Building new modes of teacher education: research analyses for the Teacher in Education in Sub Saharan Africa programme

The provision of basic education for all children by 2015 is now one of the world’s major educational objectives. Through UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) commitments and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) national and international attention has been focussed on measures to achieve this end. There has been some progress. The number of school age children with no access to schooling is dropping (from x to y in the period 1999–2005?). There is, however, some way to go in terms of the basic provision and the gender parity that the MDGs seek to achieve. Most significantly attention has now turned to the challenge of providing sufficient teachers of the appropriate quality to staff such rapid expansion. The focus of enquiry of this proposed keynote symposium is the ways in which different forms of research are contributing to: • analyses of factors impacting on teacher supply and retention; • developing conceptual understanding of the ‘life’ experiences of teachers working in challenging circumstances, with a special emphasis on female teachers in rural communities; • evidence about the nature and effectiveness of new modes of education and training. The symposium papers will explore the different research and investigative methodologies being drawn on and the different forms of international co-operation and collaboration being used. The papers will explore the issues of teacher supply, retention and education through educational and development studies, theories of change and intervention. A key issue the symposium will address is the need to bring together theoretically and through research practice the related separate specialist domains of education and development enquiry. In doing this the papers will provide a new patterning or mapping of the literature. The five papers draw particularly on the work of UNESCO, including the widely respected annual monitoring reports evaluation the progress to EFA and the new Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) initiative (see tessaprogramme.org). One of the papers will look at the research around teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa by reference to developing country contexts in other parts of the world. It has been argued that the challenge to provide schooling and teachers for the children of Sub-Saharan Africa represents the world’s biggest educational challenge (Moon, 2007). In identifying key research findings, for example significant variables impacting on teacher supply and retention, the relationship between teacher quality and pupil achievement and comparative evidence on the effectiveness of different modes of education and training, the symposium will point to the ways in which researchers in the field of education and the research community generally can contribute to increasing capacity in this enormously important area

Remotely hosted services and 'cloud computing'

Emerging technologies for learning report - Article exploring potential of cloud computing to address educational issue

Repurposing learning objects: a sustainable alternative?

Recent experience shows that reusable learning objects, like the computer assisted learning programmes of the early 1990s, have so far failed to achieve expected levels of integration into educational practice. This is despite technical interoperability, cataloguing systems, high quality standards, targeted dissemination and professional development initiatives. Analysis of this problem suggests that conceptualization of the problem may be limiting the scope of solutions. This paper proposes a sustainable and participative approach to reuse that involves repurposing learning objects for different discipline areas. For some time now there has been a growing awareness that even the most accessible resources have failed to be widely adopted by the educational community and as a result have also failed to fulfil their considerable educational potential. (Campbell, 2003, p. 35

Planning Report, April 1986

The University of Montana Planning Report, April 1986, issued by the Office of the President.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/planning_assessment/1018/thumbnail.jp

External pressures on teaching: three years on

n August 2001, I wrote an information article called ‘External Pressures on Teaching’, which was published in the then PRSLTSN Journal, 1.2, Winter 2002, pp. 98–129. It is now time to update that article, and to add a number of subsequent developments. However, the original article, which explains the logic of the various QAA initiatives, is still valid apart from some points of detail that I shall highlight here. It is available on our website at: http://prs.heacademy.ac.uk/publications/discourse/winter2002.pd

Mixed mode education: implications for library user services

The Faculty of Information Technology at QUT does not formally carry out distance education for any of its courses. However, it has pursued a number of initiatives that have made it possible for students to carry out an increasing proportion of their coursework off-site. These initiatives include computer-managed learning, World Wide Web and CDROM delivery of administrative and educational materials, and most recently the development of an integrated learning environment (ILE) for electronic delivery. These developments have been complemented and supported by the QUT Library by means of different avenues of access to CDROMs, a regional electronic document delivery service (REDD), and an electronic reserve (E-Reserve) service. Issues associated with the operation and evaluation of such facilities are described, and future library role in educational delivery are discussed

A Vision for ARES in the Twenty-First Century: The Virtual Community of Real Estate Thought Leaders

In the twenty-first century the American Real Estate Society (ARES) is a virtual community of real estate thought leaders, electronically interconnected and linked through the International Real Estate Society to counterpart organizations on all major continents as well as numerous country-specific societies. ARES growth is attributable to its emphasis on rigorous applied microeconomic decisionmaking and an inclusive, open style. The initiatives of the Strategic Planning Task Force, whose report was enthusiastically endorsed and implemented at the 1996 Lake Tahoe meetings, have led to an expansion of activities and services. Further, the "Great Water" location strategy continues to attract strong meeting participation, which meetings emphasize special tracks for the corporate space user, global portfolio investing, micro property strategies and transactions, property analytic advances, improving cognitive skills to overcome bounded rationality, and learning innovations as well as ethical and aesthetic issues, property rights and quality of life topics. As valuable as the electronic access to critical real estate research resources is, the ARES Annual Meeting continues to be the one must attend gathering for real estate thought leaders throughout the world.

Planning Report, June 1985

The University of Montana Planning Report, June 1985, issued by the Office of the President.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/planning_assessment/1017/thumbnail.jp