Education & Pedagogy

An analysis of the undergraduate transcripts of 465 students from the University of Rochester who applied to medical school indicates a surprising breadth in undergraduate training, which is inconsistent with critics' claims of narrowness in premedical education. Medical educators are called upon to further specify the desired role of nonscience courses in undergraduate preparation. (Author/JMD)

The Clinical Behavioral Sciences Program at McMaster University, an interdisciplinary approach to mental health education, deemphasizes the acquisition of new credentials and selects students with baccalaureate degrees who are professionally qualified and employed in mental health fields. Students' work-related issues and problems are used in this program. (JMD)

A research, training, and demonstration study by Southern Illinois University-Carbondale that dealt with the interaction of law and social work graduate students in delivering services to the elderly poor is reported. Confrontation education is suggested as a means to modify stereotypes, clarify roles, and encourage integrated service delivery. (Author/MLW)

An experiential learning questionnaire was administered to students in eight experience-based career education programs to determine the characteristics of both good and poor learning experiences in the community. Implications of the study for college staff responsible for designing or improving community-based experiential programs are discussed. Questionnaire items are included. (Author/SF)

The Teacher Opinion Survey was administered to high school teachers to determine preferred incentives for participation in a curriculum modification project to help teachers deal with the vocational education problems of mainstreamed students. More innovative teachers were found to be more motivated by opportunities to work with university specialists and colleagues and less motivated by money. (Author/DS)

Until basic reference books and materials were developed and curriculum writers trained in the various Micronesian languages, bilingual education programs consisted of little more than ESL. The article describes the difficulties encountered and the procedures utilized for successful development of quality educational programs based on the mother tongue. (DS)

Articulation of secondary curricula and postsecondary studies in the United States and in the United Kingdom are compared. Articulation is seen as more important in the United States, in which secondary curricula are not as closely controlled or as uniform. In addition, progression to higher education is less common in the United Kingdom. (MSE)

Designed to satisfy paid and unpaid employment needs, the vocational home economics program in the Dallas (Texas) Indpendent School District provides: the comprehensive homemaking program, home economics cooperative education, coordinated vocational academic education, and vocational education for the handicapped. All these home economics programs are briefly described.

Describes strategies implemented in New York City to make vocational education available to more students: (1) creating vocational programs in comprehensive and academic high schools and (2) expanding and diversifying programs and facilities in vocational high schools. Several alternative programs among the schools provide for sharing limited vocational school space. (MF)

Discusses the characteristics of non-land-grant universities that make them suited to share in the responsibility for training vocational agriculture teachers. Focuses on the role of agricultural education staff members; technical agricultural subject matter instructors and courses; facilities, equipment, and farm management practice; and the teacher employment records of non-land-grant universities. (LRA)

Discusses the diversity of continuing education, typically postsecondary, in the United States and the varying federal, state, and local educational policies that shape it. Due to funding complexities and institutional policies, continuing education operates within a market economy and is considered a special service for which most ought to pay. (MF)

Investigates opinions of students, parents, teachers, and principals concerning: (1) the amount of instructional emphasis to be given to health science content areas at grades 3, 6, 9, and 12; and (2) health science content areas which should receive the greatest and least emphasis at those grade levels. (SB)

A survey of personnel from eight selected agencies or groups who were or who might be responsible for providing inservice education for vocational agriculture instructors in Iowa indicated that the vocational agriculture instructors and the university research and teaching staff should be equally responsible for determining the goals and objectives of inservice education. (LRA)

A portion of a larger survey study of the socialization of law students is reported. Focus is on student perceptions and idealized views of law, lawyers, and legal education in general and changes in these attitudes influenced by exposure to law school over a seven-month period during the first year. (JMD)

The Tanzanian government has made a major commitment to its National Literacy Programme as a strategy for national development. Goals of the program are the eradication of illiteracy, self-reliance in solving economic and social problems, and lifelong education. To deal effectively with the problem of learner motivation, the program links literacy and post-literacy materials to agricultural and other vocational skills. (SK)