In this article, the authors argue for making practice the core of teachers' professional preparation. They set the argument for teaching practice against the contemporary backdrop of a teacher education curriculum that is often centered not on the tasks and activities of teaching but on beliefs and knowledge, on orientations and commitments, and…

Various recent politically driven policy interventions have outlined the increased importance of school physical education programmes as a contributor towards realising active lifelong learning targets. This paper explains the origins of the new policy emphasis and describes some of the opportunities which now exist for reviewing many curriculum…

This article builds on a previous 2004 "Journal of Vocational Education and Training" (JVET) contribution by Biemans et al., in which several possible pitfalls in designing and implementing competence-based education (CBE) were discussed. The present article reports on the results of an extensive research programme on competence…