Criticizes the emphasis on job and skill training that has gained recent support in the United Kingdom. Discusses the Dearing Report of 1997, a government review of the purpose and practice of higher education. Maintains that education should enhance students' critical-thinking skills. (MJP)

Principles of providing appropriate instruction for precocious youth include diagnostic/prescriptive assessment of students' current levels of achievement and readiness for new material; arrangement of instructional conditions so students are working with appropriate curriculum and materials; and provision of classroom learning experiences at the…

Outcome-based education (OBE) and authentic assessment have the potential to greatly improve teacher and counselor preparation programs in rural higher education institutions, but require paradigm shifts, especially at the faculty and administration level, for successful implementation. Characteristics and advantages of OBE and authentic…

Examined the changes implemented by teachers at Brown Barge Middle School, in Pensacola, Florida, to improve curriculum. Notes the teachers' use of total quality education principles and describes six propositions of change: achieving constancy of purpose, building quality, continuous improvement, student-centered approach, using data, and…

Argues that children need to learn about civic issues in their education because certain virtues are required for a decently organized society. Also contends that the school has obligations to educate the young in civics and impart knowledge because it is in the students' best interests; this is not an encroachment on the privacy of the…

In bringing together two important contemporary preoccupations, namely the development of new approaches to leadership and the push to "personalization", this paper argues against the poverty of much contemporary work on personalization. In its stead it proposes an approach to leadership and management grounded, firstly, on a particular…

Many instructors have expressed a recent interest in incorporating service-learning activities into their courses. Several authors have maintained that service-learning opportunities help students to better understand class concepts and also lead to desirable outcomes in students, such as enhanced self esteem and an increased interest in social…

This case study of a teacher who engaged his students in inquiry within a technologically rich classroom was conducted over 5 weeks, including 15 regularly scheduled classes. Data include extensive teacher interviews, e-mail, and artifacts such as class notes, curriculum guides, and handouts. A retrospective analysis methodology was utilized to…

The adult learning community has a unique opportunity to engage with the big issues of the times during the coming year. The Learning and Skills Council is due to launch its Strategy for Sustainable Development in 2005 and a series of initiatives and publications is set to follow, including the European Year of Democratic Citizenship, launched…

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Further Education National Training Organisation (FENTO) developed new subject specifications for teachers of adult literacy and numeracy (DfES and FENTO, 2002). These were designed "to ensure that ... all new teachers of adult literacy and numeracy are equipped with the appropriate and…

This paper analyzes the positioning of technology education within the tradition of classical liberal arts education. The author proposes ideas for mutual enrichment of classical liberal arts disciplines alongside technology education. He contends that technology education is general education for a technological world. His proposition is to…

Though the concept of online community has been heralded as a promising tool to support teacher professional development, a robust and meaningful definition remains elusive. This review draws together research on community, teaching, and learning in traditional and online settings. Examples of current efforts in the field of online learning…

The present learning discourse and terms such as "learning in practice", "situated learning", "project and problem based learning" are like variations on a recurrent theme: learning by doing--the striking maxims of progressivism. The newest reforms confirm that the maxim is still alive as a standpoint with…

The proclamation of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development by the United Nations has placed education in general, and environmental education in particular, at the front of a future full of important and uncertain meanings. On the one hand, those inviting a conceptual, theoretical and praxiological revision of the…

This article deals with central issues in the field of sociology and politics of education after the publication of the outcomes of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) study for Germany. These outcomes serve to remind us of the old debate on politics of education in the 1960s. The main topic since then remains the reproduction…