Foundation for the Expansion of Botany Education at the Morris Arboretum

The Morris Arboretum identifies education and promoting the relationship between plant and people as a huge part of its mission and has long been regarded at as the center for botanical knowledge in the Philadelphia region. Though historically botany education has been present at the Arboretum, it has diminished in recent years. In order to uphold our mission and reputation, the idea of the Arboretum launching a botany certificate program was proposed. This project focuses on finding similar programs that might be a model for our program, survey our regional market, gauging the interest of our current constituents and evaluate the cost of such a program. It is my hope that these findings will be used to inform any decision made about such a program here at the Arboretum

Investigating the effectiveness of informal science education through quantitative and qualitative analysis: Ocean Commotion

Informal science education serves as an important source for science education for both individuals and school groups. However, the effectiveness of school visits to informal science education events outside of either museums or science centers has received little investigation. This study explores the short-term effects of a hands-on learning experience on students’ attitude and content knowledge. Specifically, it investigates the impact of Ocean Commotion, a one-day event where exhibitors present information and hands-on demonstrations about marine environments and products, especially those important to Louisiana. Pre-tests were utilized to document students’ initial knowledge of and attitude toward wetlands and the ocean, as well as their attitude toward science in general. Following the event the same tests were administered again to capture any changes. The results showed that a one-day, hands-on event significantly increased student knowledge about and concern for marine environments, but did not have an impact on attitude toward science. This study demonstrates the value that transient learning events can provide and supports the development of similar events to promote not only ocean literacy, but also other topics as well

Distance education technologies in Asia

Foreword by Sir John DanielCo-published with Sage PublicationsThe International Development Research Centre (IDRC) conducted a study of current distance education (DE) research and development initiatives across Asia. Managed by the IDRC’s PAN Asia Networking division in Singapore, the study focused on uses of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the delivery of formal and non-formal DE. Research teams were identified whose experience might assist other teams with lesser experience in future research projects. The results of this study of distance and open resource access are detailed in this volume. The research has yielded a series of two dozen training modules towards development of DE in Asia

Population ageing in the Middle-East and North Africa : research and policy implications.

Population ageing in the Middle East and North Africa focuses on one of the demographically youngest regions of the world. Yet, the countries in the Middle-East and North African regions have not escaped demographic and ageing transitions. Such changes are always accompanied by other transitions - namely, a shift in the main causes of morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases to non-communicable diseases, and the replacement of an extended multigenerational family with a nuclear one. This book provides such comprehensive and timely evidence to respond to such challenges.peer-reviewe

Reflections upon Some Fundamental Issues in Educational Historiography

This paper categorizes educational historiography as part of “historiography” because educational historiography is leaning towards historiography in spite of being a fundamental educational discipline with the dual disciplinary attributes of education and historiography. It is argued that the nature of a discipline is partly defined by its researchers and its roles, but more importantly, by its origin, major research topics and objectives, basic research theories, methodologies and paradigms, as well as its relations with cognate disciplines. And each of the above factors is elaborated on to illuminate the dual disciplinary nature of educational historiography. From the perspective of educational science, what reflects the nature of education the best is people’s “educational activities,” which can be defined as the aggregate of specific activities directed to promoting valuable human development, and the various ways educators and learners participate and interact in the educational process. This paper maintains that the history of educational activities constitutes an upside-down triangle relation with the histories of educational thoughts and system. The history of educational activities is the origin, premise and foundation, whereas the latter two are the derivatives and results. Therefore, the history of educational activities must be studied as part of the research on the history of education