Education & Pedagogy

Character education's history in the United States goes back to the beginning of public schools. The emphasis and profile has waxed and waned, frequently with political trends. The current standards-based environment poses particular threats and challenges to character education. In spite of these pressures, character education continues and - by most measures - is growing. This article (a) defines character and examines the history of character education in U.S. public schools; (b) introduces and contrasts the major approaches: traditional character education, caring, and developmental; and (c) outlines and examines current issues including the relationship of character to citizenship education, the family and school roles in character development, the relationship of church and state, federal and state polices and funding of character education programs, and issues of evaluation and research. Although advocating for character education, the approach here to the issues is descriptive and as impartial as possible.

Modern education is in a state of global crisis partially because of the absence of a value-based design of its strategic functions. Education affects the whole spectrum of human values, namely, creative, experiential, aesthetic, material, instrumental, ethical, social, and spiritual values. A student whose educational experience involves this portfolio of human values will emerge with a virtuous integrated personality (VIP) as it combines both intellectual and moral virtues (Aristotle. 1988). The search for excellence through education can also be realized if education is value-based, for education is also a moral enterprise in addition to being an academic enterprise. If education imparts this portfolio of core values it will also enhance the meaning of one's education, commitment to academic tasks, civic duties, and the essentials of an ethical culture. These observations are expressed in a number of focal perspectives.

A topic of growing concern in Chinese higher education to policy-makers, scholars, and future student applicants is social justice. With the trend toward increasing enrollments in China's higher-education institutions, issues of equity and access have begun to surface, especially as they relate to China's minority population of over 100 million persons. The present contribution offers an overview of the regional boundaries of China, both geographic and historical. It then looks at the development of urbanicity in connection with higher education. Third, it describes the recent history of the gender gap in education both in general and in higher education in particular. Fourth, it examines the ethnic boundaries that exist in higher education. The final section analyzes related findings drawn from interviews and questionnaires administered to faculty members, administrators, and students at ten sample universities.

In recent decades, educational and curricular reforms worldwide have been designed with the goal of preparing citizens for the challenges of globalization. Globalization has been thought to require the broadening of children's occupational perspectives beyond conventional geopolitical borders and cultures. And this requirement has led to doubts about the importance of borders and nation-states and to calls for a multileveled citizenship polity. This article discusses citizenship education in detail. Sections include: (1) Globalization, Nation-State, and Citizenship Education; (2) Broadening the Global Component of Citizenship Education; (3) From Delocalization to Localization in Citizenship Education; (4) Localism in the Hong Kong Curriculum in the 1990s; (5) "Nativist" Education in Taiwan in the 1990s; (6) Redefining the National Dimension of Citizenship Education; (6) Chinese Identity Tendencies in Taiwanese Education; and (7) The Tension of Global and Local Identity in a Multileveled Community.

A comprehensive meta-analysis of the research following Glass, McGraw, and Smith's (1981) technique integrated findings from twenty-five comparative studies from 1990 to 2003 targeting student achievement and distance education in allied health professions. Student achievement was assessed through course grades and resulted in an overall effect size of 0.15, a very small positive effect for distance learners when compared to traditional students. Several dependent variables--education levels, models of distance education, and instructional design components--related to the effect size. In the distance education setting, working professional students significantly outperformed graduate and undergraduate students. Open learning and synchronous instruction were the most effective distance education models of instruction. Instructional design components implemented into a distance education course resulted in greater student achievement scores.

Few women living with the label of 'coloured' in South Africa find themselves employed in mathematics higher education. Transformation in mathematics education in South Africa has been slow and riddled with racialised microaggressions for women living with racialised labels. While there is a belief that in democratic South Africa, for racially marginalised women, life opportunities have increased, covert racism continues to be felt as racial microaggressions, starting from family and friends to those in authoritative positions of power in higher education institutions. Drawing on critical race theory and theories of racial microaggressions, five 'coloured' women were interviewed separately using semi-structured questions to better understand their lived experiences of mathematics education. The main finding was that subtleties of not belonging to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education are exercised through access to and advancement in higher education via bursaries, scholarships and awards.

This study examines the relationships between education metrics, gender equity, and innovation outcomes in the context of technological advancements and globalization, focusing on Asian nations. Using the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) for tertiary education and the Adjusted Gender Parity Index (GPIA), the research investigates each country's commitment to higher education and gender inclusion. The findings highlight that increased GER, when supported by robust research expenditure, positively influences innovation outcomes such as patent numbers and technical design advancements. However, GPIA introduces a complex dynamic, negatively affecting these outcomes despite higher educational enrollment and research investment. The study underscores the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration, hands-on curricula, and public-private partnerships in enhancing practical education relevance and mitigating gender disparities. Ultimately, it advocates for a balanced, inclusive approach to education and research to foster sustainable technological innovation.

The UNESCO Millennium Education Goal 4 states that it is important to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all." However, girls and young women in Afghanistan have not been able to get these rights. They have lost their dreams of an education. Secondary schooling is banned. They have lost their right to determine their future and their capacity to inspire their children. This article will show how we are using the internet to change this. We hope to inspire these girls and young women to attain an education. This article will show how we established 6 classes for girls in Jalalabad with local teachers who taught 365 students while we set up a website to allow these girls to learn and gain an education.

This study investigates the integration of sustainability concepts, as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), into Arabic-medium (Kindergarten-Grade 4) elementary school textbooks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). A content analysis has been conducted in 33 textbooks systematically coded to identify and categorize sustainability-related learning content. The findings reveal uneven SDG integration across sustainability dimensions, which emphasizes the need for a more balanced approach to SDG integration and comprehensive teacher education programs that ensure effective and balanced sustainability education. This pioneering effort to examine the integration of SDGs into elementary education in the UAE proposes how teacher education can support such integration based on the findings by offering critical insights for curriculum developers, pre-service teachers, teachers, and policymakers to enhance curricula and align it more effectively with SDG targets.

The third goal of higher education internationalization is a global education goal of building a more equitable world, after the individual goal of preparing students' intercultural competence for a global job market and the national goal of gaining a country's competitiveness in the global knowledge economy. The third goal has not been prioritized in past internationalization practices. This reflective essay hopes to highlight the raw fact that if the third goal is not achieved, the first two goals will be at risk. A global education turn is forced upon us in higher education internationalization. It is imperative for universities to foreground the third goal of internationalization through a focus on educating global citizens. Strengthening global citizenship education is a realistic and tangible action that universities can take to start an ethical turn in higher education internationalization.

Outdoor adventure education (OAE) is a branch of physical education grounded in outdoor physical experiences involving perceived risk and reflection. At many universities, physical education teacher education (PETE) majors must take at least one course in OAE methods. Previous research has suggested that PETE majors need more confidence to teach units or classes focused on OAE. This article presents information that was garnered from over 40 years of experience in the field and from PETE students' feedback. It aims to help PETE faculty design OAE courses so that PETE majors can more successfully deliver OAE in their future teaching placements. The article details how to build structured OAE methods courses that use experientially grounded active-learning methods to immerse students in an OAE program while teaching them how to teach OAE.

This working paper explores the relationship between local public education spending, local public school demographics, and family spending on supplemental education or private schooling. Basic to its analysis are data on school spending from the National Center for Education Statistics as well as data on family spending from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The analysis finds that spending on supplemental education or private schooling is not significantly related to local public education spending. However, such spending is significantly related to the racial/ethnic composition of school districts. Where school districts are more racially and ethnically diverse, families spend more on supplemental education or private schooling. This result is driven by the families with the highest spending, who are paying tuition for private schooling. [This paper was created with the International Partnership for the Study of Educational Privatization (IPSEP).]

This book focuses on the disruption of the tertiary higher education system as a result of societal changes occasioned by the Fourth Industrial Revolution and hastened by COVID-19. It takes the view that higher education is on an inevitable trajectory of disruption as a result of globalisation, technological disruption, and disaggregation of the formal education sector but that it must not lose sight of its central role in equipping current and future students for the new economy. The book takes a student-centric - and big-picture approach - examining some of the biggest challenges facing massified higher education systems. The authors consider ways to achieve modern, responsive and efficient higher education systems globally that are economically sound for governments and affordable for individuals.

The adaptability of public education is essential for the success of students and education professionals alike. Comprehensive reform that promotes equality and equity in educational spheres can promote adaptability and allow educational institutions and education professionals better longevity. "Emerging Strategies for Public Education Reform" is a cutting-edge research publication that provides comprehensive research on merging topics that have a significant impact on teaching and learning, which may include educational policy and updating teacher education. Featuring a wide range of topics such as curriculum design, mental health, and religious education, this book is ideal for academicians, curriculum designers, education professionals, researchers, policymakers, and students.

A recent analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum highlighted the State Legislature's failure to adequately fund the cost of programs and services for students with disabilities. Wisconsin currently reimburses school districts for less than a third of special education costs. Because special education programs and services are mandated by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the state's low reimbursement rate forces school districts to divert funds slated for the education of all students to cover the shortfall in special education funding. This report builds on the Wisconsin Policy Forum's research by providing a more detailed examination of how the lack of state support for special education impacts the funding available to educate children in Wisconsin districts with high enrollments of low-income students.