Compare and contrast the following two leadership frameworks and consider their relevant to your employment circumstances.

https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/proflearn/areas/sld/frameworks/slcf/slcf_more.htm

http://web.cecv.vic.catholic.edu.au/frameset.htm?page=search

(The place of employment is an independent girls school in Australia) Please therefore relate to Australian schools.

There are faxes for this order.

2. A curriculum development project. The project would be curriculum you have developed to teach one particular topic or content area. Some examples of areas to focus on include study skills, social s...kills, affective training, self-advocacy training, functional skills, career exploration, fractions, phonological awareness, and so on. Note that the curriculum components do not have to all be original documents created by you, but can be a compilation of resources you have put together in a systematic lesson format. The project would include a list of references for sources that you include that are not your own creation.

3. An in-service or workshop on a particular topic. This project would include both developing the in-service or workshop and presenting it at least once. The written part would include a description of the in-service/workshop and a summary of the presentation of the in-service/workshop (e.g., your perceptions of how it went, what you learned).

Project requirements..I've agreed to do a literature review and include a powerpoint....it's listed here

Note that for any of the scholarly project options you must complete a literature review. A literature review is an examination of the journal articles, ERIC documents, books, and other sources related to your topic. The purpose of this is to set your project in a theoretical context, making the connection between theory and practice. The number of sources for a literature review for a scholarly project are typically between three and fifteen. The literature review should be either embedded in the project or attached to the project. See the attachment regarding sources for a literature review.

The scholarly project needs to include a Literature review and a powerpoint based on the research. Lesson plans for incorporating the self determination lessons into the curriculum or classroom ideas for teachers. An example or two from the primary years to secondary and exiting school.

The title: Steps to Successful Transition through self advocacy towards self-determination.

Is it possible for me to add to the paper after you've returned it to me as I wanted to incorporate other information into a power point project that can assist teachers with utilizing the information. I wanted to personalize the curriculum standards and benchmarks and tie them to lessons students can more readily relate to...making lessons more meaningful...

The research shows that teachers believe it is important to teach self advocacy and self determination skills yet dont seem to know where to incorporate that information into their classroom curriculum.

A paradym shift may need to occur for some educators to allow students to advocate for themselves. It means letting go and encouraging students to think and act for themselves, which may not always be in line with what educators desire. Self Advocacy skills will encourage students to ask questions and learn to find answers to those questions.

Teaching self determination skills will encourage students not only to understand their disabilities but to also state what accommodations and modifications they need to learn. Focusing on the needs and desires of the students will empower and engage

I have some scholarly journal articles and have some ideas about the paper...
Using differentiated instruction, universal backward design, and meta cognition techniques tied to standards and benchmarks to write the goals and objectives in the IEP are essential for students to find self determination success. Not just academic success but satisfaction as they transition in the adult world.

Some ideas I have been generating include explaining what the IEP is.
What is the IEP?
What is the purpose of the IEP?
What are the responsibilities of the IEP team members?

As students attend schools, parents and guardians are legally responsible for their children. The IEP is in place to help the student learn to make progress successfully towards the goals identified by the team and to show adequate yearly progress.


Of course, at early primary ages children will be dependent upon their parents or guardians and teachers. At the young age of two toddlers begin to strike out on their journey of independence labeled the terrible twos. Adults attempt to direct and help them learn appropriate behaviors according to the norms, mores, and laws of the societies in which they live. According to Maslows Heirarchy of Need students individuals strive to meet certain biological and belonging needs. As they age those needs change. They need to gain more independence as they age. My stance is such that, students including special needs students need help identifying what they stand for at earlier ages. They need to understand who they are, where they come from, and where they want to go. Educators, parents, and those in close proximity to them help guide and foster their growth towards those needs.

Curriculum based measurements through progress monitoring and graphing will encourage students to self monitor through the use of graphing techniques.

I believe that without promoting self advocacy the student is dependent upon the parents, guardians, educators, etc. I believe there is a serious need for the student to begin to learn transition skills at an early age. It is the responsibility of the IEP team to shift more of the responsibility to the student. What is the worst that can happen when adults allow the student to identify their wants and needs. Working together collaboratively in an authoritative manner can allow students to take ownership of their education. When educators personalize the educational experience through differentiated instruction students may better understand how, math or reading, for example relate to their lives.

The title of this paper is Steps to Successful Transition through Self Advocacy towards Self determination.

Writing goals and objectives from the standpoint of self advocacy towards empowerment through self determination will foster successful outcomes based upon student interests and goals.

Yes this will involve a paradgm shift on the part of educators, administrators, parents, and students.

educators and parents Tying self-determination and self advocacy together to personalize the educational experience i

Some of the resources I have written are here. I have more I will send tomorrow.
Sources should be more current than 2002

The Journal of Special Education Volume 32/No. 1/1998 pp 55-61
Transition Services-Systems Change for youth with Disabilities
A Review of State Practices.
Antonis Katsiyannis University of Nebraska
Sharon de Fur Virginia Dept of Ed
Gregory Conderman-University of Wisconson-Eau Clair

Information Brief January 2007 volume 6 Issue 1
Addressing Trends and Developments in Secondary Education and Transition
Models of Collaboration and Cost Sharing in Transition Programming.
By Joe Timmons

Information Brief February 2006 volume 5 Issue 1
Addressing Trends and Developments in Secondary Education and Transition
Choices in Transition: A Model for Career Development
By Fabricio E. Balcazar, R. Noam Ostrander, and Teresa Garate www.ncset.org


Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 2000, 35 (4) 351-364
Promoting Transition Goals and Self-Determination Through Sudents Self Directed Learning: The Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction.
Martin Agran University of Northern Iowa Utah State University
Michael L. Weheymeyer
Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies

Transition and Self Advocacy
By: Lynda L. West, Stephanie Corbey, Arden Boyer-Stephens, and Bonnie Jones. Et al. (1999)

Article Transition Planning Its the Law! By Celeste Johnson
Summer 2001

A Conceptual Framework of Self Advocacy for Students with Disabilities
Journal article by David W. Test, Catherine H. Fowler, Wendy M. Wood, Denise M. Brewer, Steven Eddy, Remedial and Special Education, Vol. 26, 2005. Journal article excerpt

Self Determination Lesson Plan starters
http://sdsp.ucc.edu/sd_lesson_plans.asp

Some of the articles from your site looked like they could be compatible and are listed here...Paper # 52257

Self-Advocacy, 2004.
This paper discusses self-advocacy as a survival tool for ?normal? children and, especially, ?special needs? children.
7,690 words (approx. 30.8 pages), 20 sources, APA, $ 167.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
This paper explains that self-advocacy is the state of knowing what one wants, what one is entitled to, and how one can effectively craft a path that will lead one to accomplish one?s own goals within the limitations of those entitlements. The author points out that the key to determining how well a student is serving as an advocate for himself or herself is first to understand the key dimensions that make up a person?s ability to speak up for himself or herself and then to determine how to measure progress along each one of these vectors. The paper recommends that students who are learning to be an active part of the educational process and to serve as their own advocates should be able to demonstrate an increasing level of skill in areas such as communicating with others, identifying needed accommodations and supports, and expressing hopes and wants. Long quotes.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Literature Review
Importance and Limitations of IEPs
Parents as Advocates
Unity in the Face of a Common Enemy
Operationalizing Self-Advocacy
And a Child Shall Lead

From the Paper
"This is one of the key issues that must be addressed: How does one serve as the most effective advocate for oneself without infringing the rights of others? This is one of the most difficult tasks that those working with special needs children ? and especially teachers ? face. School districts are designed (both in terms of culture as well as in terms of their ability to serve children with a range of abilities on a limited budget) to force parents to become aggressive to secure rights for their children. And once they become so aggressive, they are unable to find their footing on the very narrow line between advocacy and belligerence."


Paper # 54757

Special Education, 2004.
A look at special education programs in the United States and how they have evolved.
3,956 words (approx. 15.8 pages), 15 sources, MLA, $ 107.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
This paper first gives a thorough definition of special education and what type of student requires special education and then takes a look at how special education has changed in the United States, what has affected its evolution, and federal and state legislation that has passed concerning special education. The paper also discusses the legal frameworks that have been enacted by the United States Congress and state legislatures with regards to special education as well as some of the acts enacted, which were intended to provide additional support to children with learning disabilities.

Definitions
Legal Definition of Special Education
Impact of Changing Demographics on Educational Service Delivery in the
United States
Creating Classroom Environments that Address the Linguistic and
Cultural Backgrounds of Students with Disabilities
Minority Students in Special and Gifted Education
Comparison of the California State and Federal Methods of Student
Classification
Legal Basis for Educational Services for Special Education Students

From the Paper
"According to the Federal Laws of the United States of America, ?Special Education means specially designed instruction, at no cost to the parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability [IDEA 97 300.26(a)].? The revised statutes of Arizona defines a child with disability as ?a child who is at least three but less than twenty-two years of age, who has been evaluated and found to have a disability and who, because of the disability, needs special education and related services [ARS 15-761(2)].? Under federal law, a student can qualify for special education services under the disability categories of mental retardation, hearing impairments (including deafness), speech or language impairments, visual impairments (including blindness), serious emotional disturbance, orthopedic impairments, autism, traumatic brain injury, other health impairments, or specific learning disabilities [IDEA 97 602(3)(a)]. (Special Education ? Definition), (Learning Disability Resources) & (Legal Definition of Special Education) "


Paper # 57986

Special Education, 2004.
A review of the "Journal of Special Education" article, "Special Thinking in Special Settings: A Qualitative Study of Expert Special Educators," written by L.M. Stough and D.J. Palmer.
720 words (approx. 2.9 pages), 2 sources, MLA, $ 25.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
This paper discusses the "Journal of Special Education" article, "Special Thinking in Special Settings: A Qualitative Study of Expert Special Educators," written by Stough and Palmer. The paper illustrates that the identified expert teachers were fundamentally concerned about their students' performance in school, and this concern permeated how teachers perceived and responded to their students. The paper contends that concerns with student performance motivated the teachers to closely monitor student behavior and attention and to develop a hypothesis about students' states of mind. The paper explains that strategic actions the teachers took in the classroom were the product of the teachers' hypotheses, combined with frequent reflection upon their extensive knowledge of student characteristics and educational practice.

From the Paper
"Special Education is a type of education that gives hope to people with disabilities, most especially the children. There are lots of children all over the world, most especially in developing countries who are in need of Special Education. Yet, Detterman and Thompson (1997) states that effective special educational methods have yet to be developed. Further, they stressed that effective special educational methods will not be developed until; individual differences in student characteristics beyond IQ scores are recognized and understood; and educators focus on specific and realistic goals for outcome. Regarding Detterman and Thompson's opinion on how educators should be, the journal article by Laura M. Stough and Douglas J. Palmer entitled "Special Thinking in Special Settings: A Qualitative Study of Expert Special Educators," could provide an insightful discussion on the topic."

Paper # 59537 Remove from Cart

Special Education High Schools, 2002.
Does high school prepare special education students for life after graduation?
9,058 words (approx. 36.2 pages), 17 sources, APA, $ 188.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
This paper shows that current methods of preparing teachers for the classroom do not adequately address the needs of students with learning disabilities and those with special needs. Children with learning disabilities present unique challenges to educators at all levels. The trend in the United States in the recent past has been to integrate children with learning disabilities into the "mainstream" of the educational system; teaching them, in other words, along with non-disabled children in a standard learning environment to the maximum extent possible. Thus, this approach to educating children with learning disabilities has been termed "mainstreaming," and it involves the use of both special and general education techniques to provide the maximum learning opportunities for learning disabled children. The research question addressed in this project is, "Does high school prepare special education students for life after graduation?" A careful review of possible research methodologies shows that the most appropriate methodology for this research is a causal-comparative analysis of existing studies by educators and other researchers into the efficacy of a high school education for special needs students in preparing them for life in the real world after graduation. This paper provides a reviw of the relevant literature, an analysis of secondary sources, followed by findings and a summary of the research in the conclusion.

Outline
Introduction
Literature Review
Legislative and Litigation History of Special Education
What Is Mainstreaming?
Benefits of Mainstreaming
Collaborative Education Techniques for Children With Learning Disabilities
Benefits of Inclusive Educational Settings
Challenges and Drawbacks Associated with Mainstreaming
Methodology
Findings
Discussion
Summary and Conclusion

From the Paper
"Approximately 5 percent of all public school students are identified as having a learning disability. This broad category includes disabilities in reading, language, and mathematics. One in every 10 students in public schools today receives special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). According to Horn and Tynan's assessment, "Revamping special education," prior to the 1950s, the federal government was not routinely involved in the education of children with special needs. "A few federal laws had been passed to provide direct educational benefits to persons with disabilities, mostly in the form of grants to states for residential asylums for the 'deaf and dumb, and to promote education of the blind.' These laws, however, were in the tradition of providing residential arrangements for persons with serious disabilities, services that had existed since colonial times" (Horn & Tynan, 2001, p. 36). These researchers point out that absent federal law, how -- and even whether -- children with disabilities were to be educated within the public schools was left to the discretion of the states and their local school districts. "Although some public schools undoubtedly provided exceptional services to children with disabilities, others did not. Indeed, as recently as 1973, perhaps as many as one million students were denied enrollment in public schools solely on the basis of their disability" (Horn & Tynan, 2001, p. 36). This state of affairs changed dramatically in 1975 with the passage of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142). Renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990, this landmark legislation mandated that children with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment."


Metacognition, 2005.
A paper on metacognition and the role it plays in a person's beliefs and attitude about learning and behavior.
5,015 words (approx. 20.1 pages), 40 sources, APA, $ 126.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
This paper explains that metacognition is defined, essentially, as what we think about thinking and that this process impacts our beliefs and attitudes about learning, which in turn, affect our behavior. The paper explains the differences between metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences and emphasizes that knowledge of the metacognitive process is a valuable tool for designing curricula and establishing effective learning environments.

Metacognition Defined and Illustrated
Metacognitive Knowledge
Metacognitive Experiences, Strategies, and Processes
Development of Metacognition and Its Traits
Metacognition and Learning
Beliefs and Its Impact on Learning
Learners' Beliefs and Language Learning
Identifying Learners' Beliefs about Language
Metacognition Training in Formal Education
Metacognitive Research and Teacher Practices
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The common and therefore more simplified definition of metacognition is thinking about thinking. Metacognition falls under the umbrella of cognition, which consists of all the mental activities connected with thinking, knowing, and remembering. The two concepts differ in that cognitive skills are those required to complete certain tasks while metacognitive skills are those that determine how the tasks were executed. Researchers assert that 'metacognition refers to higher order thinking which involves active control over the cognitive processes engaged in learning' (Livingston, 1). In other words, it's an individual's awareness and manipulation of his or her thinking and learning processes."

Paper # 30152 Add to Cart (You can always remove it later)

Special Education, 2002.
Looks at the growth in special education students in the American system.
10,577 words (approx. 42.3 pages), 17 sources, APA, $ 211.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
Since the introduction of PL-142 (Education of All Handicapped Children Act) in America, the Special Education system has received both praise and criticism. Special Education Programs are an essential component to our educational system. The current special education system has aided many people but improvements are desperately needed as rates of enrollment increase and the number of special education teachers decrease. This paper discusses the increase in the American special education population. It discusses the factors that have contributed to the increase, including the effect of PL-142 on the growth of the special education population, early identification of special needs, the additional conditions that qualify students for special education, the placement of low achieving students in special education programs, accountability reforms and pressure from parents. Other areas investigated are the disproportionate amount of minorities that are placed in special education programs and the disproportionate amount of males that are placed in special education. The paper includes a table.

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Increases in the Special Education Population
The Effect of PL-142 on Increases in the Special Education Population
Early Identification of Special Needs
Conditions that Qualify Students for Special Education
Placement of Low Achieving Students in Special Education Programs
Education Reforms
Pressure from Parents
Disproportionate Amount of Minorities in Special Education Programs
Disproportionate Amount of Males in the Special Education Population
Results
Discussions
Recommendations
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Horn and Tynan (2001) believe that the best way to educate this group is through direct instruction, individualized attention and feedback. They contend that these students learn best when they have access to classrooms that provide consistent instruction at a slow pace. The authors also assert that if teachers would teach these children effectively there would be a marked improvement in their performance. Horn and Tynan suggest that teachers should focus on figuring out the specific reading problem that a child may have so that they can aid the child in overcoming the problem. In addition, the authors suggest that children with attention deficit disorder should be taught not to rely on medication alone."
Paper # 106467 Add to Cart (You can always remove it later)

Metacognitive Techniques in Education, 2008.
A comprehensive study proposal that aims to explore strategies for the implementation of metacognition in standardized testing.
6,258 words (approx. 25.0 pages), 84 sources, APA, $ 146.95
Click here to show/hide summary

Abstract
The paper discusses how metacognitive techniques are being proven to show academic improvements. The paper presents a study that aims to show academic improvements quantitatively through the examination of standardized test scores to be taken after students were exposed to metacognitive techniques. The paper presents the methods of implementing this study.

Outline:
Chapter 1: Using Metacognitive Techniques to Improve Standardized Testing
Chapter 2: What is Metacognition?
Chapter 3: Methods of Implementation

From the Paper
"It was not until researcher John Flavell burst on the scene in the late 1960's that the term metacognition was actually coined and began to receive proper attention. Flavell believed that metacognition was the process of monitoring one's conscious thoughts and actively taking steps in order to maximize the learning experience (Flavell, 1979). This new emergent theory aimed to explain how childrn take conscious control of their own learning, and how that control can be manipulated in order to gain sufficient material needed to solve problems and master academic tasks (Flavell, 1976)."

The project needs to include a Literature review.

The title: Steps to Successful Transition through self advocacy towards self-determination.

Is it possible for me to add to the paper after you've returned it to me as I wanted to incorporate other information into a power point project that can assist teachers with utilizing the information. I wanted to personalize the curriculum standards and benchmarks and tie them to lessons students can more readily relate to...making lessons more meaningful...

The research shows that teachers believe it is important to teach self advocacy and self determination skills yet dont seem to know where to incorporate that information into their classroom curriculum.

A paradym shift may need to occur for some educators to allow students to advocate for themselves. It means letting go and encouraging students to think and act for themselves, which may not always be in line with what educators desire. Self Advocacy skills will encourage students to ask questions and learn to find answers to those questions.

Teaching self determination skills will encourage students not only to understand their disabilities but to also state what accommodations and modifications they need to learn. Focusing on the needs and desires of the students will empower and engage

I have some scholarly journal articles and have some ideas about the paper...

Some Conclusions that I began to think/write about include and I will need to add to them

In conclusion, the research proves that students taught to advocate for themselves are more likely to feel fulfilled and be successful as an adult.

Recommendations

Self advocacy and self determination skills assist students identification of who they are, what they are interested in academically, socially, and which direction do they intend or hope their lives will go in regards to education, work and or career, volunteering, social activities and outlets,.

Teachers need to reassess their role as educators. Being able to shift the power in the teacher student relationship is a huge paradym shift.
Empowering students to take ownership of their education will empower them to accept accountability for their actions, goals and objectives.

Creating and incorporating personal self-advocacy and self determination lessons into the curriculum and IEP will guide students towards unique appropriate chosen goals and objectives.

Collaboration and commitment amongst agencies. In order to assist students in transition adult education and social agencies need to collaborate in order to prevent the support from falling away leaving the student vulnerable and exposed to the unexpected elements.

Teaching self-determination and self advocacy skills again will teach skills that will foster independence and solutions oriented options.

it is advisable recommended that educators consider the ramifications of not teaching self determination skills.


Reflective statement

As a Special Education instructor it is especially rewarding to observe positive empowering changes in our students. Watching a student with Developmental Cognitive Delays stop, think, and decide which choice is the best or how to fix a problem they may have created.

Meta-cognition strategies are essential as students learn to self monitor and assess










There are faxes for this order.  more

You are to write a 2-page paper. For Outside Sources, Use Internet Articles and Journal Articles. Do Not Use Book(s).

This is a 2-part paper...

Part 1

I want you to consider how ideology/philosophy impacts on approaches to program planning. Your company has recently been decided to offer professional development programs for mid-level managers in the agency. Consider the Similarities and Differences in approach to such an educational intervention based upon differing philosophical assumptions as held by the following four streams of education ideology:
a.liberal tradition
b.progressive
c.humanist
d.radical liberatory
**Be sure to use the Elias and Merriam definitions of the streams. **


Part 2

I want you to reflect upon your own personal philosophy of program planning, particularly regarding your basic assumption about human nature, role of the learners, role of the teacher, and purpose of adult education. Develop a summary of your position-be succinct.




There are faxes for this order.

Share an experience from your high school years through which you have gained respect for intellectual, social, or cultural differences.

I am a senior at North Forsyth High School in Cumming, GA - single parent home - not lots of experiences involving diversity which have been life-changing - I have always had respect for any type of diversity so this paper is almost impossible for me to write -
Hopefully, you can think of something and I can personalize it a bit if necessary.

This is a formal paper, use readings below to help aid in answering the discussion questions. You must quote from the readings in order to substantiate your points. Use APA format when quoting from th...e readings. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

Discussion Questions
1.How can the quality of distance education be measured reliably and validly? What criteria are appropriate for assessing the quality of distance education? Are those same criteria appropriate for assessing the quality of classroom-based education?
2.Do tertiary institutions have clear policies about distance education course in program quality? Are procedures for monitoring quality in place? Is responsibility for monitoring quality clearly identified?


Distance Education Policy Issues: Towards 2010
Peter Dirr
At the time the authors suggest six questions that researchers might address to develop baseline information on the newly emerging field of distance education. Those questions are as follows: how needed is distance education in the US? How are the clients for distance education? What are their needs? Who should pay for distance education and how much? Can newer technologies help distance education overcome some of the barriers to traditional education opportunities? Where will our next generation of distance educators come from? What types of training will they need? What are the research needs of distance education as we approach the year 2000? Some of those questions are as valid today as they were in 1990 expressly given the growing number of persons participating in distance education in the US. In writing his 1990 chapter that Arthur relied entirely on issues from his own experiences in reviewing hundreds of proposals for finding and in in overseeing several of the leading distance education projects of that time. In comparing the current chapter, he relied on a review of articles on distance education that have appeared in the Chronicle of higher education, the American Journal of distance education, and various other sources of distance education literature the variety of articles almost defy classification but certain issues emerge from the midst more central than others. Some issues were identified in composite list develop a national or regional organizations such as accrediting bodies or governing boards. Others emerged as single issues but were cited by many sources.
Composite List of Issues
some groups especially national and regional planning organizations have compiled composite list of issues facing distance education. For example, the American Council on education issue to publication in March 2000 developing a distance education policy for the 21st Century learning. In it the American Council on education identify the following seven areas in which policies must be review or developed: intellectual property policies, ownership of distance education courses, faculty issues (e.g. teaching load, preparation time, and class size); student issues (e.g. increased access, privacy issues, and disabled students); limiting liability; commercialization (e.g. direct agreements, consortia, and royalties for licenses); and teaching beyond state and international borders.
The council for higher education accreditation has contracted with the Institute for higher education policy to conduct a series of literature reviews and original research called distance learning in higher education 1999; Council for higher education accreditation. Those report documents the expanding universe of distance learning and the growth of statewide virtual universities. Among the issues identified are the following: equity gap, digital divide, lack of teacher training, battle over encryption, works made for hire, contractual transfer (as faculty member switch institutions), and security/privacy. Student aid for distance learners: charting a new course, a separate report from the Institute of higher education policy 1998, the new rates several student aid policy issues that are unique to student pursuing distance education. They suggest that student aid should be holding learners centered, following the student through his or her academic program, available without regard to the mode of instructional delivery, awarded only to student in accredited program of study, and try to standards of academic progress and not arbitrary measure of time. They also suggest a regulation should allow flexibility on the part of institutions and that any amounts and limit should focus on lifetime standards rather than annual or institutional maximums. Working for a consortium of the six regional accrediting association, the Council of regional accrediting commission's 2000 prepared a draft of guidelines for the evaluation of electronically offered degree and certificate programs. Those guidelines focus on the following areas, indicating policy issue for institutions of higher education to consider in developing distance education programs: institutional context and commitment, curriculum and instruction, faculty support, student support, and evaluation/assessment. Reviewing contemporary research on the effectiveness of distance learning in higher education, Phipps and Merisotis 1999 cite the following gap in research: students outcomes for program rather than courses, differences among students, investigation of reasons for dropout rates, differences in learning styles related to particular technologies, the interaction of multiple technologies, the effectiveness of digital libraries, and a theoretical or conceptual framework. The review identifies three broad implications of the current research: the notion that distance education provides access the computer mediated learning requires special skills and technical support that might not exist; technology cannot replace the human factor; and technology is not nearly as important as other factors, such as learner cast, learner characteristics, student motivation, and the instructor. The same pair also wrote quality on the line: benchmark for success in Internet based education Phipps and Merisotis 2000, in which they identify 24 benchmarks considered essential to ensuring excellence in Internet based distance education. The benchmarks fall into seven categories: institutional support, course development, teaching/learning, or structure, student support, faculty support, and evaluation and assessment. This author in a review of the status of distance and virtual education in the US in 1999 Dirr, identify the following as important trends in the profession: the pervasiveness of change, growing commercial interest in education, the importance of partnership and alliances, and unbundling of the educational process. An Internet search for policies of distance education reveals a robust body of literature on the policies of individual institutions. In one instance, a group of researchers studied the written distance education policies of all the tertiary institutions in the state of Nebraska. They found that most existing policy dealt with: academic areas, faculty issues, students, and technical issues. Academic issues emphasize course integrity, especially ensuring the equivalents of distance education program with regular on-campus instruction. Measure of the code and see included class time, course content, student services, prerequisite skills, and instructor qualifications. The University of Nebraska system had the most policies (103), followed by community college's (48), state colleges (32), and independent colleges (32). The researchers found that legal and cultural issues were not addressed in any sector. They also found that written policies were more structured were collaborative efforts exist. They attributed this to the need to develop and communicate rules of participation for the collaborative efforts. They concluded that multi-instructional arrangements might be an excellent opening to cultivate and generate fundamental policy actions. Looking across these composite lists of policy issues facing distance education, one sees the faculty and student issues appear on almost all the list, as to academic and curriculum issues. Beyond those categories the list presents a quite disparate grouping of additional issues.
Singular Citation of Policy Issues
In addition to the composite lists of policy issues more than 100 articles over the past two years in the Chronicle of Higher Education alone have dealt with the policy issues that affect distance education in the US. The articles might have been labeled as policy issues but they certainly have policy implications for the future of distance education and in some cases the higher education in general. In most cases the issues addressed in those articles are also found in the composite lists of policy issues cited above. For the convenience the single citation have been classified by the author in the following categories: quality issues, equity and access, collaboration and commercialization, globalization, intellectual property rights, the roles of technology in distance education, faculty issues, student issues, and research and evaluation. Because many of the citations in this section are drawn from the Chronicle of Higher Education reporters Blumenstyk, Carnavale, Carr, and Young will be referenced often.
Quality Issues
Several articles have addressed the issues of how to maintain quality in distance education courses and programs. At a September 2000 meeting of education officials from 30 nations, but is it is recognizes education as a means learners to become exchange students without passports of costly plane tickets. They sought to identify ways to foster coordination among institutions. High on their list was the development of ways to measure the quality of distance education courses and programs (Young, 2000). Sometimes the issues of quality is dealt with subtly. In an editorial in the American Journal of distance education, Michael Moore 2000 notes that two articles in fact issue address the question of whether distance teaching requires more or less work from the faculty than traditional teaching. Just below the surface of that question, however, live the issues of quality of instruction and the amount of interaction between the instructor and student. Following up on an announcement of the development of the new guidelines for distance education developed by the Council regional accreditation commission for the six regional credit rating agencies, interviewed Charles M. Cook of the New England Association of schools and colleges that observed that although the guidelines sought to ensure a quality distance education experiencing a half also anticipated new pedagogy one that shifts toward the learner and away from the teacher. This carries an important message for researchers will in future will be setting the quality of distance education courses. Charles Cook points out that because the assumptions of what happens in a traditional classroom cannot be made about an online course distance education will be held to a more explicit and possibly more detailed set of criteria and would be applied in a traditional classroom. If explicit criteria are developed for distance education courses might those same criteria be used to challenge the assumptions that underlie traditional classroom experience? It is not possible that holding distance education to higher standards may have ripple effect raising the standards for all of higher education? There is also an emerging body of evidence that distance education might be having qualitative impact on how students learn. For example, Lang 2000 and skeptically whether an asynchronous environment can foster suspension critical thinking given the lack of gestures and subtle nonverbal clues that students have in face-to-face instruction. In the end, he argues that online discussion can develop high level thinking skills, citing the experiences of faculty and students involved in an online writing across the curriculum course. Because words do not disappear and can be read, remit, and revised all online participants have an equal opportunity to organize your thoughts clearly. Furthermore since the conversation is not confined to an artificial time limit all participants have an equal opportunity to speak. The Pew Charitable Trust have been influential in encouraging new ways to evaluate the quality of learning experience. With $3.3 million in funding the trust have supported the development of the national survey of student engagement. The survey measures the extent to which colleges encourages actual learning by scoring student responses to 40 questions. More than 63,000 undergraduates filled out a questionnaire in spring 2000. The questionnaire actresses five benchmarks: the level of academic challenge, the amount of active collaborative learning, student interaction with faculty members, access to in reaching education experience (e.g. internship and study abroad programs), and the level of campus support (e.g. social life and help in coping with nonacademic responsibilities). Not all of efforts to improve the quality of distance education have come from within the traditional higher education sector. Blumenstyk and McMurtrie 2000 reported on the tension being calls in higher education should go buy a fairly new a credit-rating agency, global alliance for transnational education. Created by Glyn Jones, founder of Jones international University the first fully online university accredited in the US, global alliance for transnational education is an international accredited agency for technology-based education programs and institutions. Originally run by a nonprofit group global alliance for transnational education has now become one of Jones's several for-profit businesses related to distance education. Critics charge that as a for-profit company tied to Joneses other businesses, global alliance for transnational education is riddled with conflicts of interest resulting from the marriage between the corporate and academic worlds. In a letter to the editor responding to critics, Jones 2000 noted that for-profit corporations are increasingly playing a leading role industry-leading education and that traditional nonprofit institutions are no longer the sole gatekeepers of quality education. Other solutions of the quality issue might also emerge from the private sector. Recognizing the vacuum in cyberspace when he comes to reliable information with which to evaluate online courses some web sites such as new promise.com, ecollege.com, and hungry minds have become to allow students who have taken online courses to post evaluations of those courses, similar to the way Amazon.com posts evaluation of the books in sales or eBay allows buyers to rate sellers of auction items (Carnavale, 2000).

Equity and Access
At the turn-of-the-century, the professional literature and the public press were full of references to the digital divide -- the gulf between the affluent and the poor in terms of access to telecommunications services and computer technologies. There was general concerns that the digital divide would have a major impact on access to distance education opportunities. Phipps and Merisotis 1999 pointed out that even though most studies of distance education courses concluded that these courses compare favorably with classroom based instruction and that students in these courses enjoy higher satisfaction than students in traditional classes the notion that distance education provides access to higher education opportunities might be mistaken. Many distance education courses require computer mediated technology and skills and technical support that certain students might not have. Increasingly colleges and universities are attending to the need to make online courses accessible for all students, including the handicapped. In colleges strive to give disabled students access to online courses; Carnavale 1999 reported that colleges are finding that they must include the virtual equipments of Wiltshire ramps when building online courses. To understand the requirements colleges are urged to consider the guidelines developed by the California community college systems.
Collaboration and Commercialization
An overriding theme of much of today's literature in the extent to which alliances among colleges and between colleges and commercial interests are playing leading roles and the development and delivery of distance education at the higher education level. More has been written on the topic than any other. However since this theme is covered in depth elsewhere this theme is only noted briefly here. Many collaborations are driven by the need of the partners to provide their offerings to more students each year thereby increasing their revenues each year. This is as true for colleges and University as it is for commercial firms with whom they partner. For although enrollments in the US colleges and universities are growing steadily and tuition costs are growing along with them the increase enrollments by themselves cannot provide sufficient fuel for expansion. The scope of collaboration and the factors that motivate them are quite varied. Some are region-wide alliances, such as Kentucky virtual University (Young, 2000), Western governors University, and the Southern regional educational board electronic campus (Carnavale, 2000). Others bring together groups of institutions that share interests such as Jesuit-net, a collaborative effort of 24 and the 28 Jesuit universities in the US, and Universitas 21, a network of 17 or 18 procedures universities in 10 countries. The collaborators often struggle to devise relationships that draw on the strengths of each to create and deliver new products to meet the perceived needs of vast populations of adult learners. Sometimes, the collaborations involve a commercial partner most notably a publisher along with institutions of higher education. Other times institutions of higher education have established their own commercial distance education programs to extend their academic programs to new groups of learners. Cornell University, for example, formed a for-profit distance education entity named e-Cornell, Temple University created virtual temple, and the University of Maryland formed UMUC online.com a for profit arm to market its online courses to new groups of students. Temple University quietly shut down virtual temple in early 2001, less than 18 months after its and adoration, because it was not economically viable. One rather recent distance education collaborator in the US federal government especially the military, education opportunities are seen as a key incentive for attracting and retaining recruits to volunteer service. In the final days of 2000, the US Army found its six-year $453 million project to deliver distance education courses to soldiers all of the world. The project, Army University access online, involves a commercial company Price Waterhouse Cooper, 10 companies, and 29 colleges. By the middle of 2001 it had already enrolled more than 4000 persons in distance education courses. The U.S. Navy initiating similar program around the same time.
Globalization
Interwoven into many of the collaborations is the theme of globalization. The very technologies used for distance education today make it possible for an institution to think beyond its traditional borders. The technologies also make it possible for potential students to sink education opportunities from tertiary institution throughout the world. This trend holds the potential of having a major impact on traditional institutions because this theme is dealt with in depth elsewhere in this handbook, only a few examples will be mentioned here as evidence of its importance. Many US universities have already begun to extend their distance education programs into other countries as a way to expand their student population. Currently enrolling about 75,000 students in the US, the University of Phoenix plans to I had another 75 students in such diverse countries as China, India, Mexico, and Brazil. Carnegie Mellon University plans to offer online programming courses to 15,000 students in India. The University of Bar-Ilan Israel and developing virtual Jewish universities to deliver in Jewish studies courses to learners throughout the world. And on any more global level, the World Bank is setting up distance learning centers in countries that lack the telecommunication infrastructures so that learners in those countries might have access to education opportunities offered in other parts of the world. One challenge that will face all institutions offering distance education over the next decade will be to develop new guidelines and policies that allow the expansion of education opportunities through distance education while its same time providing learners with appropriate course of instruction and student support services.
Ownership and Intellectual-Property Rights
The issue of ownership and intellectual-property rights is one of the importance in all sectors of education today. This issue shows up on many of the composite list of issues facing distance education. Developing a distance education policy for 21st-century (American Council on education, 2000) in this intellectual-property rights first on the list of issues that must be reviewed and address. Distance learning in higher education cites works made for hire and joint works are two of the policies that must be addressed. Written policies of many tertiary institutions that offer distance education programs addressed issues of intellectual-property rights of institution and of individual faculty members. Policy at San Diego State University requires that faculty and the university must agree on who owns an online course before the course begins. A faculty committee at the University of Illinois has recommended that professors retain ownership and control of online courses. Aside from the issue of ownership of online courses the issue of copyright raises many questions for which there is no clear answer. In fact, the congressional web-based commission referred to the copyright law as a horse and buggy on the information superhighway. The Napster case in the US and the icrave.com case in Canada have provided vivid examples on how the law and policy lagged behind practices supported by new technologies. It is safe to say that it is not currently clear just how the copyright laws will apply to digitized content.
The Role of Technology in Distance Education
Colleges and universities in the US have been increasing their spending on information technologies including those used in distance education. A study of liberal arts colleges by David L. Smallen of Hamilton College and Karen L. Leach of Colgate University shows that in the decade of the 1990s the typical liberal arts college doubled its spending on information technology services. Information technology spending at liberal arts colleges at the end of 1990s was typically 3.5% to 5.2% of total institutional spending. PC replacement costs accounted for 14% to 24% of the total. A broader annual study of technology using by tertiary institutions, the campus computing project, by Kenneth Green, showed that in spite of increased expenditures on information technology institutions of higher education still have a long way to go. The study in 2000 found that 60% of all college courses uses e-mail as a tool for instruction, and 30% of all courses have web sites. In spite of that high level use of the technology by faculty members, administrators remain skeptical about its value. Only 14% of administrators agree with the statement, technology has improved instruction on my campus. Green believes that in the absence of empirical evidence of impact the increase in technology use might begin to slow. He noted that some technology trends in society at large have yet to catch on in academe, citing the absence of any meaningful use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) by colleges. He further noted that academe is far behind the private sector when it comes to e-commerce. Only 19% of colleges have e-commerce services such as tuition payment. Perhaps educators have reason to be at least slightly timid about jumping on the technology bandwagon. That many businesses are suffering because they bet on web-based growth rates that are well beyond what could be delivered. That has led to the downfall of several dot com companies. Rather than banking completely on the Internet, Noguchi 2000 encourages business to think of the Internet as enhancing what they already do, and extension of the business rather than a revamping of it. That is not bad advice for colleges and universities with distance education programs. Distance education has existed through correspondence courses for more than a century. Access to distance education was accelerating in the 1970s with the introduction of television bass lessons that were broke faster of the US on public television stations the advanced capabilities of Internet based courses have greatly expanded the reach of distance education courses open new opportunities for learners to continue their education. But the sad fact is that we know little about the impact that these technologies have on the access or quality of education being provided. One question that has been raised Ridley for at least three decades is, how effective is the use of technology in education? This question has been very specifically about distance education. Some studies in recent years have addressed the issue of the roles and effectiveness of technology in distance education. Unfortunately many of those have been a dimensional, that is, they have focused on a single technology is isolation from many other variables from the horse race syndrome; that is, they attempted compared a technology base course with a traditional course to see which came out ahead in terms of student learning. This approach suffers from two flaws: first, it holds up the traditional course as the standard to be emulated rather than asking whether things might be done differently (and may be better) by using the power of technologies, second, it overlooks the sample bias that is inherent in the research methodology when potential students cannot randomly assigned to traditional or distance education courses.
Faculty Issues
Many faculty issues emerge from the literature. Faculty concerns our needs are referenced in most of the composite list of issues cited at the beginning of this chapter. A study of 402 college faculty members drawn from the 85,000 members of the national education Association found that faculty members who have taken part in developing and/or offering distance education courses are generally enthusiastic about the experience and benefits of teaching distance education courses. They might feel that they put in more work on distance education courses than on traditional courses but they also believe the benefits outweighed the extra work involved. Some faculty members have used students as a shield questioned the appropriateness of distance education courses when Fairleigh Dickenson University decided to require that all its undergraduates take at least one distance education course annually in part to help students become global scholars who are able to use the Internet for IT purposes, the American Federation of teachers question whether that was an appropriate requirement for students who do not do well in distance education courses. Nevertheless, some pouty members expressed fear about distance education, some fear that they might be replaced by Barry distance education courses they help develop. Others fear that distance education might take jobs away from Ph.D.'s and put them in the hands of business executives and poorly paid part-timers. Still others resist this is education because they fear it will increase competition from foreign institutions. One thing that seems to increase faculty opposition to distance education is when administrators commit to distance education programs without adequate consultation with the faculty. This became a major issue when Cornell University established e-Cornell to deliver distance education courses and when Temple University established virtual temple. The San Diego State University policy on distance education, developed by the faculty senate, contains several requirements that reflect the concerns of faculty: professors must oversee online courses in their fields, students must have substantial, personal, and timely entry action with faculty members and other students, faculty and the university must agree on who owns the course before it begins, students must be assured of access to appropriate resources and services, and full-time professors must not be replaced by part-time instructors. Another concern of faculty members is that distance education might be leading to a new learning paradigm and changed roles for the faculty. The concern seems to be supported by some of the literature. The draft guidelines for the Council regional accrediting commissions to help colleges and University review the quality of electronically offered online degrees and certificate programs anticipate a new pedagogy won the shifts toward the learner and away from the teacher. Some see the emergence of multi-University portals and statewide virtual universities as evidence of new learning paradigm in which the faculty role changes from teacher to designer of interactive materials and guide for students. Perhaps the most interesting train in terms of potential impact on the roles of about 20 members in distance education is the unbundling of the parts of education process. This phenomenon was identified by this author in 1999 as one of the leading trends in distance and virtual learning in the US (Dirr, 1999). Since then the team had appeared several times. In September 2000, John Stone noted that the task of teaching and supporting students learning are becoming unbundled. One way of breaking out of this components is as follows: curriculum development, content development, information delivered, mediation and tutoring, student services, administration, and assessment. As these functions most of which have traditionally been done by individual factor members are unbundled, it becomes possible to ask who might best performed each function and which of the functions might be contracted out. Distance education provide a fertile testing ground for exploring such arrangements. A growing number state line institutions and consortium provide administrative services for online students. Follet, Amazon.com and others offer electronic bookstores and library services. Others offer testing services the most recent addition to the field is smart thinking.com, an online tutoring service with coverage 24 hours a day seven days a week. The theme of contracting out unbundle services appeared again indecent or 2000. A new digital library company announced plans to offer students online access to searchable books and journals. For a fee of about $20 to $30 per month, students would have access to 50,000 scholarly books and journals (150,000 by the end of 2003). The resources would be searchable by keyword leading some faculty to fear a cut and paste approach to the research and report writing an approach that could lower the effort that students put in to their studies. About the same time the faculty union at New York University was expressing his concern that new roles for faculty hired by the University online subsidiary would begin to break down the teaching functions into a series of discrete tasks performed by different people which would lead to disassembling and de-skilling of the profession. A counterbalance to such faculty affairs can be found in a monograph issued by the league for innovation. The faculty guide in moving teaching and learning to educational networking is intended to encourage faculty members to break a course down into component functions and explore how they can for field each component without meeting any fiscal classroom.
Student Issues
Distance education programs and courses have become known for being more student centered than many other university programs in part because many distance education programs are developed in response to specific perceived needs for the students. But how well our distance education programs doing responding student needs? Few empirical data exist. Young 2000 interviewed seven adult students who were taking online courses. For several the courses provided a chance to be back in college and opportunity they would not have had absent distance education. Many reported a nagging guilt -- that they should be logging-on to their courses web pages more often. Those who were most successful had developed a regular schedule for working on their courses. The oft-reported isolation of distance learner were supported to some extent by these interviews. The students stated that the dismissed instant feedback from their professors. They also found taking exams a logistical challenges especially if they had to travel to campus to take the exam. Although generally satisfied with the distance education experience the students recognize the distance education is probably not appropriate for everyone. Hara and Kling 1999 also studied a small group of students six enrolled in a web-based distance education course. They identify several frustrations that inhibited student performance in the course. These included a felt need to compete among each other on the volume of e-mail messages submitted, a perceived lack of feedback because of the lack of physical presence of the instructor and other students, technical problems and the absence of personnel to provide technical support and ambiguous instructions from instructor. The students dealt with these frustrations by venting them with each other over the Internet. The authors do not end up condemning distance education but rather causation institutions against advertising only the virtues of computer mediated distance education when promoting courses. These studies possibly reflect the way that many distance education courses have been developed they have devolved out of campus base courses in faculty member focus almost all their attentions on getting the content of the course transferred into a new medium the Internet. However a new emphasis began to emerge in the late 1990s spurred in part by a funding program of the fund for the improvement of postsecondary education. The fund encourage institutions amending proposals for funding to think about the entire student experience when designing distance education courses as much emphasis was placed on making quality student support services accessible at a distance as was devoted to quality presentation of the course content. One of the recipients of the fund for the improvement of postsecondary education grant was the Western cooperative for educational telecommunications an organization that has played a leading role in looking at how support services are provided to students studying at a distance. The goal of the Western cooperative for educational telecommunications -- the fund for the improvement of postsecondary education Project was to identify colleges and universities that had developed quality suites of student support services that were delivered to students at a distance. From a survey of 1028 institution the project learned that most institutions that offer distance education courses that concentrated on delivery of existing courses without developing new support services for students studying electronically. Most held firm to traditional structures and policies for student support services. The findings of that study led Western cooperative for educational telecommunications to create its guide to developing online student services. This guide offers a series of the practices for delivering student services via the Internet. It ends with a section call outstanding web-based student services system, which highlights some institutions that have shifted from a provider perspective to a customer centered orientation for providing student support services. The most advanced institutions have three decision-support systems that offer students variety of opportunities for self-help and customized services. The guide notes that within the past couple of years a number of software companies have been gone to develop products that assist institutions in making the transition to a customer centered orientation. For-profit and nonprofit companies are also developing resources that help students sort through the thousands of online courses that are available and to choose a course that best fit each student's needs and interests. Rose 2000 evaluated 21 online course database is designed to help students locate the right courses or program. Criteria for evaluating databases include user friendliness, search capabilities, reliability, course offerings, course information, and connectivity. Another student issue that continues to work in the background distance education is the number of dropouts from distance education courses. It is generally recognized that enrollments in distance education courses are increasing but so is the number of dropouts. National figures do not exist but anecdotal information suggests a sum that dropout rates are higher in distance education courses than in traditional courses. Direct comparisons across institutions are difficult because institutions in a report completion and dropout rates in any consistent way. Some speculate that distance education dropout rates are higher because distance education students are older than traditional students and have busier schedules. Others argue that the nature of distance education courses is at fault in that they cannot supply the personal introduction that some students crave. This is certainly an area that deserves further research. Some colleges have entered the world distance education without fully considering the implications for disabled students they were surprised, for example, that they must include the virtual equivalents of wheelchair ramps on the web sites when building online courses. This can raise the cost of developing online courses. Provisions of the American with a disability act and the vocational rehabilitation act are generally interpreted to apply to online education programs even though the US office of civil rights has not yet issued rules for online courses. In the meantime colleges are being urged to use guidelines developed by the California community colleges system. The report of congressional web-based education commission has already reference above. The report recognized the students in distance education courses and programs are penalized by existing laws and regulations. One regulation is that specifically targeted is a requirement that to be eligible for full student aid a student must at least take 12 hours of classes each semester. The whole question of student aid for students enrolled in distance education courses was studied by IHEP 1998. In its report student aid for distance learners: charting a new course, IHEP suggested several principles future policies regarding student aid for distance education: student aid should be available without regard to mold of institutional delivery, delivery of student aid should be learners center, with eight following the student through the academic program, aid should be awarded only to those an accredited programs of study, awarding of age should be tied to standards of academic progress and not average really measures of time, regulations allow flexibility on the part of institutions, and aid amounts and limit should focus on lifetime standards rather than annual or institutional maximums.
Research and Evaluation
The need for research and evaluation distance education generally recognized however that the need is really get in shape. Consequently although many studies can be found there is little organization among them and cumulatively they did not add up to a significant body of research on topics that are critical for guiding the future of distance education. As in 1990 the author will encourage the research community to concentrate their energies on a limited number of questions so that the sum total of the research efforts might have far more impact on the future of distance education than if they were without a focus. Certainly some quality research and evaluation is done in distance education, Phipps and Merisotis 1999, of IHEP with backing from the American Federation of teachers and the national education Association analyze what current research tells us and does not tell us about the effectiveness of distance education. They found that many of the questions educators have about distance education are unanswered by existing research in their opinion although there is a not insignificant body of original research, little of it is dedicated to explaining or predicting distance education phenomenon. From their perspective, three Bourque measures of effectiveness dominate the research: student outcomes, student attitudes, and overall student satisfaction. According to Phipps and Merisotis most of the studies of distance education conclude that distance education compares poorly with classroom base instruction and that students enjoy higher satisfaction with distance education courses then with classroom base course. However their review of research suggests that many of the research studies are of questionable value, rendering the findings inconclusive in the opinion of the reviewers. The current research suffers from key shortcomings: it does not control the extraneous variables and cannot show cause and effect, it does not use random selection of subjects, and the validity and reliability of the issue mints are often questionable. In looking at gaps in current research Phipps and Merisotis identify the following needs: studies of student outcomes for complete programs of study rather than the single courses, careful attention to the differences among students, investigation of reasons for dropout rates, research on how differences in learning styles relate to different technologies, research on the interaction of multiple technologies, research on the effectiveness of digital libraries, and development of the theoretical or conceptual framework. Using a modified Delphi technique, Rockwell, Furgason, and Marx 2000 surveyed educators in Nebraska to identify needs for distance education research and evaluation. They identified for topic areas: cooperation and collaboration among institutions including postsecondary and secondary schools, designing the educational experience to meet the unique needs of distance learners, teach preparation especially in competencies that are unique to distance education, and educational outcomes expressing participation and completion rates. Smith and Dillon 1999 tackled a difficult problem of how to conduct comparative studies that will withstand critical review. They know that most comparative studies have suffer from confounding factors in their methodologies making the findings suspect. They propose a schema to address the issues of confronting factors, the media attribute theory, a framework based on identifying the defining categories of attributes that are embedded within each delivery system and media used in distance education course. The categories of attributes they suggest include realism/bandwidth, feedback/interactivity, and branching/interface. Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dan Carnavale 2000 reported on a study criteria for an excellent online course, Lee Alley chief executive officer of world-class strategies Inc. Alley stated that some aspects of distance education that were considered novelties if you years ago are now considered essentials for quality distance education. He specifically cited regular into action between student and faculty and among students, a student centered approach, and a built-in opportunities for students to learn on their own. He concluded that distance education is changing the theoretical underpinnings of tertiary education by forcing an understanding that you don't transmit knowledge; knowledge is constructed. This will inevitably lead to a change from faculty centered to student centered instruction. Ongoing tracking of developments in issues in distance education has been a characteristics of the work of the CHEA and IHEP. Since at least 1998 these two organizations have worked together to issue an annual report, distance learning in higher education. The report looks at the status of distance education at the tertiary level in the US, tracking growth, identifying trends, and raising issues. The organizations have also undertaken focus studies of distance education, such as IEHPs what's the difference? A review of contemporary research on the effectiveness of distance learning in higher education and quality on the line call in benchmarks for success in Internet base education. One issue that has gotten sporadic attention from researchers and the cost of distance education. Brian M. Morgan, a professor at Marshall University has developed an interactive spreadsheet that will help an institution compute the likely cost it will incur in offering distance education courses. Morgan 2000 also wrote and extensive background paper, is distance learning worth it? Helping to determine the cost of online courses, in which he identified the research he did several original surveys to obtain the data on which he based the algorithms used in the interactive worksheet. The paper contains many helpful references and insights. Business might be even more concerned about the cost of providing learning opportunities than some colleges and universities. Writing and the Washington Post, Evans 2000 noted that Internet base lessons are rapidly overshadowing traditional manual and face-to-face classes and many corporations. According to international data Corp., which falls more than 200 e-learning companies, the e-learning market will grow from $550 million in 1998 to $11.4 billion in 2003, especially in the view of the need of companies to deliver up-to-the-minute training to workers all over the globe without having them leave their place of work. Not all e-learning is online because not every place on earth have the bandwidth needed to accommodate interactive learning over the Internet. Whalen and Wright 1999 use the case study approach to analyze the cost benefit of web-based telelearning at the bell online Institute. They examined the relative importance of several design elements and presented a detailed cost-benefit analysis model of courses that Bell uses to train employees and customers. Treat courses each equivalent to a two-day classroom course were developed and offered on for learning platforms (WebCT, Mentys, Pebblesoft, and Symposium). Fixed and variable costs were computed for each, including the cost of delivery platforms and transmission costs, salaries, hardware, and license fees. The author concluded that web page training has higher fixed cost than classroom base training but those costs are offset by lower variables costs in course delivery given a larger enough number of students overtime.
Conclusion
There are many policy issues concerning distance education that must be addressed over the next decade. There is little evidence in the literature to indicate that they will be addressed in any systematic way. That along with the fact that distance education holds the potential to have a greater impact on higher education than any other single phenomenon for several decades, leads this author to suggest that the education community consider adopting a framework, a focus, and funding that will permit systematic development of policies that can advance quality distance education. A systematic approach will also facilitate the documentation and validation of the impact distance education has on the lives of learners. At a starting point, the author suggests that the policy issue areas identified above serve as the framework for policy development. The focus might be created by carefully crafting the few questions in each policy area.  more

3-page Summary
This is a formal paper, use readings below to help aid in summarizing the reading. When summarizing the readings you must quote from the readings in order to substantiate your point...s. Use APA format when quoting from the readings. Do Not Use Outside Sources!

Moore & Kearsley

Strategic Planning
For the senior employees of an institution -- its managers -- 1 of the main responsibilities in strategic planning. This involves a number of processes, including: defining a vision and a mission, goals, and objectives for the institution or program regarding distance education, choosing among options so that the priority goals can be achieved with acceptable quality and with the available resources, continuous assessment of changing trends in students, business, and societal demands, tracking emerging technological options that might make for a greater efficiency, and projecting future resources and financial needs and taking actions to meet them.
Defining the Mission
at the institutional level and the same could be said of the state and federal levels strategic planning begins with the defining a mission, a long-term direction based on a concept of the place of the institution in society, usually based also won a self-awareness of its role historically. Not to have such a self-awareness levels of administrative and teaching staff of an institution without a secure point of reference when faced with decisions to be made arising from many changes that take place in the social and economic environment in which they have to plan and deliver their programs. Since there is an almost infinite variety of potential distance education market the organization leadership needs to be explicit about what is attempting to serve, how, and why. Otherwise as they tried to be all the things to all people they're likely to spread their resources to thinly to survive in a competitive educational market. Certainly mission statements must not become a drag on flexibility or readiness to respond to new opportunities and so should be reviewed periodically expressly by lawless tabs institutions were the size and location of their student catchment area is likely to change as technology changes. A good illustration of the importance of the mission as both an anchor for policy in the institution as well as a guide to decisions about change is seen in state universities that have their distance education programs historically grounded in the land-grant tradition of service and outreached residents of the state. It is the job of the institution management to supply of the resources of e.g. people, facilities, time, money needed to achieve its mission and to articulate policies that enabled administrators to select goals and objectives that are realizable within the limits of those resources.


Deciding Whether to Proceed
Before proceeding to invest in a distance education program and institution Management must first consider it distance education is appropriate at all in fulfilling its mission and if it is being to make choices among the various alternative courses that could be offered. One aspect of this checking that there is a real demand and one that is likely to be sustained for it. Generally this would be indicated by market research data showing that there is sufficiently large number of interests students it is also is necessary to examine demographic envisage trains see what changes might be expected in the future that might impact courses and programs. For example changes in immigration patterns that affect the multicultural makeup of the US population means that some colleges that have specialize in multilingual courses may see a new opportunity in distance education. For the trend for multiple to work at home or to have some businesses may create a bigger market for Oakley develop programs of distance education business topics specific to a particular region. In the past it was quite often found a greater demand exist for educational courses that revealed a normal market research procedures. In other words by supply new courses and institutions might stimulate demand for it with the ease with which programs can be offered through a new information and communication technologies the challenge now is correctly identified in a niche market; that is, the subject or population that an institution conserve better than any of its competitors. Also before deciding to proceed to design and to offer a course the manager must be convinced that there is both the technology and -- more difficult than it may appear the staff people will of designing and teaching the course. Unfortunately it is common for the decision to go hit to be taken after there has been a check of the technology but not at the human resources needed to use it properly. A surprisingly number managers seem to think that faculty and trainers can simply add teaching at a distance to their existing workloads. In equally surprising number of property and trainers think so, too. The result can be a low-quality program and eventually disillusionment that would have been best avoided not going into the distance education field in the first place. Further before proceeding managers have to decide if they will be able to recover the cost of investing in a course or program and how they would do it. We know that a considerable amount of investment costs will be involved as equipment is purchased, new staff hired, and other retrained. Some institutions have been able to obtain grants from philanthropic organizations while others have to come up with the venture-capital and worked out how to recover this in tuition fees after the courses are produced. Some projection on this issue is essential, therefore before the decision to proceed is taken. What is not possible is to expect income from tuition to pay for investment costs in the very short term. Again such a policy is a recipe for low-quality and disillusionment. Before deciding to proceed managers also have to consider issues relating to faculty, vertically the effect on workload, compensation, and ownership of course materials. In face-to-face institutions considering moving to distance education will a course be treated as equipment to teaching a traditional class even though more time in design and online interaction is likely? At the most extreme there are universities were faculties have gone on strike because the impact of their workload has been in and we considered prior to the decision to set up a distance education program. Other problems have arisen and are likely to arise in the future regarding who should own the ideas and information contained in the course, professional who created them, or the institution that publish them. Various solution to these questions have been arrived at but whether the solution they are questions that are best tackled before the decision is made to proceed into distance education. Finally before deciding to proceed managers must take a hard look at the problem of sustainability. As challenging as it is to get a distance education program started it is an even bigger challenge to sustain it over the long term. This is demonstrated by a study of Berge and Kearsley 2003, of 31 corporate nonprofit and government organizations that have previously been reported as having started online distance education programs. The authors describe the problems that follow a successful start a and reached the general conclusion that distance education has grown more slowly than predictions over the past decade because it has not been sustained in many organizations asked that is, it keeps getting reintroduced.
Tracking Technology
The quality of the course delivered at a distance of the quality of the students experience will to some extent and on the particular delivery system used so that the management decisions about what technology to purchase will have a significant effect on the cost-effectiveness of institution and its programs. In this periods of intense development of Internet based distance education the decision concerns the reative merits of different course management systems. The administrators responsible for choosing from among various systems have been considered the merits of each system for presenting course materials and also for providing interaction between learners and teachers but they also have to consider differences in cost. For example, angel has an annual license fee determined by the number of users while blackboards fee structure is not tied to the number of uses in the course. Or help in deciding which manages system will be best for one's institution managers and their advisers can use an online resources that compares different systems.
Administering the Program
The administration of a distance education program includes all the major events and activities that support any formal educational process. They include: deciding what courses to offer, diminished during the process of designing and implementing the course, appointing, training, and supervising academic and administrative staff, informing potential students about what courses are available and how to join them, Registry applicants and administering admissions procedure, collecting fees, administering scholarships, and keeping accounts, setting up and running and structural and counseling services to students, administering student evaluation procedures, awarding grades, certificates, diplomas, and degrees, locating and maintaining library's and study centers, obtaining and maintaining technology, especially servers and other computer hardware, and continuously monitoring the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of the program. The extent and complexity of administrative activities will vary according to the type of distance education system thus, in many programs instructors do much of the administration of the courses linked to the resources of the campus administrative system. At other extremes in a single course mode institutions and an entire department will deal with a group of different administrative activities -- particularly recruitment, restriction, finance, and evaluation. As traditional institutions convert to dual mode they decide the special needs of distance learners make it more efficient to set up specialists administrative units alongside such traditional departments as the bursars office or registrar's office.
Staffing
Once the decision to enter the distance education feel has been taken one of the most important task for the miniatures is to identify from the existing staff -- or otherwise to recruit and in training -- the individual who will be needed to set up and run the program -- or to set up and run an institution if it is a new institution that is to be established. The staff that is needed includes: subject experts usually the academic of the teaching institution, instructional designers, instructors to teach courses once they have been designed, specialists and learner support, technology experts and technicians will set up and maintain the communication systems, administrator such as program directors, course managers, and site coordinators, clerks who process enrollments, grades, or materials, and managers such in Deans, presidents, and other executives.
Deciding on Full-versus Part-time Staffing
One of the most challenging questions associated with staffing is whether to appoint full-time or part-time employees and what combination of each. In general the higher the ratio of part-time to four times that the lower the average cost of providing the course teach student. The principal or division of labor that we introduced in chapter 1 supports the idea of having instructors with primary professional skill is interacting with students leaving other people to design, produce commented over the course learning materials. Such professionals become skillful at in a blink each students to have a high quality of personal relationship with a teacher in spite of distance. Because there is a limit to the number of students that instructor can interact with it becomes prohibitively expensive for institution to maintain a large number full-time instructors for this purpose as well as content experts instructional designers, learner support staff, technologist, administrative staff. It becomes more feasible to provide a good student instructor ratio if part-time staff can be engaged in this instructor role. Having part-time staff also allows the Organization to adapt is curriculum more quickly to changing needs and then maybe possible if it has a staff locked into a curriculum that may have been more relevant 10 or 20 years earlier. In general there for hiring instructors on a part-time basis makes for better quality as well as greater cost-effectiveness. But it is a difficult policy to implement in many institutions. In a single mold University it is the normal practice to have full-time staff develop courses usually supplemented with part-time consultants and the end to depend on part-time instructors (tutors) to teach the course. In American universities it is more common for full-time faculty for the university to provide both content and instruction, though it is increasingly common for part-timers including graduate students and adjunct faculty to act as instructors. Other organizations such as school district will corporate training departments may hire consultants as writers, editors, where producers, graphic artists and programmers to design and develop courses and use full-time teachers or trainers to provide the instruction. Managers and administrative staff are usually permanent full-time positions.
Training and Orientation of Staff
Whether full-time or part-time it is imperative that all staff understand distinctive character of distance education including an appreciation of many positive character was learning and distance home or work environment. They need to appreciate the difficulties that distance education students experience and must know how to be helpful, and want to be helpful. As compared with the past there are a few of faculty in traditional institution who disparage distance learner but good intentions are not enough to make good educators. Training is needed and organizing there is an important responsibility of administrators. After the initial training staff should be monitored continuously and provided with ongoing in-service training to enable them to develop their skills and keep up-to-date. Most training is likely to be in-house and on the job. Some members of the staff might be enrolled in one of the various online training programs.
Staff Monitoring and Assessment
Once appointed and trained both academic and other staff should be monitored and evaluated to ensure the quality and effectiveness of their work. The idea of the and systematically monitored has not been understood in academia as long as it has been in the business and industrial worlds or indeed in training departments of the Armed Forces or in school districts. It is essential part of the system approach however. A means has to be set up for gathering data readily and evaluating it so that interventions can be made for remedial training where weaknesses in the delivery system are identified. Among this kind of data to be gather and responses from students and faculty themselves about how satisfied they are with course products and be teaching procedures as well as the learning accomplished.
Learner Support Centers, Libraries, and Teleconference Sites
Although an increasingly large range of learning materials and services for distance learners and and now delivered by means of the Internet there are still some they cannot be inserting there are some services that are better provided face-to-face and/or in group settings by audio-or video teleconferences. A pure distance learning method may be unsuitable for teaching his subjects such as interpersonal relations for trainee counselors or for trainee teachers will need classroom practice or where potential dangerous results could occur without professionals provision as in teaching chemistry. In such cases administrators have to identif laboratory facilities schools for teaching practice, and so on. Contracts may have to be drawn up, fees paid, and other responsibilities incurred in the use of these facilities that lie outside the immediate control of the distance teaching institution. Setting up and maintaining learning centers require many administrative decisions including: where learning center should located, when they should be open, what facilities and equipment are needed, what staff administrative and academic they should have, how they should relate to the main campus, and how they should be funded.
Libraries
most education certainly that University level requires students to undertake some research that uses materials beyond what is provided by the instructor. A great challenge foreign ministers of distance education has now been to provide library resources that could compare with what work available to students on campus. In 1967 the Association of colleges and research library's release formal guidelines for providing the needs of distance learners. These guidelines were updated in 1982, 1990, and in 1998 the Association of College and research libraries sections are guideline committee, in 1998. With the arrival of the Internet the problem has become much leisure to deal with. Academic libraries are beginning to add dedicated distance education Liberians to their staff. Central Michigan University for example employs seven full-time librarians for this kind of service. In Florida, distance learners anywhere in the state have access to dedicated distance education Liberians that the Florida distance learning reference and referral Center. Another way of academic libraries have responded to the needs of distance learners is through the formation of partnerships. Walden University and accredited distance base graduate school formed an alliance with Indiana University to allow Walden students to make full use of the Indiana University library's resources. ILLINET a consortium of 40 academic libraries in Illinois provides cooperative borrowing arrangements for members students as well as maintaining a common online catalog. In California, nine campuses of the University of California forms the California Digital library, which is accessible to the public, and provides online searches and periodical database indexing over 100,000 titles available throughout the state. He Pennsylvania State University is part of several library cooperatives including the virtual electronic library and the consuming academic library connection initiative. The virtual electronic library provides mutual borrowing among the Big 10 universities and the University of Chicago. Online catalogs such as library-spot, ECO (electronic collections online), and the world-cat (both of which are maintained by the online computer library center), provide online users with access to my very resources, catalogs, and information systems. In 1996 survey of academic libraries found that of the 74 respondents, only three indicated that they were not actively supporting their institution distance education programs.
Teleconference Learning Sites
With the arrival of the Internet there has been a decline in the interest on the part of many institutions setting of teleconference learning sites. It is certainly less trouble for the administrator in an institution that delivers instructional program to the students home computer than one that delivers by satellite -- at least regarding the arrangement at the interface between the learner and the system. There are still many programs delivered to learning sites, however, and in a good system there would be an integration of technologies. For an institution using this technology to major problem for administrators are to ensure that the learning site is in a good location that it is well-run and that the staff and equipment are working properly. The size of the learning site can range from a small conference room for a group to four to five participants to a large auditorium with hundreds of people. The most important administrative decision to be made is who is to be the coordinator. There are also many decisions needed about allocation of resources to this delivery system, levels of tuition fees, marketing strategies, and evaluations.
Budgeting
Of all of these areas that administrators must deal with the budgeting is probably the most difficult. Budget decisions are basically about priorities and resources allocations. Administrators should always be concerned with the question of cost effectiveness -- are they getting the best value for the money they spend? This question comes in when making decisions at the most general level of policy e.g. what types of courses the institution will deliver, the most specific e.g. whether the price of a proposed textbook might have a negative effect on the student enrollment. When making up the budget some of the most important decisions administrators make our how much to spend on: developing new courses, buying new technology, hiring academic staff, paying for student support services, running learning centers, running the administration, and marketing their program. The main question is what related proportion of funds and resources should allocated to each of these categories. For example should more of the budget goal toward developing new courses, supporting the existing one's, hiring more academic staff, or improving facilities? In theory, allocating funds among the different item should be based upon a careful analysis of the needs of the distance education program including current deficiencies and opportunities. For example is student evaluation data indicates that students are dissatisfied with the level of interactivity and courses more money could be allocated to buying a new delivery system that allows more interaction, two workshop to train teachers and interactive techniques or to simply hire more instructors to reduce the student-to-instructor ratio. On the other hand if the data from the market research indicates that more students will enroll will get more or certain courses were offered it could be argued that course development should receive a larger share of the budget. Decisions have to be made and in order to make the best decisions is necessary to have reliable evaluation data all aspects of the organizations distance education efforts.
Budgeting and Different Levels
Budget decisions must be made at many different levels: institutional, departmental, programmatic, and in administering individual courses. Each level of decision-making is likely to have different priorities. For example, senior administrators are likely to be concerned with preserving enough money to support marketing projects with a view of keeping up enrollments and thus revenue, whereas faculty are likely to take this background activity for granted and to be preoccupied with maintaining student support services or the number of academic staff which date associate with maintaining quality. Differences like these mean that budget decisions are often accompanied by power struggles within the organization as each constituency attempts to obtain as big a share of the budget as possible. To avoid the struggles turning into acrimonious conflicts administrators must continually emphasized that budget decisions will be made on the basis of data, and that all groups wishing to influence the budget must present data to justify the request or plans.
Budgeting the Administration
One of the most difficult budget categories for administrators to allocate funds is the administration itself. Most administrators feel pressure to run a lean and mean operation having the smallest administrative staff as possible l. If taken too far however this can be counterproductive if it results in an administrative function that is understaffed and not able to run things efficiently. Money spent in running a good performance marching unit would for example almost certainly be a good investment. Similarly good management means extensive planning and this need market researchand other studies which are more difficult to justify to the faculty for the public van creating new courses, hiring more academics staff, or buying new technology. On the other hand, it is true the institution sometimes get top-heavy with administrations that consume an inordinate amount of the budget while producing less than an equivalent benefit. Just like administrators and other units in the organization's senior administrators must continually collect cost-effectiveness data on their ministry of operations justify the portion of the budget that they are allowing to spend.
Scheduling
Budgeting the resources of the time may seem a little strange to people who have only worked in traditional education whether all instruction is organized in a very familiar pattern of class sessions and semesters of fixed the durations. In schools and colleges most of the attention given to budgeting time is a matter of developing and reorganizing schedules timetables for students and teachers. Indeed more love for funding and accrediting such schools are usually based upon student attendance and scheduled classes. In most forms of distance education this kind of scheduling is far less significant. Instead of ministers have to budget the time of the many individuals that make up a course team during the often lengthy process of designing a course and then they have to schedule the instructional staff during its implementation. Because of course material must people peered in advance of their use -- and some of these, such as video recordings, may need Meany Munster produced -- it is essential that a well defined schedule be developed and maintained. Usually this takes the form of a work plan that lists all of the tasks that must be completed, the deadlines for each task, and who is responsible for completing the task. It is the responsibility of the administrator in charge of distance education program to ensure that development schedule is followed so the materials and programs all come together and are ready when the student and structure appears begin the interactive phase of the program. At that time there will need to be a widely distributed schedule for such activities as course registration and tuition payments; and a schedule of dates for the completion of the course assignments, examinations, and graduation procedures. Other major scheduling tests are involved if there is a teleconferencing, such as booking a room at teleconference site; and if the institution is delivering a program as well as receiving it, time on the satellite has to be scheduled with the telecommunications company. Popular methods applied in scheduling design of courses on the program evaluation and review technique, the critical path method, and the Gantt chart. Each technique results in a chart. Program evaluation and review technique charts show each task and its planned duration with each task connected to its successor in a network of nodes and connecting lines. A critical path method chart is similar to a program evaluation and reviewing technique chart, with a critical path showing the set of cash that together task of the longest time to complete and which receive special attention. A Gantt chart is the matrix with the past listed on one axis and with the horizontal axis indicating such variables at the time to be given to the task, and skill needed to perform it, and the person responsible for it.
Scheduling the Student
in correspondence courses students usually set their own schedules and pace themselves toward completing course. Most programs established a maximum period e.g. six months for one year within which time the course must be completed. With this time. Students can complete their assignments and examinations according to their own timetables. Some programs allow open enrollment, while others specify certain registration periods. On the other hand programs that involve teleconferencing or television broadcast usually have a fixed class schedule with well-defined beginnings and ending dates. The general practice with online distance education is to deliver a course according to a strict schedule with groups of students enrolled very much like they do for a conventional class. Most students find this more rigid structure and pasting to be helpful in completing the course. It is important that such schedules are reasonably planned and take into account the most amount of work involved and allows sufficient turnaround time for delivery of assignments.
Quality Assessment
Although everyone in it educational institution has a role to play in producing high-quality instruction, administrators are responsible for its measurement and for using the data gathered in taking action to improve. In one way or another all administrative activities discussed can be evaluated in the search for data pertaining to quality. There are a number of other factors that might be monitored, including: number and quality of applications and enrollments, student achievement, student satisfaction, faculty satisfaction, program/institutional reputation, and quality of course materials. Each of these factors reflects different aspects of the quality of an institution's products and services. Continually increasing or stable rates of applications and enrollments suggest the organization is doing a good job of tracking demographic and socio- economic variables and tailoring its offerings to real needs. It may also be considered to be an indicator of satisfactory teaching and good word-of-mouth promotion by satisfied students. Students achievement should be one other aspects of quality measurement that receives most attention. This is not difficult to monitor in the short-term -- but it is difficult to assess in the long term. In professional fields where students have to take certification exams e.g. law, medicine, engineering; it is possible to examine the achievement of students relative to other institutions. However, the kind of student achievement data that would be most valuable namely job performance or were confidence evaluation is almost impossible to obtain due to the complexities of conducting studies in the workplace. Most programs usually settle for anecdotal information about the impact of their courses, collected from interviews of graduates. Student satisfaction data is important and relatively easy to collect. It is standard practice for students to be evaluated course and its conclusion, being asked to rate or comment on the content, course organization, the instructor, instructional materials, and delivery system. Such data is usually scrutinized by the course manager and sometimes the department head or Dean. This provides at least a minimal check on the quality of course as far as the perception of students are concerned. However student satisfaction data is far from an infallible measurement of how effective the course is in terms of students learning, nor does it assess the validity or relevance of the content taught. Similarly, faculty satisfaction may be a useful measure provided its subjective character is also kept in mind. Faculty can access the extent to which existing teacher strategies and materials appeared to be effective whether student support services are adequate and whether courses appeared to meet the needs of students were their employers. Most faculty are concerned to be effective teachers and are likely to make recommendations that they believe will improve their effectiveness. Taken together the variables listed above that it to a general reputation for quality, which is to a large extent reflected in institution enrollments. If graduates are satisfied with their courses and employers who will hire of those graduates are satisfied with their job performance they will all speak well of the program and this will result in further enrollments. Institutions may spend considerable sums of money on marketing and promotional efforts aimed at establishing a brand image of being a high-quality organization. Finally it is possible for administrators and others to assess th quality of their course materials for their teaching in terms of standards established by a national associations. For example, the University continuing education Association has a distance learning community of practice, one of the purposes of which is to determine information about the practice. It encourages good practice with a series of awards, including a distance learning course or ward and a program of excellence award. The American Association of collegiate independent study evaluates independent study courses for its annual awards.
A Realistic Assessment of Quality
Following a study of six selective colleges and universities (Compora), and what is probably a realistic conclusion about quality beyond the specific cases he said he and pointing to areas in which all institutions would probably do better. He reported there appears to be a discrepancy between the literature cited and the actual practice of the institutions surveyed and concluded: programs specific mission statements are inadequately developed, programs are often implemented in the absence of the needs of assessments, program generally target and tailor programs to a certain type of distance education students, institutions overwhelmingly are creating their own online courses, courses are approved for distance delivery with little consistency and there is little use of carpal approval system, delivery methods are often selected based on availability of technology as opposed to a systematic design process, instructors generally teach distance education courses based on their willingness rather than their expertise, student to not appear to be getting the support they need, little data about matriculation is being gathered making evaluations of the effectiveness of program difficult, no specific trends are note regarding a dedicated budget for distance education programs, there is an absence of marketing strategies, and there is little consistency on how evaluation information is used.
Regional Accrediting Commissions
In higher education, the regional accrediting commission have published guidelines for institutions offering electronically delivered distance education that can be useful for ministers in their internal quality assessments. Most of the guidelines would apply equally well in the fields of practice the size higher education. Distance education and training Council commission was established in 1955 and is recognized by the US Department of Education and the Council for higher education accreditation to a credit distance education postsecondary programs including the first professional degree level. The commission established educational, ethical, and business vendors; it examines and evaluates distance education institutions in terms of these thunder; and a credits those who qualify. His accrediting program employs procedures to those of other recognized educational accredited agencies.
Policy: Institutional, State, and Federal
Some of the decisions that managers face mentioned earlier in this chapter, such as determining and modifying an institutions mission for deciding when to proceed in a particular programming direction our policy decisions. And institutions policy or that of a state, regional organization, or federal authority is relatively general set of principles against what administrators can test plans, proposals, or ideas for specific actions. If, for example, in institution has a policy agreed to with its stock which he that there will be a certain ratio of full-time to part-time teachers hired at that institution, distance education administrators know the limits of the options open to them in planning the human resources needed for the delivery of new courses. Or, to take another example if institutions make a policy that all its programs will be delivered on the Internet and do will be no video teleconferencing a boundary has been set within which they have to make their administrative decisions regarding the purchase of new technology. Making policy and ensuring it stays up-to-date requires a concentrated effort on the part of the institutions management. In fact it is too easy for managers to become so distracted by day-to-day administration that the attention they should give to renewing the policy framework on which everything else is founded can too easily become neglected. In dual mode institutions were distance education in balls, for example, new working arrangements that depend on collaboration among previous separated departments or where it might be necessary to divert resources of money in people's time from conventional teaching, it will be essential to have a systematic way of engaging the staff in the process of formulating new policies for renewing old ones on an ongoing basis. At the state and federal level there is a similar need for policy review and for setting up new policies that are appropriate to the electronic age. Since elected officials are likely to be involved in this process and they are, of course, not expected to be educational professionals, a process of explaining and educating has to go on to prepare them to consider the policy changes needed at those levels.
Policy barriers to distance education are failing -- in the first edition of this book we explained that among the reasons for this slow rate of development of distance education where barriers thrown up by policies that were designed to support an older model of education, which actually have impeded the evolution of new systems. These policy barriers could be found at federal, regional, state and institutional levels. It is now apparent that the situation has improved significantly.
At the Federal Level
THEN: barriers included the criteria used to determine what programs are eligible for federal funding, which are biased toward traditional provision. NOW: more generous treatment of distance education exists. In particular, there have been changes in the US Department of Education policy on the infamous 12 hour rule which stated that financial aid can only be given to students will attend a face-to-face classroom at least 12 hours a week. Another policy area at the federal level were there has been progress concerns changes in the copyright loans. Both the Digital millennium copyright act of 1998 and be technology in education and copyright harmonization act of November 2002 sets policy to restrictions on using materials in distance education courses.
At the Regional Level
THEN: criteria applied in giving institutions their official accreditation to teach are based on the practices of campus based learning, faculty centered teaching, and classroom base instruction. NOW: all regional accrediting commissions have adopted distance education criteria in their procedure for evaluating distance education programs when institutions in their jurisdictions undergo the accreditation process. At state level -- --THEN: there are mechanisms that drive continuing investment in brick and mortar education, and prevent the expenditures that would establish virtual universities based on telecommunications networks. The typical funding formula that states used to decide on allocation of resources, being based on numbers of traditional daytime students, systematically generates on-campus classroom space for 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. teaching, and under-provides not only the communications technology but also the building facilities needed for off-campus learner support and instruction for distance learners. NOW: most states are investing in statewide virtual delivery systems.
At the Institutional Level
THEN:... the barriers include some of the administrator structures and procedures that are supposed to serve students but often inappropriate for distance learners. They found in the rules and regulations concerning registration, tuition payment procedures, student support services, library services, examinations, and most especially the provision of instruction at times and places convenient to the learner. NOW: huge improvements at institutional level. Policy is obviously a dynamic concept; the following are some of the areas where policy is still unsettled and is being made as you read this.
Institutional: Faculty Policy
Among the most difficult areas regarding distance education policy in educational institutions concerns faculty especially their compensation, workload, and intellectual property rights. Policy varies considerably between institution and even within institution regarding the rights and responsibilities of Dr. regarding both courses nine and subsequent teaching of the course. At some institutions the policy on compensation for design is for the full-time faculty develop courses for no additional payment with this effort considered part of their normal workload. Other institutions recognize that the level of effort and creativity in designing distance education courses greater than preparing for a course in residence and have established an additional compensation policy when it comes to the delivery of courses one option is for full-time faculty to provide the instruction as part of their low, some institutions treat it as an overload for extra compensation while others depends on part-time faculty to do this. The impact of distance education work on the rental workload is matter of concern to most property. In particular at the university level faculty have to give a high encouraging to their research and to having the results that researched published. This is usually required for faculty to obtain a chain your position and to qualify for promotion. Whereas traditional measures of teaching, scholarship (publications in refereed journals), and services are included in the promotion and tenure formula, work related to innovative instructional products, including those for distance education are not generally given comparable recognition. Thus it becomes necessary if an institution is serious about distance education that it modifies its promotion and tenure policies to give credit for the time spent in designing and delivering course. Another aspect of the work problem in the instructors need for additional training on the use of technologies and learning the pedagogy of teaching at a distance. As the need for training becomes apparent a policy is needed that rewards participation in training and allows the allocation of resources for this.
Implementing Institutional Change
Most educational and training institutions share three significant problems in introducing distance education. They are: an academic culture that views teaching as an individual's act in a classroom, a policymaking structure dominated by staff were satisfied with the system that gave them power, and an administrative system in which technological and human resources are fragmented in a multilayered structure of faculties and apartments, each of which regards its own interests. There is no simple strategy for change for them ensured his face with these issues but there are some steps that seemed to be productive. The first step is to identify the innovator in the organization the small number of people at every level who are interested in change. These people should be encouraged with money and in other ways, to organize themselves and to develop a consensus of ideas about distance education and strategies for bringing change to their organization. The recognition of potential stakeholders is critical. The kind of change needed to establish in distance education system cannot be brought about entirely from the bottom of the institutions and definitely needs leadership from the senior management. On the other hand, low-level support from senior management has to be generated, true it is likely to be in a limited number of areas within the institution. The second step is for the innovator to be an able to undertake a demonstration project. Institutional change will not occur as a result of argument, reasoning, or persuasion alone. The majority of members of the institution will not become persuaded of the viability of distance education in show they see the process of work, see that he can prove a good standard of teaching, and see the achievements of the students. They will lose fear of change as they see the professional satisfaction of the peers who engaged in the distance teaching activity. It is vital that the demonstration projects are of the highest possible standards since failure or mediocre results will have exactly the opposite effect from what is desired. For this reason it is imperative that financial, technological, and human resources are ruthlessly focused. The temptation to spread resources over a number of projects must be resisted. For that to happen the organization needs what is probably the most important ingredient if change is to occur which a high level management with a strong vision of distance education encouraged to implement. Given such leadership and a team of innovators resources can be organized with the aim of showing how a distance education system works. All technologies of the institution must be brought into play; a institution that aspires to deliver programs on a national or even state level several million dollars are likely to be required to design, produce, and deliver a single demonstration project of sufficient quality.
A National Policy Issue: the Digital Divide
A relatively new problem that has been getting attention from policymakers at all levels is that of the digital divide -- defined as the gap between those who have and those who do not have access to the digital technology that is in an essential prerequisite for online learning. As described by Damarin 2000, there are several classes of access to digital technologies: those who state of the art computers and subscribe to an Internet service, those who have access to computers and the Internet at work/library/or other location/and know how to use them, and those who have rare or minimum access to computing technologies and little facility with them, and those experience their everyday lives untouched by computer and information technologies. The national telecommunication information administration has reported on specific groups in the US affected by the digital divide. An engine NBA report, falling through the net: defining the digital divide, describes accessibility by race, income, education, and geographic areas. The 1999 report also identified trends in connectivity from 1984 until the time of the study. Although the national telecommunication information administration found that the number of communications is on the rise, the number of connections for the haves are growing at a faster rate than the have-nots and thus has continued to grow. A study by the progressive policy Institute 1999 ranked the 50 states on how well they are adapting to the new economy. Using criteria such as the number of high-tech jobs, quality of education technology, percentage of population online, commercial Internet domains, and available venture capital, the report identifies a clear geographic pattern. The West Coast and eastern seaboard from New Hampshire to Virginia on the most privileged, and the deep South and the upper Midwest lagged far behind.
Policy Initiatives to Reduce the Digital Divide
The US federal government policy initiatives have included: the Department of Commerce has a strategy for making computers and the Internet accessible, and monitoring the levels of activities in relation to income, education, race, gender, geography, and age; encouraging applications that enable low income Americans to start and manage their own small businesses. The department of education's community technical Center program has provided money to develop model programs to demonstrate the educational effectiveness of technology, especially in economically distressed communities. The star school program has allocated more than 125 million since 1988 to support demonstration projects that use technology to provide programs and activities in underserved areas. The technology literacy challenge fund is allocating $2 billion over five years to help states and local districts meet the administation's educational technology goal. Lessons learned from grant programs and educational technology initiatives are disseminating, with an emphasis on underserved citizens. Giving tax advantages for businesses providing technology to school libraries, community centers, and individual in low income areas the E-rate. Private sector -- policy initiatives from the private sector include: providing low-cost Internet access and computers, funding community computing centers, and encouraging IT professionals to do volunteer training.
Case study in National Policymaking
To obtain an idea of the difference in approach to policy about distance education in the US compared to that of some other countries -- where it is not only the availability of technology that occupies policymakers, but the development and improvement of a system of program design and delivery -- considering the following, which contains extracts from an official government document from the Republic of South Africa. There, the national Ministry of education was considering a proposal to merge the country single mode distance education University, the University of South Africa, with its largest technical school (Technikon) and a teacher training program (Vista) into a single organization. The student body of the new organization would be over a quarter of a million students, generated nationwide. The difference between American priorities that focus on technology ahead of organizational change could hardly be more striking.  more

You are to write 3-page paper. Read the article below and summarize the article. Do Not Use Outside Sources!


Moore & Kearsley

The Nature of Adult Learning
Although it i...s true that distance education courses are sometimes provided to schoolchildren to supplement or enrich the classroom curriculum, the overwhelming majority of distance education students in the US are adults typically between the ages of 25 and 50 years consequently understanding the nature of adult learning is an invaluable foundation for understanding the distance learner. The best-known description, now a classic, is that of Malcolm Knowles 1978 theory of adult education is what he called andragogy the art and science of helping adults learn can be reduced to the following propositions, expressed as differences between adults and children: although children being accept dependent on a teacher, adults like to feel they have some control over what is happening and to exercise personal responsibility; although children accept the teachers definition of what should be learned, of those preferred to define it for themselves, or at least should be convinced that it is relevant to their needs; children will accept the teachers decisions about how they learn, what to do, when and where, Adults like to make such decisions for themselves or these to be consulted; although children have little personal experience to draw on, adults have a lot, and they appreciate this being used as a learning resource; children must acquire a store of information for future use. Adults either assume they have the basic information or need to acquire what is relevant here and now. Instead of acquiring knowledge for the future, they see learning is necessary for solving problems in the present; and children may need external motivation to make them learn, adults will usually volunteer to learn have intrinsic motivation.
Why do Adults Enrolled in Distance Education Course?
For American children going to school is the work of childhood. The adult is a person with employment, family, and social obligations; so for an adult there are costs in enrolling in an educational course. The cost can certainly be measured in dollars but more importantly it is costs time and effort that must be taken from a marginal time and energy remaining from what is spent on the normal demands of adult life. For most adults, therefore, there have to be specific and clear reasons for starting a learning program, these tend to be highly motivated, task oriented students. Unlike younger learners most adults have experience in employment and many are seeking to learn more about fields of work in which they already know a great deal. Also unlike younger learners they know are a lot about why and about the world, about themselves, and about interpersonal relations, including how to deal with others in the class, and perhaps with the teacher and with an administrative system. The adult student, teachers gain authority from what they know and the way they deal with their students not from any external symbols or titles. Physical distance tend to further reduce the dominant psychological position of the teacher probably one reason some classroom teachers do not enjoy being at a distance. Some adults enrolled in distance education courses to compensate for a neglected high school education; others are seeking college credit courses; many take noncredit courses in plethora of subjects just to improve their general knowledge or to develop satisfying pastimes. Some seek practical knowledge when they first become parents, homeowners, or members of a school board. In America today education is presented primarily as a personal investment with the return been improvements in employability or income. Therefore the most common reason for taking a distance education course is develop or upgrade skills and knowledge needed in employment. However widely differing motivations for learning are suggested by recalling some of the organizations mentioned earlier in chapters in this book. They include Air Force personnel learning the mechanics of a truck by home-study, the College dropout trying to make a college credit through independent study, the professional engineer keeping abreast of new information through courses offered by NTU, the sales representative working on a company-sponsored program about a new product and the group of homemakers discussing gardening through a cooperative extension teleconference. It is impossible to summarize the topics that are dealt distance learners study; what is certain is that they cover just about every subject under the sun. And whatever the reason for taking a course and whatever the subject, it is also certain that the dealt distance students are always very serious, very committed, and highly motivated about what they're doing.
Anxiety about Learning
One reality that is not often talked about but something that needs to be kept in mind is that most of dealt distance learners feel quite anxious about studying at lease when they first began a new course or especially a new institution. If this anxiety is revealed its usually directed at the person who is the closest representative of the teaching institution -- the instructor. It is not really the instructor who is the source of the anxiety but what underlies it is the students concerned about being able to meet expectations both those of the institution and -- just as important -- self expectations. This is a natural fear of failure that everyone experiences to some degree. The students carver their anxiety which of course makes it harder for others who feel they must be the only ones intimidated by the challenges of the course. The sensitive instructor tries to ensure the anxious student develops familiarity with procedures and that the institutions expectations are well understood. However those adults who are inexperienced as distance learners may have to give me a high degree of anxiety at the beginning of the course. Their fear becomes concentrated when they have to turn in their first written assignment or present their views in a teleconference. The first assignment is especially critical; it is when an ancient student is most likely, statistically, to drop the course. Until this anxiety has been revealed by successfully taking the risk involved in handing in the assignment students may not be able to enjoy the course and in fact may not performed the best of their goods because of their nervousness. As they become accustomed to the system and have early positive feedback, confidence grows and anxiety comes under control. Being aware of this anxiety one of the first responsibilities of the instructor is to try to lower the level of tension. This does not mean that the workflow or the standards were part of the students are lowered but it means first that steps are taken in the course designed to deal with the well-known causes of anxiety. Conrad 2002 study found that students were helped by having access to the course materials before the courts began in the wanted to see a message from the course instructor when they first access the course. In setting the right climate for learning the ensure or should explain that mistakes are natural part of learning and there is no reason to fear in making them, risk-taking is approved, there is no such thing as a dumb question, the instructor admires and approves effort and commitment, and the instructor cares about the students being successful and will work toward that goal. Perhaps the two most important and typical, adult attitudes that these report shows are an appreciation of efficiency and an appreciation of an enjoyable learning process/environment.
Providing Access
Perhaps what most people think of when they first think about distance education is the capability for an institution or organization to provide access to education to some learners who could otherwise not have it. This in fact describes the professional people who we met in the previous section, although some of them lived in major cities, there was no access to the subject they wanted at times and places convenient to them. However access is even more important to certain kinds of students; those who are disabled, elderly, or living in remote areas. Although the convenience and flexibility of distance education is a benefit to all students, remind us that or some students distance education makes all the difference between a richer or a poorer quality of life. We suggest that you might like to investigate the people behind the statistics, as a class project or formal research you will find it a very rewarding activity because in every population of distance learners are found some very exceptional people.
Factors Affecting Student Success
As we saw in the previous chapter 1 aspect of distance education that has been studied from several different angles involved the factors that affect student success and failure. In most distance education courses and programs since participation is usually voluntary a proportion of the students who again programs do not complete them. In the past it was not unusual for non-completion also referred to as dropout rates for distance learning courses to be in the range of 30-50 percent; nowadays the figure should be near the lower the end of the range and for University credit courses it is comparable to traditional classes i.e. less than 10%. For many years administrators and researchers have struggled to understand what causes some students to withdraw in the hope of being able to improve their institution's completion rates. One of the many methodological difficulties of this research is that dropout is usually a result of no single causation but an accumulation and a mixture of causes. A member of researchers have developed formal models for predicting completion e.g. Billings and Kember 1989. Research studies have identified a number of factors that are predictors of probable completion of distance education courses. They include: intense to complete, students who express determination to complete a course usually do, on the other hand, students who are unsure about their ability to finish are more likely to drop out. Early submission, students will submit the first assignment early, or punctually are more likely to complete the course satisfactorily. For an example of research, Armstrong et al 1985 found 84% of the students who submitted the first assignment within the first two weeks usually completed course, whereas 75% who took longer than two months to submit the assignment did not complete the course. Completion of other courses, students who successfully complete one distance education are likely to complete subsequent courses.
Kembers and Billings Models of Student Completion
Kember 1995 presented a model for student progress that focused specifically on adult learners in distance education courses using the term open learning, which we have explained in earlier chapters. This model focuses on the factors that affect a student success completion of distance education program with particular focus on the extent to which students are able to integrate their academic study with often conflicting employment, family, and social commitments are. Kembers models suggest that students intrigue characteristics e.g. educational qualifications, family status, employment and direct them toward one of two pathways in a distance education course. Those with favorable situations tend to proceed on a positive track and are able to integrate socially and academically. Other students take a negative track where they have difficulties achieving social and academic integration which affects their course achievement i.e. GPA. The model also incorporates a cost/benefit decisions step in which students consider the costs and benefits of continuing their study. Those who decide to continue we'll recycled through the model for another passage. However in each pass through the model student may change track due to their experiences in taking the course. Kembers is based on a large body of research and theory about attrition in both traditional and distance education courses. Kember used empirical data collected via interviews and questionnaires from a number of sources in the formulation and validation of the model. These sources included student taking courses at the UK open University, the University of Papua New Guinea, the University of Tasmania, Charles Stuart University Australia, and seven different open learning programs in Hong Kong. In order to collect standardize data for the models Kember developed and used the distance education student program questionnaire, which consists of 68 items pertaining to the variables in the model plus demographic information for entry characteristics. Kember also collected students outcome data in the form of GPA and the number of course models attempted and completed. To validate the model Kember used factor analysis on his questionnaires responses to determine the underlying factors. The factor analysis confirmed the four primary variables in the model hole in social integration, academic integration, external attribution, and academic incompatibility. Kember then use path Analysis multiple regression to identify the casual relationships among the variables in the model. The results of the path analysis confirmed that the basic structure of the model is accurate: 80% of the total variance of student completion could be examined either variables in the model. Kember outlines the implications of this model as follows. The positive academic integration factor contains this subscale deep approach and surface approach and extrinsic motivation subscales. This suggests that student progress can be enhanced if the design of a course concentrates on developing intrinsic motivation and a deep approach to the subject matter. Academic integration can also be improved by developed collective affiliation and ensuring congruence between student expectations and course procedures. The model also identifies the difficulty students are likely to face in completing open learning courses can therefore serve as a guide for counseling and guidance activities. Kembers model is very compatible with the system approach and that is espoused in this book. Although Kember does not attempt to relate his model to a system approach the major variables of the model do map into the primary subsystems.
Billings model of Course Completion
Billings model for the completion of correspondence courses. The links shown in the diagram represents the relationships among the variables i.e. they are casual, addictive, and correlational. Billings found that students who made the most progress were those who had the intentions of completing the course in a specific period of time three months, submitted the first lesson relatively early within 40 days, had higher entrance examination scores and hide GPA's had completed of the correspondence courses, had a supportive family, head high goals for completing the program, live relatively close to the sugar, and had good college-level preparation. The single most important predictor variable was the students intention to complete, which suggest the importance of motivation over other factors. Not surprisingly one of the best predictors of success in distance education is the educational background of the student. In general the more formal education people have the more likely they are to complete a distance education course or program.
Personality Characteristics
Much less reliable as a predictor of success or failure but clearly relevant and the personality characteristics of the student including what is often referred as to learning style. Early research suggested that students will on more field independent i.e. relatively less influenced by the surrounding environment including social environment are better suited to distance learning than people who are less field independent. Diaz and Cartnal 1999 found that students who selected an online version of health classes were more independent as learners and value collaboration more for its ntrinsic value than external incentives. Halsne and Gastta 2002 as college students to take the survey that identified their visual, auditory, tactile, or kinesthetic learning purposes and found that those who selected online courses related themselves higher as visual learners whereas those selected on campus classes were more auditory and kinesthetic in their learning styles. Another personality dimension that is often associated with distance education is introversion and extroversion with introverted individuals being more predisposed to distance learning. Persistence, determination, and it need to achieve are all qualities that would positively affect a student success. The nature of students motivation for take any particular course or program i.e. intrinsic or extrinsic is also likely to affect their success.
Extracurricular Concerns
A variety of extracurricular concerns -- such as employment e.g. job stability, and workload, family responsibilities, health, and social interests -- can positively or adversely affect completion of distance education courses. For example, encouragement from employees, coworkers, friends, and family regarding distance learning can motivate the student to do will; conversely lack of support from one or more of these groups can result in poor performance and non-completion.
Course Concerns
Many features of the course or program itself affect the success of students. This includes: the perceived relevance of the content to career or personal interests, the difficulty of the course and program i.e. amount of time/effort required, the degree of student support available, the nature of technology useful the course delivery and interaction, the extent of the pacing or scheduling involved, the amount and nature of feedback received from a shorter/Hooters on assignments and on course progress, and the amount and nature of the interaction with instructors, tutors, and others students. In summary, students are more likely to drop out of a course if they perceive the content as a relevant for of little value to their career or personal interests if the course is too difficult and takes too much time or effort they become agitated in trying to complete the course or handling administrative requirements and receive your system's if they receive little or no feedback on their coursework or progress and it they have little or no interaction with the instructor, tutor, or other students and hence become too isolated.
Study Skills
To a great extent, the study habits and skills of students determined their success in online classes and this is one factor under their control. Students will play in their study time and develop schedules for completing coursework are more likely to do well in distance education. Procrastination is the number one enemy of distance learning -- 1 student get behind in their assignments it becomes very difficult ketchup and they invariably dropout. Of course a good program is the one that has the structure that makes it hard to fall behind and a student support system that intervenes if the student appears to be in difficulty. There are lots of student oriented guides about distance learning in almost every distance education program provides guidelines to their students. Unfortunately learning its study skills is not easy for students who have never practice them or perhaps have not used them in a long time. This is one area where counselors can make the difference between success and failure. Researchers have examined student's reactions for a number of perspectives most studies are connected with assessing the level of learner satisfaction with a particular course or program or to the extent to which students perceive surgically instructional media or teaching strategies to be effective. Some studies are concerned with changes in student attitudes to distance education that come about as a consequence of being distance learners.
Classroom versus Distance Learning
A common question that is examined is how students fill about distance learning relative to traditional classroom instruction. In many cases students say they prefer traditional classroom learning even though they enjoyed their distance learning course and found it worthwhile. Sometimes there are problems e.g. equipment for years, inexperienced instructors that produce negative attitudes toward distance learning. Very similar problems occur in traditional classroom but the absence of the father figure or mother figure to take care of them is discovering for some students. Most students are able to cope with problems a most students actually enjoyed taking responsibility for solving their own problems. However this is obviously hard work been leading a teacher do it some of the negative attitudes to distance learning comes from reluctance to take responsibility and make an effort. Fortunately this only applies to a minority of students. It will implement in courses students can be very positive about the distance learning experience and many before such courses over traditional classes. Nelson 1985 or example, survey the attitudes of students taking classes via two-way video conference and reported that 94% believed their level of achievement was a high, or higher, then regular classes, and 97% wanted to take further videoconference classes. On the other hand, Barker 1987 evaluated the attitudes of children who had taken classes by the TI-IN satellite videoconference system and found that 65% believed video class to be more difficult than read what classes and 70% would prefer to take regular classes. It is worth nothing that in this study, numerous problems were mentioned, including technical problems, difficult to contact in the instructor, and in adequate teacher preparation. A number of research studies have examined the relationship between student perceptions and teaching strategies for program designed characteristics. St. Pierre and Olson 1991 found that the following factor contributed shoe student satisfaction in independent study courses: the opportunity to apply knowledge, prompt return of assignments, conversations with the instructor, relevant course content, and a good study guide. Conversely, Hara and Kling 1999 reported the student education in web-based courses were caused by: lack of prompt feedback from instructors, ambiguous instructions for assignments, and technical problems. Maki and Maki 2000 in the journal behavior research methods, instruments, and computers reported that young University students learn better when studying any web-based distance education mode than their counterparts who study and a conventional class. Differences in pretest and post-test scores were twice as high for the distance learner. Over a number of semesters and with different instructors the distance learners in this study did better but just as consistently they expressed less satisfaction with the force because getting better results went along with having to do more work than in the classroom course. It is always worth keeping in mind when analyzing the results of student satisfaction surveys that there is typically no relationship between these attitudes and actual achievement. Since students may do well and of course even though they may not enjoy it as much as being in a face-to-face classroom the main use of measures of satisfaction is in predicting dropout rate, advising on course choice act registration time, and also to trigger counseling intervention.
Resistance to Distance Education
since most students have little experience learning at a distance they are unfamiliar with it and maybe think it's about taking distance education courses. Indeed in some situations this on familiarity is translated into resistance that must be overcome in order for the course to have any hope of succeeding. Many students as well is teachers and training managers have a misconception about distance learning that must be changed if they are to profit from it. For example, students may believe that distance education courses are easier than conventional classes and require less work. They discover that this is not the case and that opposite is true they may be unhappy. Students often assume that distance education courses will be a verse of quality than classroom offerings and avoid taking such courses. Students frequently do not understand that they must take a larger degree of responsibility for their learning in a distance education course and not wait for the instructor or tutor to push them. This kind of misunderstanding leads to students falling behind and becoming dissatisfied. For these reasons it is very desirable to include an orientation session in any distance education course where students can find out about how the delivery system works and what is expected of them. Granger and Benke 1998 report that a number of programs recognizing that many of the adult students have been away from almost any for some time provide a full orientation program to prepare them for their new study activities. This returning to the learning activity can take various forms from face-to-face weekend session on campus to a term long credit bearing study of adult learning strategies, including organization, time management, and study skills. Another aspect that affect students receptivity toward distance education is the technology involved. Much research has shown that comfort with the technology being used as a primary factor in determining satisfaction and success. If students are unfamiliar with the technology they will be reluctant to use a creativity and adventurously which will affect their experience quite severely. As things become familiar with the technology is resistance erodes. However if there are ongoing technical problems agitation and resistance will continue to grow. A research study by Purdue and Valentine 2000 of certified public accountants look at the attitudes and reasons for reluctance to become involved as distance learner. Data gathered from 444 respondents revealed four main reasons why these professionals were unsure about taking professional development courses by distance education. They were: concern about the effectiveness and their ability to handle electronically mediated communications, concerns about course quality, and concerns about access to technology based resources, and concerns about whether they could find the necessary personal resources. In summary, research and experience suggests that the three main causes of dissatisfaction and resistance to distance education are: bad course design and teacher incompetence to cause the most problems, wrong expectations on part of students, and poor technology or inability to use technology properly.
Student Support: Guidance and Counseling Services
Traditional universities offer a variety of services to help students who have problems. Among such services are: walk-in counseling Center, financial aid offices, remedial tutoring, career development and placement offices, and facilities intended to boost peer support and social interaction. This is an area that than the subsystems of course design and instruction. This is an area that is generally less well organized in distance education and less well organized than the subsystems of course design and instruction. It is an area that deserves more attention since there is a direct relationship between student's failure and dropping out of a program and failure of the support system. The need for guidance and counseling can come at any stage of the distance learning experience. It guidance is available early in a course or program to help students make choices among various options of the problems are likely to be averted. Including in such admission counseling should be an analysis of his is knowledge and study skills to see if they match the expectations of the course. Ideally all students should receive some sort of orientation when they enter a program this too will reduce the need for individual counseling later. It is critically important to inform people of the time demands that a company distance education and to encourage them to think about how they will fit it in with their other interests and obligations. Within any group of learners their typically will be a considerable range in their aptitude for distance learning. Students with poor study more time management skills, or poor communication those we usually have difficulty with distance learning. A common problem that every distance instructor runs into is that of overoptimistic student has successfully negotiated face-to-face classes with a minimum of effort but has a shot on discovering that the same avoidance techniques will not work in distance education where there is no way of hiding in the back of the classroom. Single mode institutions have specialists, four times that provide student support services and used before range of technologies, including face-to-face counseling sessions in study centers for such places as public library's. Dual mode institutions might be able to use branch campuses in this way but usually there are student support is provided by telephone and online. Many dual mode institutions have at least a skeleton staff of full-time counselors but very often their services are not well explained student school as a result gin to turn to administrators and instructors when they need counseling support. In an attempt to reduce which calls most institutions now provide web-based support sites with some form of general orientation to distance learning, tips for online study, information on how to contact counseling and advising services, technical help, and programs to help potential students evaluate their own readiness for distance learning. The advantage of providing these services online is that they are available around-the-clock even ones that are not available. Furthermore, in dual mode institutions such as those (Santa Barbara City College, University of Wisconsin, Brevard community College, Montgomery College, and Penn-State World Campus) providing student services online allows them to be better integrated with services to on-campus students who also benefited from the online access. The more mechanized the student support e.g. not requiring a personal human intervention, the most cost effective also. Everyone likes support from a human rather than a web site but most people also want to have tuition fees held as low as possible.
Orientation
The following are some of the questions and information usually included in web sites to orient potential or new students: what is distance education and how does it work online?, what can I study?, how do I learn?, what do I need?, is distance education suitable for me including self-assessment instruments?, sample course materials, tour of virtual campus, questions to gather data about educational background, questions about learners expectations and motivations, time available for study, access to computer and Internet, and learners acted too profile. One other important quality that institutions try to provide to their distance education students is a sense of belonging to the institution. On-campus students develop this filling through their physical presence in clubs, sports, and other social bins. It is not easy to do this at a distance, but creative student services can help establish some sense a relationship between distance students and the institution. In spite of all efforts to students to find the right level of course and to ease their entry into the distance learning experience some students will encounter unexpected job, family, or health-related problems that threaten their academic success/progress. A student support service has to be proactive as well as reactive. If it only reflects the students who come forward as for help many will be lost. Methods have to be developed for identifying problems early and by intervening to offer support even though the student may not come forward to request. The poor method is careful monitoring assignment productivity. If the student will normally produces good assignments begins to cheery eight or her not to reduce on time a red flag should alert student support personnel to a potential problem that may require at least an e-mail message to offer of assistance. Failure to take such steps could mean that not academic problems will demand the students complete attention and there is a good change the student will drop out of the course.
Administrative Assistance
Students sometimes get into difficulty and therefore need assistance in dealing with the routine administrative aspects of being a student -- registering, paying fees or giving tuition benefits, up training materials, receiving grades, taking exams, and so on. In the case of on-campus students, questions or problems can be resolved by visiting the relevant office. However in the case of an off-campus student all interactions is likely to be via e-mail or telephone. Students often have difficulty identifying and reaching the right person to talk to especially in large institutions can become very agitating. Ideally students in distance education programs have a single person they can contact for all administrative problems. In addition all administrative requirements and procedures should be described in a student handbook or web page that suit was received at the beginning of a course or when they first register in the institution.
Social Interaction
Most students enjoy interaction with their instructor and fellow students not only for instructional reasons but for the emotional support that comes from such social contact. Some institutions have developed electronic networking as a means of socializing in the form of real-time chat rooms were students meet for coffee, discuss coursework, compare notes, or chat about nonrecourse or perhaps nonacademic matters. For many students this is a valued weight of reducing their feelings of isolation.
A Realistic View of the Distance Learner
Although it is easy to talk about distance learning in general in any specific distance learning program it is essential that designers and injectors take the time to understand their particular learners. It is very dangerous to proceed on generalizations because assumptions are then made that may be quite erroneous. Even groups that are thought -- in general -- to be ideal populations for distance training programs are not always. Here are some examples: professional development for classroom teachers, although they obviously appreciate the value of learning and education many teachers feel very overworked, have little free time, and do not have a suitable learning environment during the day at school. Successful programs have been those were special ranges have been made to provide times and facilities for professional development; management training, human resource managers tend to be people oriented and some may prefer to learn by informally talking to others on the phone or in person at a meeting, rather than standing alone reading what appear to be more messages on their computer; continuing medical education, even though all healthcare professionals except the idea of continuing medical education, like schoolteachers, may find their daily routines, which often include exhausting evening shifts, too hectic to accommodate formal study; at risk students, although they have the most need for extra educational opportunities, they usually have poor learning/study skills and have a great deal of trouble with both the techniques and the self-discipline needed for distance learning; prisoners, individuals who are incarcerated me have more time than the average person, but may have limited access to equipment or facilities needed for learning even obtaining specific books and frequent mail may be problematic; Armed Forces personnel, especially those on foreign assignments. Such students have less control on their disposable time banned in civilian life and may be sent on a mission that means special arrangements have to be made regarding the completion of their study assignments; and taking a broader perspective, it is always important to keep the possibilities of culture and gender distances in mind. Again it is dangerous to generalize but some groups of men and some groups of women may respond differently to certain program characteristics, as may different cultural groups. The point of mentioning these difficulties is not to say that program should not be offered to these groups; of course there are thousands of successful programs with these groups, and there are other groups with challenges of their own. The reason for mentioning the challenges is to emphasize the importance of empathy -- understanding how things look from the students point of view -- and not to make facile assumptions. Such assumptions can lead to unrealistic expectations that in turn lead to failure that could have been avoided with a little more understanding. Understanding these challenges is equally important for course designers, instructors, and administrators, but especially for student support personnel. The guide to developing online student services is a resource for administrators and others whom each provide student support services online. It provides: general tips for setting up online student services, brief discussions on a range of student support issues, guidelines for basic good practice in delivering student services via the Internet, and examples of practice and selected institutions.  more

question first and then continue to answer. Do Not Use Outside Sources.
Berliner readings refer to educational research, however, at the same time that educational researchers themselves are expan...ding their repertoire; such as the federal government narrowing their focus on scientific research.

Discussion Question
1.What do you think are some likely outcomes of this conflict?

Educational Research: The Hardest Science of All: by David C. Berliner

Under the stewardship of the Department of Education, recent acts of Congress confuse the methods of science with the process of science, possibly doing great harm to scholarship in education. An otherwise exemplary National Research Council report to help clarify the nature of educational science fails to emphasize the complexity of scientific work in education due to the power of contexts, the ubiquity of interactions, and the problem of decade by findings interactions. Discussion of these issues leads to the conclusion that educational science is unusually hard to do and that the government may not be serious about wanting evidence-based practices in education.

Scientific Culture and Educational Research (this issue), as well as the National Research Council (NRC) report from which it draws, are important documents in the history of educational research. I commend the authors and panelists who shaped these reports, and I support their recommendations. But it is not clear to me that science means the same thing to all of us who pay it homage, nor do I think that the distinctions between educational science and other sciences have been well made in either report. There are implications associated with both these issues.

Definitions of Science
I admire Richard Feynmans (1999) definition of science as the belief in the ignorance of authority (p. 187). Unrestricted questioning is what gives science its energy and vibrancy. Values, religion, politics, vested material interests, and the like can distort our scientific work only to the extent that they stifle challenges to authority, curtailing the questioning of whatever orthodoxy exists. Unfettered, science will free itself from false beliefs or, at the least, will moderate the climate in which those beliefs exist. As politicians recognize that facts are negotiable, perceptions are
rock solid, so there is no guarantee that science will reduce ignorance. But as long as argument is tolerated and unfettered, that possibility exists. Another admirable definition of science was provided by Percy Bridgman (1947), who said there really is no scientific method, merely individuals doing their damndest with their minds, no holds barred (pp. 144145). I admire Feynmans and Bridgmans definitions of science because neither confuses science with method or technique, as I believe happens in recent government proclamations about the nature of appropriate, and therefore fundable, educational research. World-renowned scientists do not confuse science with method. As Peter Medawar said, what passes for scientific methodology is a misrepresentation of what scientists do or ought to do. The evidence-based practices and scientific research mentioned over 100 times in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 are code words for randomized experiments, a method of research with which I too am much enamored. But to think that this form of research is the only scientific approach to gaining knowledgethe only one that yields trustworthy evidence reveals a myopic view of science in general and a misunderstanding of educational research in particular. Although strongly supported in Congress, this bill confuses the methods of science with the goals of science. The government seems to be inappropriately diverging from the two definitions of science provided above by confusing a particular method of science with science itself. This is a form of superstitious thinking that is the antithesis of science. Feuer, Towne, and Shavelson, representing the entire NRC committee, clearly recognize this mistake, and we should all hope that they are persuasive. To me, the language in the new bill resembles what one would expect were the government writing standards for bridge building and prescription drugs, where the nature of the underlying science is straightforward and time honored. The bill fails to recognize the unique nature of educational science.

Hard and Soft Science: A Flawed Dichotomy
The distinctions between hard and soft sciences are part of our culture. Physics, chemistry, geology, and so on are often contrasted with the social sciences in general and education in particular. Educational research is considered too soft, squishy, unreliable, and imprecise to rely on as a basis for practice in the same way that other sciences are involved in the design of bridges and electronic circuits, sending rockets to the moon, or developing new drugs.
But the important distinction is really not between the hard and the soft sciences. Rather, it is between the hard and the easy sciences. Easy-to-do science is what those in physics, chemistry, geology, and some other fields do. Hard-to-do science is what the social scientists do and, in particular, it is what we educational researchers do. In my estimation, we have the hardest-to-do science of them all! We do our science under conditions that physical
scientists find intolerable. We face particular problems and must deal with local conditions that limit generalizations and theory buildingproblems that are different from those faced by the easier-to-do sciences. Let me explain this by using a set of related examples: The power of context, the ubiquity of interactions, and the problem of decade by findings interactions. Although these issues are implicit in the Feuer, Towne, and Shavelson article, the authors do not, in my opinion, place proper emphasis on them.

The Power of Contexts
In education, broad theories and ecological generalizations often fail because they cannot incorporate the enormous number or determine the power of the contexts within which human beings find themselves. That is why the Edison Schools, Success for All, Accelerated Schools, the Coalition of Essential Schools, and other school reform movements have trouble replicating effects from site to site. The decades old Follow-Through study should
have taught us about the problems of replication in education (House, Glass, McLean, & Walker, 1978). In that study, over a dozen philosophically different instructional models of early childhood education were implemented in multiple sites over a considerable period of time. Those models were then evaluated for their effects on student achievement. It was found that the variance in student achievement was larger within programs than it was between programs. No program could produce consistency of effects across sites. Each local context was different, requiring differences in programs, personnel, teaching methods, budgets, leadership, and kinds of community support. These huge context effects cause scientists great trouble in trying to understand school life. It is the reason that qualitative inquiry
has become so important in educational research. In this hardest-to-do science, educators often need knowledge of the particularthe localwhile in the easier-to-do sciences the aim is for more general knowledge. A science that must always be sure the myriad particulars are well understood is harder to build than a science that can focus on the regularities of nature across contexts. The latter kinds of science will always have a better chance to understand,
predict, and control the phenomena they study. Doing science and implementing scientific findings are so difficult
in education because humans in schools are embedded in complex and changing networks of social interaction. The participants in those networks have variable power to affect each other from day to day, and the ordinary events of life (a sick child, a messy divorce, a passionate love affair, migraine headaches, hot flashes, a birthday party, alcohol abuse, a new principal, a new child i the classroom, rain that keeps the children from a recess outside the school building) all affect doing science in school settings by limiting the generalizability of educational research findings. Compared to designing bridges and circuits or splitting either atoms or genes, the science to help change schools and classrooms is harder to do because context cannot be controlled.

The Ubiquity of Interactions
Context is of such importance in educational research because of the interactions that abound. The study of classroom teaching, for example, is always about understanding the 10th or 15th order interactions that occur in classrooms. Any teaching behavior interacts with a number of student characteristics, including IQ, socioeconomic status, motivation to learn, and a host of other factors. Simultaneously, student behavior is interacting with
teacher characteristics, such as the teachers training in the subject taught, conceptions of learning, beliefs about assessment, and even the teachers personal happiness with life. But it doesnt end there because other variables interact with those just mentioned the curriculum materials, the socioeconomic status of the community,
peer effects in the school, youth employment in the area, and so forth. Moreover, we are not even sure in which directions the influences work, and many surely are reciprocal. Because of the myriad interactions, doing educational science seems very difficult, while science in other fields seems easier. I am sure were I a physicist or a geologist I would protest arguments from outsiders about how easy their sciences are compared to mine. I know how messy their fields appear to insiders, and that arguments about the status of findings and theories within their disciplines can be fierce. But they have more often found regularities in nature across physical contexts while we struggle to find regularities across social contexts. We can make this issue about the complexity we face more concrete by using
the research of Helmke (cited in Snow, Corno & Jackson, 1995). Helmke studied students evaluation anxiety in elementary and middle school classrooms. In 54 elementary and 39 middle school classrooms, students scores on questionnaires about evaluation anxiety were correlated with a measure of student achievement. Was there some
regularity, some reportable scientific finding? Absolutely. On average, a negative correlation of modest size was found in both elementary and middle school grades. The generalizable finding was that the higher the scores on the evaluation anxiety questionnaire, the lower the score on the achievement test. But this simple scientific finding totally misses all of the complexity in the classrooms studied. For example, the negative correlations ran from about ?.80 to zero, but a few were even positive, as high as +.45. So in some classes students evaluation anxiety was so debilitating that their achievement was drastically lowered, while in other classes the effects were nonexistent. And
in a few classes the evaluation anxiety apparently was turned into some productive motivational force and resulted in improved student achievement. There were 93 classroom contexts, 93 different patterns of the relationship between evaluation anxiety and student achievement, and a general scientific conclusion that completely missed the particularities of each classroom situation. Moreover, the mechanisms through which evaluation anxiety resulted in reduced student achievement appeared to be quite different in the elementary classrooms as compared to the middle
school classrooms. It may be stretching a little, but imagine that Newtons third law worked well in both the northern and southern hemispheresexcept of course in Italy or New Zealandand that the explanatory basis for that law was different in the two hemispheres. Such complexity would drive a physicist crazy, but it is a part of the day-to-day world of the educational researcher. Educational researchers have to accept the embedded-ness of educational phenomena in social life, which results in the myriad interactions that complicate our science. As Cronbach
once noted, if you acknowledge these kinds of interactions, you have entered into a hall of mirrors, making social science in general, and education in particular, more difficult than some other sciences. Decade by Findings

Interactions
There is still another point about the uniqueness of educational science, the short half-life of our findings. For example, in the 1960s good social science research was done on the origins of achievement motivation among men and women. By the 1970s, as the feminist revolution worked its way through society, all data that described women were completely useless. Social and educational research, as good as it may be at the time it is done, sometimes shows these decade by findings interactions. Solid scientific findings in one decade end up of little use in another
decade because of changes in the social environment that invalidate the research or render it irrelevant. Other examples come to mind. Changes in conceptions of the competency of young children and the nature of their minds resulted in a constructivist paradigm of learning replacing a behavioral one, making irrelevant entire journals of scientific behavioral findings about educational phenomena. Genetic findings have shifted social views about race, a concept now seen as worthless in both biology and anthropology. So previously accepted social science studies about differences between the races are irrelevant because race, as a basis for classifying people in a research study, is now understood to be socially, not genetically, constructed. In all three cases, it was not bad science that caused findings to become irrelevant. Changes in the social, cultural, and intellectual environments negated the scientific work in these areas. Decade by findings interactions seem more common in the social sciences and education than they do in other scientific fields of inquiry, making educational science very hard to do.

Conclusions
The remarkable findings, concepts, principles, technology, and theories we have come up with in educational research are a triumph of doing our damndest with our minds. We have conquered enormous complexity. But if we accept that we have unique complexities to deal with, then the orthodox view of science now being put forward by the government is a limited and faulty one. Our science forces us to deal with particular problems, where local knowledge is needed. Therefore, ethnographic research is crucial, as are case studies, survey research, time series, design experiments, action research, and other means to collect reliable evidence for engaging in unfettered argument about education issues. A single method is not what the government should be promoting for educational researchers. It would do better by promoting argument, discourse, and discussion. It is no coincidence that early versions of both democracy and science were invented simultaneously in ancient Greece. Both require the same freedom to argue and question authority, particularly the government. It is also hard to take seriously the governments avowed desire
for solid scientific evidence when it ignores the solid scientific evidence about the long-term positive effects on student learning of high-quality early childhood education, small class size, and teacher in-service education. Or when it ignores findings about the poor performance of students when they are retained in grade, assigned uncertified teachers or teachers who have out-of-field teaching assignments, or suffer a narrowed curriculum
because of high-stakes testing. Instead of putting its imprimatur on the one method of scientific inquiry to improve education, the government would do far better to build our community of scholars, as recommended in the NRC report. It could do that by sponsoring panels to debate the evidence we have collected from serious scholars using
diverse methods. Helping us to do our damndest with our minds by promoting rational debate is likelyto improve education more than funding randomized studies with their necessary tradeoff of clarity of findings for completeness of understanding. We should never lose sight of the fact that children and teachers in classrooms are conscious, sentient, and purposive human beings, so no scientific explanation of human behavior could ever be complete.
In fact, no un-poetic description of the human condition can ever be complete. When stated this way, we have an argument for heterogeneity in educational scholarship and for convening panels of diverse scholars to help decide what findings are and are not worthy of promoting in our schools. The present caretakers of our government would be wise to remember Justice Jacksons 1950 admonition: It is not the function of our government to keep the citizens from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error. Promoting debate on a variety of educational issues among researchers and practitioners with different methodological perspectives would help both our scholars and our government to make fewer errors. Limiting who is funded and who will be invited to those debates is more likely to increase our errors.  more

You are to write a 3-page paper. Please read the article below and answer the discussion questions. State The Question First and Then Continue to Answer. Do Not Use Outside Sources.

Discussio...n Questions
Pogson and Tennant present a number of theories that have been advanced to explain that the learning
1.Which do you think most closely explains you as an adult learner?
2.Is there one that definitely does not reflect your practical experience, as a learner?
3.What reasons can you think of as to why it might not fit you?


Understanding adult learners: by Philip Pogson and Mark Tennant
Just who is the adult learner and how is the best understood? Are adult learners defined by the intelligence, practical skills, knowledge, expertise or wisdom? What impact does stage of life and has experience have on the learner and learning, and just what status should be given to the prior learning adults bring? What distinguishes the adult learner from the child and at what point if any can be confidently separate our conception of the two? How do adults approach learning and in what ways might the finding of discipline such a lifespan development psychology and social in form the work of adult educators and trainers? These and other similar questions provided introduction to the project of understanding the cognitive and developmental attributes of the adult learner, an essential study it for those who wish to facilitate learning and the whole school years. As lifelong learning becomes the norm, the issue takes on an increasing urgency. In attempting to further the understanding of the adult learner, this chapter examines recent research on the nature of adult intelligence, the acquisition of expertise and adult lifespan development psychology. First, we explore the development of adults capacity as learners, outlining the cognitive dimensions of adults, including the psychometric and cognitive structure list views on adult intelligence. We then discuss more recent formulations of adult cognitive abilities including the development of expertise so-called practical intelligence and wisdom. Our fundamental conclusion here at is that adults thinking and cognitive structure are far more complex than was once commonly accepted. In the following section, we explore the concept of adulthood and life stages as social constructions. In the conclusion, we draw together the strands and provide some suggestions for further research.
Understanding the development of adults capacities as learners
In the past it has been customary to distinguish between two domains of theory and research and adult development: the development of intellectual and cognitive functioning and the development of personality and social roles. In the form of domain of two models dominated an early free search the first, the stability model, assume that adult cognition remained essentially the same after the attainment of maturity the second the decrement model, a salute to a gradual decline in ability, probably due to biological effects of aging. Neither promised a basis on which a robust pulse adolescent learning theory could be built. Recent period and research reject both these models and advance a far more complex viewing of adult learning capacities. It is these findings which we examined first.
The adult learners and IQ test
It has been understood for quite some time that psychometric or IQ tests are culture specific, largely school-based, measure academic prowess and arent even radically biased, but there is a growing view that there are also age-specific. Early studies postulated a decline in adult intellectual capacity with age. The work of Baltes and Schaie has shown that the supposed departmental differences and intelligence for younger to older age groups abound about earlier researchers were in fact generational differences. That is, the negative findings were the result of measuring extraneous factors such as education, whose availability has grown over the past 50 years. The increase in the level of education is a key point, as there is a direct correlation between level of education and IQ. When Schaie and his colleagues designed studies which controlled for age, cohort year of birth and time the year the test was a minister, they found that intelligence does not decline with chronological age, but not into a relatively late in life. In addition, it was found that such a decline can generally be reversed with training. Along similar lines, Cattell and Horn Sever raid intellectual abilities into two general clusters, which they labeled fluid and crystallized intelligence. The fluid component of intelligence revolves around the capacity to process information in the form of complex reasoning, memory and figural relations; well crystallized intelligence is measured by test of information storage, verbal comprehension and numerical reasoning. From those teenage years, there is a deadline in fluid intelligence and a concurrent rise in crystallized intelligence. Howard notes similar independence between the functions of explicit and implicit memory a monk aged Colin explicit memory declines with age well implicitly remained stable. A parallel concern with BT and adequacy of past formulation of adult cognitive development is reflected in the writings of cognitive structuralists such as Piaget. Piagets earlier work theorized six stages of cognitive development through which every person was said to progress, the penultimate stage being formal operations, which commenced in early adulthood. At the achievement of formal operations, thinking is characterized by the ability to reason and think abstractly. The available data on the acquisition of formal operations will suggest that it is not a single unified capacity operating independently of the content and context, but maybe in fact be acquired in certain domains and not others, depending on the individual. Thus, as with IQ, formal operations have come to be seen as abstract and removed from the everyday nature of problems and problem-solving. A response to this dilemma, there has been an attempt by cognitive structure was to extend the six-page model. For example, Kohlberg and Ryncarz posit a seven metaphoric stage. On the whole, though, cognitive structuralism has not been successful in providing a convincing account of post adolescents of the cognitive development. In summary, adult intelligence as measured by IQ test does appear to decline with age, but not until relatively late in life. Remedial training can reserve such decrements. In comparison, those components of intelligence that are based on learning from experience are maintained or even develop with age, an issue that is discussed further when we examine practical intelligence and expertise.
Alternative accounts of adult intellectual development
From around 1970, dissatisfaction with the IQ based model of adult intelligence generated a renewed interest in alternative use of cognitive functioning. The results of empirical research into such diverse models as insight, practical intelligence, wisdom, creativity, tacit knowledge and expertise had raided a whole new field of study. For the greater part of this century to hold term intelligence was so closely linked to the results of IQ tests that new terms such as non-academic intelligence, practical intelligence, every day cognition and practical thinking more annoying and an attempt to describe the newly emerging cognitive constructs. The underlying thread in this debate, which is reflected in the choice of terminology, is the believe that academic intelligence as potentially unjust that did not account for the four range of adult cognitive abilities that there existed nonacademic intelligence and cognitive skills which function independently of IQ. Whereas most IQ testing is firmly situated in a classroom or university, much of this new research took place in real-life environments such as the workplace. It is now well established that many adults act intelligently despite an IQ test result that predicts otherwise. Adulthood s not a period of static or declining intellectual competence but of ongoing, qualitative different, intellectual and cognitive growth. The nature of diversity of this growth are illustrated in the following examination of three alternative cognitive constructs to IQ.
The adult learner and practical intelligence
The concept of existence of practical as the polls to academic intelligence is relatively new and the psychological literature. Academic intelligence release of moments on abstract theoretical task well practical intelligence underlies steel in everyday test. He several recent publications have challenged previously held assumptions about the nature of adult intelligence and establish practical intelligence as a legitimate field of study. Most of these studies were conducted on real-life task and not in a laboratory school or university. Ceci and Liker for example, study the intelligence of professional punters. They found no correlation between the ability to consistently predict winning horses and IQ. Dube found high levels of memory and reasoning among illiterate people. In addition, he felt the capacity for story recall was higher among illiterate Africans that among comparable American students. Several studies have found that practical intelligence function best in real-life situations. Lave et al., studied grocery store shoppers and the processes they used to make mathematical calculations. They found that shoppers average 98% correct answers on situated calculations would actually shopping, and only 59% on identical pen and paper problems. Carraher found similar results with studying the mathematical abilities of Brazilian street children. Others have argued that practical intelligent correlates with the ability to form relationships and Bill social networks. Ford suggests that social competence represent a domain of human functioning that is at least partly distinguishable from a cognitive or general competence domain. Goodnow found that one of the general features of practicality intelligent persons is the ability to organize and reorganize plans that enabled them to go about their everyday lives efficiently. The cross-cultural psychologist Sylvia Scribner investigated and documented the practical thinking of workers and her pioneering studies of everyday thinking and a milk factory. She found that practical thought has five distinct features: it is marked by flexibility; it incorporates the external environment into the problem-solving system; expert practical thinkers adopt efforts saving as a high order cognitive strategy which conforms the way they work; practical thought this highly reliant on domain specific knowledge; and practical thought actually read formulates and redefines problems for the east of solution. The expiration of the nature of practical intelligence makes fascinating reading. However, little of this literature is available in conventional sources on about education and training. Those wanting to pursue an interest in practical intelligence should initially consult Resnick and the edited volumes of Sternberg and Wagner, Rogoff and Lave and Chaiklin and Lave. Research into practical intelligence and practical thinking has extended our previously restricted view of the cognitive skills of adults. The study of uneducated, practical or non-academic thought in the context has brought in the conventional picture of adult hood and presents adult educators with a richer and more complex view of adults ban was produced the conveyed in psychological literature.
The adult learner and the acquisition of experts
He practical intelligence when applied in the context of advocate what domain of work on knowledge is often referred to as expertise. As noted above many studies of expertise have been conducted independently of any theory of adult development or learning. Further, Stevenson remarks ironically that the study of cognitive development expertise in the vocations is leading reforms in general education but is not being applied in vocational and, in our view Adult Education. The most commonly used method in the study of expertise is the comparison of expert and novice performance at a particular task or in a certain domain. Expertise research has been carried out in many diverse areas, including taxi driving; baseball, judicial decision-making, bartending and medical expertise. Recent research has extended the expertise model and to the milieu of vocational education in a series of studies, including the development of expertise and apprenticeship courses, technical and further education colleges and problem based learning. The original and classics experiments on expertise remain the chess study of de Groot and Chase and Simon, looked at thinking of chess masters and novices. One of the most interesting findings in this work concern what eventuated when the researchers asked players to memorize and reproduce the position of chess pieces from set play. All players were unfamiliar with the layout of the boards, but the layouts were all of a type that might be played by masters. It was found that experts could reproduce the board almost without fault, while novice players wavered. Apparently, when memorizing, chess masters chunked together groups of pieces to relieve the load on their short-term memory. Novices had not developed such skills. The follow-up studies of Chase & Simon added a new twist: instead of asking players to memorize a board with the pieces logically set out, they asked them to memorize scramble or meaningless boards. The memory performance of the experts then plummeted to almost the level of the novices. What expertise research tells us is that expert knowledge is often domain specific Colin when operating in the American they know best, experts excel. When significant details change, their performance declines. Experts and one domain are not necessarily experts in another. Neither does expertise appear to be correlated with IQ. The construct of expertise thus appears to complement that of practical intelligence in offering a favorable theoretical underpinning for the efforts about adult educators.
Chi et al., summarized the research findings on expertise is follow. Experts: excel mainly in their own domains, perceived large, meaningful patterns in their domain, are faster and more economical, have superior memory, but memory is usually due to their particular domain, see and represent a problem in their domain at a deeper, more principal level than novices, stand a good deal of time analyzing a problem qualitatively this is especially the case with the ill-structure problems, have strong self-monitoring skills that is, they are aware of their mistakes and of the complexity of problems facing them.
Limitations of the expertise model
Although the expertise model generates positive data on a Dell learning and performance which are of considerable interest to adult educators and trainers, it does have limitations. First, the findings of various expertise researchers although largely complementary can be contradictory on specifics. For example, claims that experts reason and present problems at a deeper level than novices, while Schmidt study of expertise and medicine seems to cast some doubt on this. Second, in real life a pool of genuine experts and specific domains is limited, and often not easily accessible for research purposes. Third, and some domains expertise same to take a lifetime to develop, and little is yet know about how it develops over the lifespan of individual. Fourth, much expertise research has not addressed or answered some significant questions about adult development. For example, continuing to frame research as a comparison between experts much experience and novices little neither experience ignores the problem of non-experts those whose levels of expertise does not appear to have profited from considerable experience. Finally, that there appears to be a cost of expertise and that the very procedure bound routines that experts develop can blind them to the insight of relative novices. Clearly, the challenge for adult educators is to draw on the questionable literature now available on teaching for the transfer of expertise come so as not to narrowly confined piquant with the and more technical skills gained by learners. The complexity of this task is, however, beyond the scope of this chapter.
The adult learner and the getting of wisdom
Wisdom has traditionally been thought of as more interesting to philosophers and theologians and a subject for scientific investigation. Wisdom stimulated the interest of Jung in the early part of the century, and the psychologist Erikson made the attainment of wisdom the emerging value of the eighth and last stage of his lifespan system; this final stage he titled integrity versus despair and disgust. Neither writer advanced empirical evidence supporting the expertise of wisdom as a separate entity. In recent years however the concept of wisdom has undergone something of a renaissance and generate a continuing interest among research psychologist. Contemporary views as to the nature of adult wisdom are varied. See some wisdom as a high level peaked from expertise wisdom is up interest to these writers both as an indicator of the positive aspects of aging the attainment of wisdom and advancing years almost inextricably linked as a challenge to the past dominance of intelligent testing. Other such as Chandler and Holliday reject the notion of reducing wisdom to another psychological construct fearing the loss of the deepest sense of what was the is. Labouvie-Vief understands wisdom to be the integration of mythos, represented by speech, narrative and dialogue, and logos, that part of knowledge which is arguable and can be demonstrated. Evidence for a distinct construct of adult wisdom is provided by Sternberg. In a major study he investigated the similarities and disparities between wisdom, intelligence and creativity. To Sternberg wisdom has most to do with understanding; intelligence with the recall, analysis and use of knowledge; and creativity but going beyond the conventional and redefining the permissible. As a psychological construct wisdom complements IQ practical intelligence and expertise in that it furthers our understanding of the adult learner and a number of ways. First, wisdom provides a positive state to which a learner can legitimately a sprite regardless of level of education or IQ. Second, wisdom provide something of a link between postmodern Western society and the historical roots of cultures both Westerner and otherwise. Moderate adult education and training risk drowning in the instrumentalist rush to compare the learner for participation in society and skilled workers, parents, activists, teachers and so on. Wisdom reminds us that there is still a place in adult learning more being, not just doing for personal growth that has no necessary pitch extrinsic value.
The adult learner and the idea of adulthood as a social construction
As a balance to our emphasis so far on understanding adult learners in terms of cognitive constructs we should like to probe the nature of the adult life course itself. The idea that ones personality or identity changes and/or develops during the adult years is now generally accepted. In this sense the developmental literature parallels the cognitivist and structuralists view we discussed above. Each takes the stance that cognitive development continues apace and adulthood. Further of the developmental psychological literature contains a number of propositions about attributes of the various phases of life many of which have become premises or rationales for Adult Education practice. For example, the use of experiential and group techniques is based on the notion of the cumulative experience of adults the use of learning contracts is related to the idea that adults desire to be on anonymous and self-directing. The developmental editor proposes a number of models of adult development which can be broadly divided into bills which take the position that the life course is normative, age-related and stage or phase-based, and builds which recognize the significance of nonage-related, non-normative events. Of the former group, those most frequently cited are Havighurst, Maslow, Ericsson, Levinson, Gould, Loevinger and Valiant . Each of these copter advances an account of development that has as its endpoint to mature, psychologically healthy and balanced person. All positive life stages or phases through which they envisage adults passing on the journey to maturity. The second group of riders .2 the tremendous variation in a dealt experience and are not content with invariant sequences Baltes and his colleagues for example recognize three influences on development: those which are normative and age-related, those which are normative and historically grated such as epidemics, wars and oppression, which may influence entire generations, and non-normative influence, such as parenting a child born with a disability, or winning a lottery. Riegel argues for the dialectic understanding in which there is a constant interplay between the changing and developing person and the changing and evolving society. A third view holds that the light horse itself is a social construction: that is the way in which we frame and understand the very notion of light horse cannot be removed from the time place and culture in which we live. MacAdams sees identity as reflexively self authored or constructed. This leads him to examine the life course as a narrative will story. He defines life story formally as: an internalized and devolving narrative of the self that incorporates the reconstructed past, perceived present, and anticipated future. MacAdams thus cease activity as a psychosocial construction, jointly authored by the person and his or her defining culture. Life stories of based on the fact that they go beyond mere facts I rendering pass, present and future meaningful and coherent and sometimes imaginative ways. The basic function of life story is integration it binds together desperate elements of the self. Contrast this conception with more popes moderate views of self as residing in narratives which sound and to find them. The significance to the adult educator and developing understanding of the life course and is social construction cannot be overestimated. First we need to recognize that certain Adult Education practices are based on what are often unspoken suppositions about the nature of adulthood. When working, say, with persons from non-Western cultures, such assumption could bring educators unstuck. Second, adult educators need to distinguish between significant life events which are normative and age-related and those which are not. Finally, an understanding of the adult life horse and its social construction can help the educator to frame learning more appropriately and to respond with grace and wisdom to the variety of experiences adults bring to any learning environment.
Conclusion
In the old view of complex fields such as those as we scrutinize in this chapter, it is difficult to do justice to the subtlety and diversity revealed in the literature. We hope that adult educators will be stimulated to continue developing their understanding of the adult learner. In the past 20 years to sell the scientific understanding of adulthood has on the clone a profound and radical shift. No longer constrained by the IQ paradigm, adulthood is now understood as a period of ongoing, constant growth and change. In addition, some form of a commonsense appreciation of adults have been confirmed. It has always been recognized that some adults have a practical rather than a theoretical end. Now studies of everyday skills and everyday thoughts have opened up the ordinary aspects of life and disclose complexities and creativity in the execution of even simple task. As a result, the unfortunate historical bias toward the theoretical academic aspects of cognition has been somewhat redressed. Much of the research we have drawn on in our exploration of adult intelligence the development of adul cognitive skills including the development of expertise and lifespan development psychology comes from the USA. To complement this for there is a need for serious commitment on long adult educationalist to undertake original work or their local situations. For example, edited items such as those of Stevenson on the development of vocational expertise, and Evans on learning and teaching cognitive skills goal some way to filling the gaps in our knowledge but much more systematic investigation is needed. It is also likely that there is much relevant research on adult intelligence the nature of adult learning and the nature of adulthood itself being conducted and the psychology and social ecology Department of universities around the world which is not necessarily contributing to the knowledge of adult education practitioners. In addition, the body of work undertaken more masters and Ph.D.s these are not being accessed and applied. The dissemination of these data is a challenge for the future. An era of radical economic and social change the workplace is once again become a place of serious and important learning. So far it is one about which we know too little, although interest is growing. In addition, there is the question as to how effect of vocational education of their professional development providers are in preparing employees to grasp the cognitive demands of the workplace of the future. Such questions provide a starting point for development and enhancing our understanding of the adult learner.  more

This paper will be split up into 5 sections. Each setion should have it's own bibliography.

Section 1:
In a 2.5 page narrative essay discuss which your response to the following topics. ...Read the first paragraph below on the context and then respond to the assignment criteria topics.

Familiarize yourself with the relationship between state policy on standards and the impact on student outcomes. For this section in particular, we will focus on the state of Vermont's Department of Education. Review the materials at the Vermont Department of Education: State Board of Education and the framework of standards and learning opportunities. On the State Board of Education page read through the overview, mission, vision and strategic plan. On the framework and opportunities page focus your attention on the subject of Mathematics only, and select the 8th grade level, e.g. algebra.



-Identify the role and purpose of the State Board of Education, describe the five aspects to their strategic plan.



-Describe the framework for standards and the learning opportunities for Mathematics only at the selected grade level.



-Analyze how the five aspects to the strategic plan may or may not be substantiated in the framework of standards and the learning opportunities. Identify examples to illustrate your perspective. Determine to what degree the framework and opportunities documents are aligned / map onto the five strategies. Are there any gaps? If so, do the gaps make sense?



-Evaluate whether the information between the strategic plan and the framework and opportunities documents provide adequate "leadership and support to help all Vermont students achieve to excellence" as the mission statement claims in regard to standards for curriculum development. Give examples to illustrate your argument.

Reference For Section 1:

Vermont Department of Education - State Board of Education. Retrieved July 2007 from http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/mainboard.html

Vermont Department of Education - VERMONT'S FRAMEWORK OF STANDARDS & LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES. Retrieved July 2007 from
http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/pubs/framework.html

Vermont Department of Education - Curriculum and Assessment: Mathematics. Retrieved July 2007 from
http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/pgm_curriculum/mathematics/gle.html


Section 2:

In a 2.5 page narrative essay discuss which your response to the following topics.

To complete the essay for this section you will need to refer to the School Districts Role in Curriculum Development. You will also need to read through the Tempe Union High School Curriculum Model. Draw on additional scholarly literature to demonstrate mastery of the concepts.



-Using the Tempe document, describe the three levels of committees and their features, and explain the role the district plays in relation to the Campus Curriculum Committees and the Governing Board.



-What is the importance of planning and organization of curriculum on the district level?



-What major functions would district-level curriculum efforts serve?



-Choose two of the eleven major functions as described in the Power point presentation and describe how these functions are instantiated in the Tempe document. Give examples to illustrate the ways that each function can be implemented.



-Analyze how the functions are represented in the curriculum document for that district. Are the functions adequately implemented? Give reasons for your opinion.

Section 2 Reference:

Tempe Union High School Curriculum Development Model. Retreived July 2007 from
http://www.tuhsd.k12.az.us/departments/curriculum/CurriculumModel.pdf

Section 3:

In a 2.5 page narrative essay discuss which your response to the following topics.

-Analyze the main concepts of Bruners spiral curriculum. Provide examples in your discussion.


-Document Tylers contributions to curriculum. What were the educators main concepts? Explain each concept with an example.


-What is the relationship between Bruners and Tylers work? Compare and contrast their approaches to curriculum.



Section 3 References:

Harden, R.N., Stamper, M. What is a spiral curriculum? Medical Teacher, 21:2. Retrieved July 2007 http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=40932886&sid=5&Fmt=4&clientId=29440
&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Pemberton, J.B., Rademacher, J.A., Tyler-Wood, T., Cerijo, M.V.P. (2006) Aligning Assessments With State Curriculum Standards and Teaching Strategies. Intervention in School and Clinic, 41:5. Retrieved July 2007 from http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1034806041&sid=6&Fmt=4&clientId=29440&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Alaska Department of Education & Early Development: Mathematics and Science. Retrieved July 2007 from http://www.eed.state.ak.us/TLS/FRAMEWORKS/mathsci/ms4inst.htm

Jerome Bruner. InFed. Retrieved July 2007 from http://www.infed.org/thinkers/bruner.htm


Section 4:

In a 2.5 page narrative essay discuss which your response to the following topics.

-Locate a specific curriculum document from a school and subject matter of your choice. Identify and name the school and subject.

-Discuss how a) objectives b) activities/projects/assignments, and c) evaluation should meet the needs of a specific group of students.

-Analyze the curriculum document you have selected in terms of the following components: a) objectives b) activities/projects/assignments, and c) evaluation, and how each of these do or do not meet the needs of a specific group of students.


Section 5:

Submit a 1 page reflective paper about your experience with this assignment.

Please include the following topics in your reflective paper:

Descriptions of how you feel you improved your knowledge, skills, abilities, and yourself in this session through this assignment.



Evaluation of the work you did during the session for the assignment and explanations of ways you could have performed better.



Topics you have identified that you did not understand or were not successful in trying to implement and suggestions you may have about how to improve the material on those topics.



Ways you might measure the future effects of what you have learned bu this assignment or your future progress/improvement.  more

If this project turns out good, I'll be back in January for my thesis paper. I teach elementary math and this is an instructional design project. My topic is measurement such as area, perimeter, and v...olume. Please reference the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for measure for grade 5 mathematics. They are found here: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter111/ch111a.html (Scroll almost to the bottom and they start at 5.1) My instructions are below:







Instructional Design and Performance Improvement Project



Define a problem that can be solved through appropriate instruction. The instructional design process begins by analyzing this problem. In this project you will analyze the instructional problem that you have identified and provide a rationale for why this problem can be solved through instruction rather than through other means. After the underlying nature of the problem has been analyzed, you will need to identify any and all domains of knowledge needed to solve the problem, identify component tasks for each, and develop a corresponding objective for each task. These objectives guide the design process and help you select and sequence content, instructional strategies and assessment measures. Your final product must be in APA style and should include the following:

1. Problem statement and needs analysis

2. Goal statement

3. Learner analysis

4. Task analysis

5. Performance objectives

6. Instructional strategies and supporting learning theories



Problem Statement. This statement should clearly identify the problem and identify sources of the problem. Conduct a needs analysis by obtaining additional information on the problem from others through the use of observation, interviews, focus groups, achievement tests, surveys, or other appropriate data gathering instruments. In the needs analysis, obtain information regarding the difference between the current state of affairs and the desired state of affairs. The results of the needs analysis should demonstrate that there is a need for instruction to solve the problem. The problem statement in your project should include the following subheadings:

1. Background of the problem

2. Definition of the problem

3. Needs analysis (this should contain a description of the data collection and analysis techniques used in your needs analysis and the findings of your needs analysis)

4. Rationale for the need for instruction (based on the needs analysis)

5. Available resources (resources you have available for creating an instructional unit to help solve this problem)



Goal Statement. After all the information about the problem has been gathered then it is possible to better identify the “what should be.� The goal statement is the expression of the way things should be. Instructional goals focus on what learners will be able to do when they complete the set of instructional materials. It describes the real world context, outside the learning situation, where the learner will use the new skills and knowledge. Write an instructional goal statement that (1) contains a clear, general statement of learner outcomes (2) describes what the learner will be able to do using a measurable verb, and; (3) relates to the identified problem and needs assessment.

Learner Analysis. An important part of the analysis process is gathering information about the learners. The learner analysis describes the target audience and provides valuable information that helps to identify deficiencies that will become the focus of instruction. Additionally, the learner analysis provides important information for the selection of instructional strategies. Subheadings in the learner analysis section should include:

1. Demographic information

2. Relevant group characteristics

3. Prior knowledge of topic

4. Entry level knowledge and skills

5. Attitudes and/or motivation toward the subject

6. When appropriate, additional information may include education level, learning styles and/or orientations.

Task Analysis. Once the goals of the instruction or curriculum have been determined the next step in the instructional design process is the task analysis. In the task analysis the instructional designer analyzes how an expert performs a complex job by breaking the job down into simple, easy to perform steps that need to be performed in order to meet the course or curriculum goals. The task analysis identifies both the steps and the sequence that the steps are performed. You may choose to do either a topic analysis or a procedural analysis depending on the nature of your project. A topic analysis identifies facts, concepts, principles, and rules needed for the instruction and is well suited for defining cognitive knowledge. A procedural analysis identifies both the observable and non-observable (cognitive) steps required to complete psychomotor tasks, job tasks, or multi-step cognitive sequences.



A hierarchical numbering scheme should be used to label the items in a task analysis.

Example:



1.0 Task 1

1.1 First step of task 1

1.2 Second step

1.2.1 First sub-step step 1.2

1.3 Third step

2.0 Task 2

2.1 First step of task 2

2.2 Etc.

Performance Objectives. A performance objective is a detailed description of what students will be able to do when they complete a unit of instruction. The objectives are usually derived from the steps in the goal analysis identified in the task analysis. Performance objectives. follow the three-part standard as identified by Mager: (1) a description of the condition under which the learner must be able to perform the task; (2) a statement of the intended learning outcome in terms of a measurable performance, and (3) the standard for an acceptable level of performance.

Instructional Strategies and Theories of Learning. The performance objectives provide a focus for selecting instructional content and instructional strategies to help ensure the mastery of your goal. Now that you have completed the learner analysis and have identified the performance objectives, consider effective instructional strategies for teaching the content. Consider using either Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction or the abbreviated Five Events as found in the Systematic Design of Instruction by Dick and Carey as a framework.



After you have discussed the instructional strategies briefly discuss how you expect learning to occur using these strategies based on one or more of the three theories of learning: behaviorism, cognitivism or constructivism.



   more

This is a Masters level research paper that needs to be a minimum of 10 written pages. There also needs to be graphs and diagrams. There needs to be 10 resources. No interviews or surveys. The literary review and conclusion are key. My specific topic is: The Impact of No Child Left Behind on California's English Language Learners. It should be written in reference to elementary education. If there isn't enough information please contact me.

This is a doctoral study on the research experience of doctoral students. I want to compare students enrolled in traditional PhD and taught/professional doctorate programs such as DBA, EdD, using the "Postgraduate research experience questionnaire" developed by an Australian organisation (see Postgraduate research experience 2005 available for download from http://www.acer.edu.au/library/libcat/index.html). I will also use qualitative method interviewing respondents and compare the interview data with the publications "Research training in doctoral programs: What can be learned from professional doctorates" and "The doctoral education experience: Diversity and complexity". Both publications are available from http://www.dest.gov.au

The literature review should include American, British and Australian sources. Research questions must be sharp and relevant to the literature. The study will be targeted at one Australian university.

I would like the main focus of my paper to be on teacher retention. I don't want to support relaxing teacher certifications, importing teachers, or fast track teaching programs except in emergency situations and on a temporary basis. I want my paper to be on greater support for the teachers we have and the new teachers starting fresh from college. Maybe include support for teacher mobility from state to state? Rural and urban "grow your own" programs possibly? Better pay and working conditions, teacher empowerment.

Here is one source I have and like the information except I don't want my paper to have any focus on No Child Left Behind.

Title: Highly Qualified Teachers for All.
Authors: Darling-Hammond, Linda ldh@stanford.edu
Berry, Barrett bberry@teachingquality.org
Source: Educational Leadership; Nov2006, Vol.64 Issue3, p14-20, 7p, 4c

All the sources need to be of a scholarly or authoritative type and something I can find myself through research.
Thats all I think. Thank You!

The paper must be in APA style. I am to conduct action research on a specific project or problem in education. I have already e-mailed the professor and asked her if Classroom Management would be a ...good topic and she said, "YES." This research project should focus on a change issue, curricular or organizational issue, or issue facing a school. The topic should allow me to explore and incorporate current incidents, best practices, and polices regarding the issue.
THE ACTION RESEARCH PAPER should include the following informaiton:
1. Title page
2. Abstract
3. Table of Contents
4. Introduction
a. Statement of the problem
b. Research Question
c. Significance of Study
5. Review of Literature (summary of relevant literature on your topic-what other reserach says about your topic minimum of 10 work cited with no more than three from the internet and at least three must be from refereed professional journals).
6. Methods (the method you used to collect your data including issues such as reliability and validity.
7. Analysis of Data (detailed description of how you analyzed the data.
8. Results (detailed answers to your questions; this may include charts, graphs, and or tables; if lengthy and impedes flow of paper charts/graphs/tables should appear in the appendices-see #11)
9. Conclusion (what you as the reseracher conclude about your study; what the implications are for teachers/administrators and education field; how is this study related to the professional literature)
10. Bibliography (documentation of sources used in paper) carefully ready academic integirty seciton below.
11. Appendices (Any material which impedes the smooth development of your presentation, but which is important to justify the reulsts of a thesis. Generally it is material that is of too great of detail for inclusion in the main body of the thesis, but which should be available for perusal by the examiner to convince them sufficiently. Example include program listing, immense tables of data, lengthy mathematical proofs or derivation, etc.)
An Exemplary paper contains above requirements plus paper displays excellent writing and research skills with a topic and conclusions that have great significance to the field of education. Many students inquire about acceptable project length. For this reason, the following can servce as a guideline-remembering that each project is unique and will vary in length based on research and findings. As a general rule your paper target length should be at least 25 pages not indcluding appendices or bibliography. Your review of literature should be comprehensive historic, provide context and a target length for just the literature part should be ten pages.



I did a survey at my school and used the following questions.

1. Do you think teachers should be allowed to spank?

23 said yes 9 said no
2. Do you think our school needs to improve how we discipline studens.
30 said yes 2 said no

3. Do you wish you could manage the behavior of your students better?

28 said yes 4 said no


Out of the 32 teachers 8 said they never send a students to the principal and the other 24 said they did send a student to the principal for discipline.


Some other ways teachers control discipline in their classroom was with rewards, taking playtime, talking with parents or guardian.

I teach school in Kentucky so the paper should pertain to the laws of Kentucky schools.




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2. Pedagogy Paper (100 pts.) FINAL ASSIGNMENT The length of the paper will be 10 pages. This will include a cover page and bibliography. This assignment should be written in APA style. Please follow t...he list below, and be advised that points C and D should be the core of your research paper.

A. Choose one of the multicultural concepts identified in the course. (i.e. Race, gender, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion)

B. Select a country and find an article that discusses one of the multicultural issues in the country you chose. Summarize the multicultural concept as it relates to the nation. For instance, if you select one of the Middle Eastern countries and gender as your multicultural concept, then you would summarize and describe the major issues of gender/sexism in the country. (Introduction)

C. Describe the issues with at least three examples. Using the conceptual framework as illustrated in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed use stories or concrete examples to analyze how the oppression is manifested. (Body 1)

D. Discuss at least three assumptions regarding the conflicts around your selected concept. Relate the issues to other multicultural issues in that country that interconnect like how does poverty play into gender oppression, or religion, or race, ethnicity, etc. I HAVE CHOSEN RACE ISSUES IN NEW YORK. SPECIFICALLY WITH AFRICAN AMERICANS.(Body 2)

E. Reflect on the impact of oppression as it relates to the principals of multicultural studies.



Course Description:

This course, Diversity and Multicultural Perspectives, will give students a strong background in the conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical issues in multicultural education. The lectures and readings are designed to help pre-service and in-service educational leaders clarify issues related to pluralistic education, adopt a philosophical position, supervise the design and implementation of effective teaching strategies that reflect ethnic and cultural diversity, and prepare sound guidelines for multicultural programs and practices.

Course Goals:

o To discuss multiple perspectives on multiculturalism and multicultural education.
o To identify the role and nature of oppression.
o To recognized the relationship between various forms of oppression and how it is manifested throughout the world.
o To demonstrate inclusion in the education process.

Required Texts:

o Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. NY: Continuum.
o Other readings as assigned.




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Part 1 which is 1 page:
How is the Internet changing our minds and our culture?

Part 2 which is 4 pages:

Write a 3-4 page narrative paper reporting the results of your media impl...ementation. This should include quotes from others who have done similar work, which may be found in the popular press or academic or trade journals (not websites--it must be a reputable source). Your paper must include at least 3 correctly cited citations (include links but not as a substitute for citations), at least one from an academic/peer reviewed/scholarly or trade journal. References should, in general, be no older than five years old.

Topics to cover:

Are people subscribing/reading/watching? How many?
Are they taking the next step (buying/commenting/retweeting)?
Write about the cultural factors that you believe may be are affecting the results.
Identify areas for improvement and develop a plan to improve the work.
Identify two different social media tools you will use, if necessary.

So far I have not achieved much in viewership. Possibly because it is a limited environment that I am advertising too. There is no retweeting going on yet or comments. I would like to continue with the Facebook and twitter concept. I will attach original proposal for reference how to answer the last 3 questions.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leadership-and-the-Constitution/295873120453632?v=wall

https://twitter.com/#!/capntoph


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Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities
Task: Write a paper (suggested length of 5 pages)

A. Summarize the six key components of the original 1975 IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities E...ducation Act).

Refer to website: http://www.askresource.org/Publications/Six_Principles_IDEA.pdf
(I have attached a pdf document for this web article)

Discuss with enough information to show that you understand what components are. Use bullet points to show each of the six components.

B. Summarize the key components of the following IDEA re-authorizations:
(I have attached pgs. 51, 52, 55)
PL 99-457 (1986)-pg. 51, 52
PL 101-476-pg. 52
PL 105-17 (1997)-pg. 52
IDEA 2004: PL 108-446-pg. 55

Tip: Pay special attention to the changes that refer to Parents, Teachers or the Student. If the law talks about changes in Parent rights or participation, Childrens (students) changes in services or Teacher qualifications make sure you address those areas.

C. Summarize, in sequential order, the mandated IDEA guidelines and processes for referring a student with a suspected disability for evaluation for special education services.

Tip: This should be done from the teachers point of view. Make sure you are starting from the point the student is seen struggling in the classroom all the way to when the student is placed in Special Ed. and receives services.

Make sure you talk about the actual referral; i.e. What is in the referral? What is required for the referral? What are the components of the referral?

Dont do this section in bullets. Do in essay format.

IDEA Guidelines for referral: (I have attached pgs. 63-72)
Pre-Referral
Referral
Assessment
Instructional Programming/Appropriate Placement
Designing Individual Instructional plans; Individualized Education Program and Individualized Family Service Plan


D. Incorporate the following four intervention concepts as an extension of what you addressed in Part C above:

Pre-referral interventions-Pg. 63, 3rd paragraph
Multi-disciplinary team-Pg. 66, 1st paragraph
Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests-Pg. 66, 3rd paragraph
Individualized Education Plan-Pg. 68

Tip: Discuss how these interventions fit into the referral process? Parts C and D need to be combined. The intervention concepts should be placed in Bold letters. Insert the concepts and definitions as they relate to the referral process.

Here are some examples of how to incorporate these interventions into Part C:

Using the intervention concept: Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests

Referral process/guidelines: The student is then evaluated using norm-referenced tests and or criterion-referenced tests.

Intervention concept: A norm-referenced test is . and a criterion-referenced test is .

Using the intervention concept: Individual Education Plan

Referral process/guidelines: An I.E.P is developed for the student.

Intervention concept: An I.E.P is ...

Include all in-text citations and references in APA format.

Note: No more than a combined total of 30% of a submission can be directly quoted or closely paraphrased from outside sources, even if cited correctly

Reference List:

Gargiulo, R. M. (2006). Special education in a contemporary society: An introduction to exceptionality. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

http://www.askresource.org/Publications/Six_Principles_IDEA.pdf

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I need a paper on mental retardation with autism. This paper is directed to children in physcial education with cognitive disabilites and physical disabilites. Gear the paper towards a physical educat...ion aspect, realting to learning how to teach disabled students. Don't forget to include some autism information throughout the paper too! It has to be a full 10pgs. Each page will start with a new heading. The refernce page needs 5 references and 3 must be non-internet.The references must be citied throughout the paper. Please don't forget this it is very important!!! The the margins need to be one inch and 12 font. The headings for each page are:
pg.1- disability defintion,causes or theories of causes, how it is diagnosed.
pg.2- described characteristics if that disability(or those disabilites).
pg.3- List and describe the health and safety precautions to take including health & medical concerns specific to the diagnosis and related to physcial activity and learning.
pg.4- Modifications to physical activity and tips for inclusion into general PE that is specfic and linked to the disability and characteristics.
pg-5 - Sport and physcial education participation organizations outlets.List and describe at least one at the national and one local. How they are specific to the diagnosis or related to it. Please include local outlets and the addresses for national and local with also phone numbers.
pg.6- reference page, 5 references, 3 non internet and must be citied throughout the paper!!
I put 10 pages because I would like you to elaborate on pgs.1,3,4,5. This paper needs to be 6pgs single spaced but I know that you only do double spaced papers so I figured this would make up the difference.
Thank You very much! If you have any questions email me at jaimelee211@aol.com, please don't hesitate!  more

Topic Title: What Effect do Uncertified Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors have on the Disabled Client?

Need: Abstract (1page), Outline (1page) Body of paper (10pages) Reference page, (1page, free)

Must be written in 1st person.

References must be from professional literature: American Psychologist, APA Monitor, Journal of Applied Rehabilitation Counseling, etc. References cannot come from web documents, trade magazines, brochures, etc.

This topic prompted the federal government to amend the Rehabilitation Act of 1992. Amendment Section 101 (a)(7); CFR361.18, stating Rehabilitation Counselors had to be certified by CRC and master's degree graduates within federal and state agencies. I have found job postings where the education requirements are not required. I believe that would have a profound effect on the disabled person.

The paper is graded on content, grammer, sentence structure, organization and logical sequence of content, use of 1st person, APA style (headings and citations throughtout the text, use of reference material, format of reference page.

No Child Left Behind is the subject - the lawsuite filed by several states, the effect this law has had on education ESPECIALLY in OHIO but don't limit it to OHIO. This research paper needs to be 10 pages long PLUS works cited & an OUTLINE! At least 6 sources cited in MLA style (parenthetical citations within paper & works cited page).

The purpose of this paper is to discuss and address how by using universal design for learning processes along with collaborative teaching methods and inclusive teaching practices an educator can prov...ide appropriate and evolving learning opportunities to all students in a heterogeneous classroom environment.

briefly define inclusive classrooms; briefly define universal design for learning; briefly define collaborative teaching.

briefly discuss the current education requirements by federal law to support this educational environment.

discuss the use of the combination of the areas above to create and sustain successful heterogeneous (inclusive) classrooms.

discuss the successful use of classroom pods (small group set-ups; as opposed to traditional rows-and-columns classroom arrangement) combined with the Socratic method of teaching where the teacher guides and enables the students to learn the subject matter (as opposed to traditional lecture method)
In combination with the previous method and environment all subjects would be taught at a range of learning levels appropriate to the students in that particular inclusive (heterogeneous) classroom. This is opposed to the traditional teaching method of teaching one subject level to all of the students without disabilities and several subject levels to the students with learning disabilities.
The use of the pods (usually groups of four desks placed facing each other in a square) facilitates this process by allowing the educators to arrange the students according to their particular comprehension levels for each subject. Pods can have 'mentor members' that would be performing at higher levels than their fellow pod members in that particlar subject matter and who enjoy tutoring and helping their classmates.

Discuss the advantages of using collaborative teaching under the universal design for learning processes in inclusive (heterogeneous) classrooms.

address the disadvantages (if any)of using this process as opposed to traditional regular education classrooms combined with seperate self-contained classrooms for students with learning disabilities.  more

The following needs to be included in my paper:
physical location(city, state);type of setting (rural,urban,suburban--how many acres); makeup of the student population(ethnic groups represented);w...hat is required for entrance(mininum ACT or SAT score, foreign language requirements, etc);list a representative sampling of different four year degree programs offered;is the school on a semester, tri-mester, or quarter system;how much will tuition be per semester or per sememster hour of credit;how much money will room and board cost;are freshman required to live on campus;what kinds of tuition aid are availabe;is there a possibility of an on-campus job;is there a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science (or Bach. of fine arts) offered in a field I might be interested in; what graduate programs are offered (leading to Master of Arts, a Master of Science, a Master of Business Administration, etc.);is there a law school, medical school or dental school affiliated with this university; what percentage of four year degree graduates are accepted into medical schools, dental schools, law schools, or other graduate schools; are freshmen allowed to have a car on campus; what is the social life like on compus and around the town.

The field I may pursue is Nursing or education. I found the following web sites (sources) helpful:
The original New American University document was authored by Michael M.
Crow in November, 2002
http://www.asu.edu/ia/inauguration/address/

The latest version of the New American University:
http://www.asu.edu/president/newamericanuniversity/index.html
was authored by the Office of University Initiatives in August, 2004

Other resources that might be helpful to you are:

One University in Many Places
http://www.asu.edu/president/udt/
http://www.asu.edu/president/udt/UDTwhitepaper.pdf

Annual Report
http://www.asu.edu/president/annualreport/index.html

President Crow's web site also has many resources
http://www.asu.edu/president/

Research and Economic Affairs
http://ovprea.asu.edu/

About ASU
http://www.asu.edu/about/

Quick facts
http://www.asu.edu/uoia/quickfacts.html  more

need pamphlet
Write a 700- word paper that analyzes a current health promotion pamphlet?s appropriateness for the general public.
Assess the following elements of the pamphlet in your paper:

? Layout appeal
? Content and quality
? Reading level
? Clarity
? Examples of health promotion in the pamphlet
? Usefulness
? Cultural sensitivity and competence
? Helpful hints or tips for self-care management
? Appropriate literacy level for target audience

Include the publication information for the pamphlet.

Reflective Essay- personal teaching philosophy statements
At the start of week one till the week 8 you are asked to reflect on your learning journey through this unit and develop a reflective pers...onal teaching philosophy statement that embraces your understanding of best practice. What you don't do is just summarise what you've put in your journal- this is not reflective practice. But a new piece of writing, which reflects upon your learning journey and uses relevant references to support your argument. Also reflect- on what is important -not just what you have learned, but how it has changed your values, attitudes and perhaps made you think about your future practice.
By the time you get to week eight, you will be able to actually see what you have learned- you will have a comprehensive record of your reading and your ideas. How have your ideas changed and crystallised over eight weeks? Unless you think and reflect, you will not be able to write the reflective essay.
Reflection is the way of thinking that all good teachers live with everyday. It means- "well, I thought this, and did this- how could I do it better next time?" So- you should ask yourself the same thing about curriculum. This is central to the teaching process- how can I take this requirement and achieve what is mandated, taking into account the students I have at this particular time, the ethos of the school, the leadership team, the parents, my own capabilities and interests. You might find this quite hard to do if you don't know very much about what drives curriculum construction and philosophy.

HERES HOW I STARTED IT, YOU CAN CHANGE IT IF YOU LIKE.
When starting the personal journal i found it hard, but after starting the journals entries for the past 8 weeks I have learned a lot, and I found myself better understanding of the curriculum than I did before starting the unit. I couldn?t even say curriculum or spell it properly. However after researching more on curriculum and doing the weekly reading and participating on online discussion with other students helped me a lot and gave me a better understanding of curriculum. Therefore I was able to achieve the weekly questions and tasks.

Marking criteria please follow it.
Academic Engagement Evidence of self-reflective examination of learning issues-Consistently employs reflective learning strategies
Synthesis Evidence of synthesis of multiple concepts and sources of information-Explanations are thorough, innovative and are supported with research of the theories of learning.
Classroom ConnectionEvidence of connections between theory and practice- Consistently makes valid and insightful connections between personal experience, theories and classroom environments
Academic PresentationEvidence of ability in academic writing -Consistently applies appropriate standards of presentation in referencing and literacy (including spelling, grammar and sentence structure)

Here are my personal journals for each week that I did.

Week 1

Part A
What is curriculum?
What Curriculum means to me is a syllabus which needs to be taught and followed in order to complete a course.Syllabus and curriculum are not the same Curriculum is the learning which is planned by a teacher and taught to students weather it?s carried out for group of students or individually. Curriculum means subjects that are included in a course. Teachers use curriculum to direct their classrooms. Curriculum could also be everything that students or other learners gain within school or home which will help them in their everyday lives. However I believe that at most of schools, curriculum is looked at simply the recognized educational standards that are taught. These standards provide a sign of where the students/ others should be within a clearly defined range of learning. I believe that teachers should plan and focus on every Childs need, therefore focusing on the learning needs of every individual child and designing curriculum to meet the students/ children needs is very important as this will help the students to gain more knowledge. However I think it is the teacher?s duty to help the students to reach their goals and should teach them ways to become better learners and problem solvers so that they choose to take paths to learning of their individual foundation.
Part B
After doing my readings, online tasks and researching about what curriculum means? Curriculum is the most important document early childhood educators need to understand and apply and should be developed with discussion from all stakeholders. These stakeholders are families, government, communities and the students. (Brady & Kennedy, 2010). However why however? you are not adding anything to the previous sentence.as (Brady & Kennedy, 2010, p.5) stated that students curriculum is an interrelated set of plans and experiences that a student undertakes under the guidance of school. The term curriculum refers to everything that happens throughout the day. As Linderberg, L., & Swedlow, R. (1976). Stated that curriculum refers to all the provision professionals make for the whole of the Childs experience in the service. ???meaning?Therefore curriculum includes the educators understanding guiding their decision making and the provision of resources; the organisation of space, time and resources planned and spontaneous; and teaching strategies and interactions. Brady and Kerry (2010) states how the curriculum should be about the future. ?and to understand better role of the curriculum in the 21st century, the purpose should be to ensure that students/ children are well equipped to handle whatever it is that this century will call them to do and be? (Brady & Kerry, 2010, p.5). However teacher?s roles are to prepare and educate children by simply implementing the curriculum guidelines by the school. As (Brady & Kerry, 2010) highlighted that most importantly educators interpret those guidelines and add an educational aspect that forms from day to day curriculum experiences for students.

Reference:
Brady, L. & Kennedy, K. (2010). Curriculum Construction (4th Edition).Frenchs Forest NSW: Pearson Australia.
Linderberg, L., & Swedlow, R. (1976). Early Childhood Education: A Guide for Observation and Participation. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Week 2 & 3
In this modern and contemporary world, an individual is exceedingly blessed, who have had the fortune of attaining education, and utilizing his acquired knowledge, for the betterment of his living. In order to attain a blissful and a prosperous life, it is highly imperative that a person has been geared up to face and confront the ever increasing competition in the world, having the most advanced and inclusive education.
Beliefs about Early Childhood Education
A child?s mind is extremely na?ve and vulnerable. Researches have proven that not only an immature mind is exceedingly receptive, but also very impressive; therefore, what ever it hears or receives is imbedded very firmly, in both the conscious, as well as the unconscious level. Bearing in mind the previously mentioned notion, a cognitive mind is coerced to believe that education in the early ages of the child plays a pivotal role in constructing his ideals, morals, mentality and innovative approach.
Curriculum
The educational institutes in almost every region do not inculcate the knowledge based on their own choice or fluke. There is a set pattern of academic course, which an institute decides to follow, primarily authorized by a governing body or board. A curriculum, primarily, is an incorporated and structured course based on the theoretical studies, for the children.
Australian Curriculum
Australian curriculum is amongst the most compatible and well devised curriculum for children?s education in the developed countries. Like other curriculums, even the Australian curriculum pays utmost heed to the sound development and the exquisite knowledge attainment by the children. Australian curriculum is devised in a way that it is properly prepared for imparting the basic knowledge, required comprehensions, desirable capabilities and skill, which are essential for Australian children. The curriculum denotes the ownership or right of learning of a student as the corner stone of, future learning, proper cognitive growth, a healthy future lifestyle, and sound membership of Australian community (Hincks, 2010).
Historic Development of Australian Curriculum
Numerous researchers and scholars believe that, shortly after independence, the administration and establishment of Australia had started giving utmost attention to the domain of education, for a well equipped and efficient future generation. At the outset, the Australian education board resorted to the foreign guideline for the formulation of the curriculum for their nation. However, Gradually the Australian administration started to gain a grip on their own comprehensions, and started to devise their own curriculum, timelines and current, as well as future approaches regarding those curriculums (Atweh & Singh, 2011).
Stages
The sound and traditional development of Australian curriculum primarily comprises on four key stages. The first stage, which is the Curriculum Shaping Stage, revolves around the formulation an initial and rather rough or test draft of the proposed curriculum, in which highly expert advices are also sought, of the respective figures, which possess the adequate knowledge and experience.
In the second stage, which is the Curriculum Writing Stage, the proposed Australian curriculum is given the proper shape. Along with the assistance of a selective team of the writers, confirmed and acknowledged by the expert advisory panel and the respect staff of the curriculum. The third stage revolves around the astute and effective implementation of the drafted and approved curriculum. It is rendered to the respective school authorities via online mediums, and the respective authorities along with the teachers, endeavor to implement this at schools effectively. In the fourth and final stage, designated processes are employed which are pivotal for monitoring and sound evaluation of the implemented Australian curriculum (O'Meara, 2005).
Argument For and Against a National Australian Curriculum
On a personal level, as well as according to numerous observers, Australian curriculum is a highly compatible and competent course structure which the students receive, for preparing and gearing them up for the future competitive world. The best thing about the curriculum besides being peculiar about each and every aspect of the current knowledge in every domain (subject) is the astute and comprehensive process of its development. The proper formulation of a new curriculum after every predetermined period, along with teams of experts in every domain, enables the respective management and administration to devise the most comprehensible and compatible curriculum, as par the education level of other developed countries.
However, one minor drawback or shortcoming, which numerous observers have pointed, is regarding the involvement of the instructors or the teachers in the development of the curriculum. The reason why the involvement of the teachers is deemed to be equally essential is because eventually the teachers are responsible for inculcating the proposed knowledge into children, in a predetermined manner. Teachers must be made part of every stage, to keep them aware of what is coming their way to deliver it to the students. Moreover, if the teachers are part of the development of the curriculum, they will be able to acknowledge if they are in a position to deliver the proposed knowledge to the children or not. Furthermore, making teachers a part of development can prove to be fruitful, with respect to the vital suggestion flowing in from their part (Weksler, 2004).
A person depicts what he learns; therefore, it is highly imperative that the education, which the children receive in the educational institutes, is compatible, comprehensible and up to date. For this purpose, the management clearly and astute sorts out that what is to be taught and how effectively can it be implemented.
References
Atweh, B., & Singh, P. (2011). The Australian curriculum: Continuing the national conversation. Australian Journal Of Education, 55(3), p. 189-196
Aubusson, P. (2011). An Australian science curriculum: Competition, advances and retreats. Australian Journal Of Education, 55(3), p. 229-244.
Hincks, P. (2010). Australian Curriculum -- an update. Ethos, 18(2), p. 6-7
O'Meara, J. (2005). POLICIES, PRACTICES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: A STUDY OF CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION IN AN AUSTRALIAN HIGH SCHOOL. Research In Education, (74), p. 99
RICNEY, L. (2011). Including Aboriginal perspectives in the Australian Curriculum: Advice to teachers. Primary & Middle Years Educator, 9(1), p. 14
Weksler, M. (2004). Teaching Contemporary Australian Studies: Stories from country students. Ethos, 12(4), p. 25-27.

Week 4

External and internal factors that might affect curriculum development
There is no doubt that the process of curriculum development is not a mood but a process based on a set of justifications may vary from one community to another and from time to time. These justifications are:
* Qualitative and quantitative development of human knowledge (the knowledge explosion) in the present era curriculum development before a big challenge.
* The rule of scientific method in the various areas of life.
* Cohesion between theoretical science and applied research and between theory and practice.
* Development of science as a result of educational research and studies is the perception of the curriculum, the school and the student.
? Lack of current approaches: this factor is linked to factors of social change, where the curriculum, which seems to put in the time it, is appropriate to continue a long period of time.
? Frequent repetition or drop out of school-related factors, and teaching methods is appropriate.
?Needs of the community the future: The studies predictive and study the development of communities and the different phenomena which may have contributed to provide educators understand the large for the needs of the community in the near future and showed those studies that the school curriculum should evolve to fit with those needs and to encourage change the direction of future developments.
Development of education: The continuing changes in the concept of education and its objectives and the roles of teachers and learners and organizations, the school curriculum requires a reconsideration of the tools and educational methods and developing them to achieve the objectives of education and what the school curricula of the most important tools, it is supposed to be a tool change is effective, and a tool achieve the desired educational goals (Lattuca & Stark, 2009).
Contemporary and Traditional Curriculum
The latest documentation from the QCA (Qualifications and Curriculum Authority) gives the following aims for the curriculum ? that it should ?enable all young people to become successful learners who enjoy learning, make progress and achieve; confident individuals who are able to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives; responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society?. These aims cannot be achieved just within lessons. It is the whole-school experience which will produce successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens. This experience includes the atmosphere and environment in school, the way behaviour is managed, relationships between staff and pupils, and opportunities for pupils to make decisions, solve problems and collaborate with each other. Curriculum modern sense is a set of experiences educational readies itself the school for pupils both inside and outside in order to help them grow comprehensive and integrated, ie, growth in all aspects of mental, cultural, religious, social, physical, psychological and artistic growth leads to modify their behaviour and ensure that their interaction successfully with their environment and their community and develop their own solutions to are faced with problems (Kridel, 2010).

References
Kridel, C. A. (2010), ?Encyclopedia of curriculum studies?, Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications.
Lattuca, L. R., & Stark, J. S. (2009), ?Shaping the college curriculum: academic plans in context (2nd ed.)?, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Week 5
.
Part A
I have worked in Montessori centre before for two weeks however during that period I realized that it was different from other centres. I Have realized that the Montessori environment provided independence and individual learning for children by making choices and decision to use the materials from variety of resources for their play, which helps the children to further develop their self-esteem and independence skills. As Montessori educators provided time for children to stay focused and engaged in the activity that they were participating in, rather than rushing them into the next activity, as this gave the children time to finish their activity and helped them to be confident.
Part B
Working there for two weeks was not enough to learn about Montessori. But now that I have done my research about it, I have more understanding of it. As research has stated that Montessori is an approach to the education of children. It is a way of looking at, and understanding children. It is a view of how children develop and learn. However the Montessori environment is a place for building a positive, attitude towards learning and developing children?s skills by providing them with variety of activities and enough time to play free and individually. Children learn through play and exploring things around them. As Montessori philosophy stated that the discovery of their environment is important as children learn through discovering, exploring and learning, they must be given the freedom to develop physically, intellectually, and spiritually. The Freedom within Limits atmosphere of a Montessori classroom provides an environment which nurtures a sense of order and self-discipline. Therefore the educator?s role is to provide the materials and environment which will assist children?s development and to be ready to take action when help is needed.

Reference:
Montessori, M. (1966). The secret of childhood. New York: Ballentine Books
Montessori Live. (2010). Montessori Philosophy. Retrieved from
http://www.montessorilive.net/index.html

Week 6

PART A
I have studied about Steiner back in college Steiner education also recognized as Waldorf education involves a humanistic approach towards learning. Rudolf Steiner conceived of education as an art that is creative, progressive, social, and individual in nature.
However from what I have learnt back on college is that Steiner educators believe that children should not be rushed into adult awareness but allowed to savour their childhood. To assist the young people to learn to know and love the world in childhood, is to begin to develop good judgement in teenage years, to liberally take responsibility for life?s journey into adulthood; as these are educators and parents duty. Steiner?s image of child highlights the fact that all children are equal and they must be given education based on their capacity to absorb the information. Steiner image of child involves assessing the physical, academic, spiritual, and emotional capabilities of child to develop a curriculum based on their need. Steiner views every child as having great potential to learn and improve his learning abilities.
PART B
Based on the exploration of Steiner model of education text and discussion with colleagues on the topic has opened new insight dimensions that require assessment of implacability. Steiner model of education works for all children based on the principles of equanimity that does not make any differentiation on the basis of ethnicity class, academic ability, and religion. The central image of the child as in need of nurture and protection and an emphasis on the physical, of movement and of doing, are interesting points of reference for comparative studies (Uhrmacher, 1995).
Many theorists have supported the Steiner model of education. For example, Steiner-Waldorf kindergartens are built on the work of Rudolf Steiner and Emil Molt (Robinson, 2008).
The discussion with colleagues on the topic has highlighted few areas that require expansion. Key questions for research in terms of mainstream education centre on what practitioners in other forms of provision can learn from Steiner pedagogy. One factor in relation to the funding of children attending Steiner kindergartens has been the place of technology in the setting. Traditionally, the Steiner early years curriculum has no place for computer technology and this has been an issue in relation to developing curriculum in the foundation stage. Some of the important ideals in Steiner Waldorf Kindergartens, such as attachment, protection and nurture, challenge mainstream thinking and current government policy (Roopnarine & Johnson, 2005). Research could ask the question as to how Steiner Settings successfully recruit and retain male practitioners whereas the mainstream continues to struggle to attract men to the profession.
References
Pope Edwards, C. (2002), Three approaches from Europe: Wardlorf, Montessorri and Reggio Emilia. Early Childhood Research and Practice, 4(1),
Robinson, I, (2008), The delusional world of Rudolf Steiner. Australian Rationalist, 78, 2-5
Roopnarine, J., & Johnson, J. (2005), Approaches to early childhood education: Chapter 16: Waldorf approach to early childhood education. 4th edition. Pearson publications.
Uhrmacher, B. (1995), Uncommon schooling: A historical look at Rudolf Steiner, anthropophy, and waldorf education. Curriculum Inquiry, 25(4), 381- 406


week 7 journal Reggio Emilia Part A
The Reggio Emilia Model, known for their creative, sophisticated aesthetic curriculum, first opened in 1963 (a development of preschool run by parents after World War II). Discovered by international scholars in the early 1990s, they have generated broad interest among early childhood educators. Described as an adventure and research undertaken by teachers and children, the operational curriculum is based on teachers' careful observation and documentation of what children say and do, highlighting children's artwork (which constituted the ?Hundred Languages? exhibit that traveled across the globe). The Reggio Emilia Approach, a constructivist approach, is related to constructivist theorists such as Piaget and Vygotsky. Piaget and Vygotsky offer theories on ways children think cognitively in a developmental manner. Piaget believes that a child is competent, when a child learns new things it just enhances their skills further. Vygotsky also believes that a child is competent, yet when they are educated it helps them in the process of the zone of proximal development. According to Piaget, children who are in the preoperational thought stage want to learn a lot. They are continuously asking questions and trying to get answers. They move from an elementary thought process to a more sophisticated way of expressing their thoughts and ideas. Reggio Emilia theorist believe that children have many different ways of expressing their knowledge of the world around them.
Part B
The centrality of the micro contexts (teachers' commitments and ownership) combined with shared visions and institutional support is a consistent finding of successful programs. Boo Yeun Lim explored various approaches to aesthetic education in early childhood settings in the United States that were used in Waldorf schools, the Bank Street School for Children, and Reggio Emilia model inspired programs. Each of these programs had a different philosophy, but all were characterized by a child-centered curriculum. Lim found that the teachers teaching the arts, specialists and classroom teachers, shared some common images of aesthetic education, viewing it as a means to help children to see the world with sensitivity and become aware of aesthetic elements in artworks. (Gandini, 2005).Teachers' views were also shaped by the respective philosophies of the individual programs (social beings in the Bank Street School, higher order thinking skills in the Reggio-inspired school, and a focus on spirituality in the Waldorf),. (Gandini, 2005). Reggio Emilia approach focuses on a child?s natural development. Base on philosophy that learning must make sense to the student in order to be effective and meaningful. It?s child-centered and child?s point of view is completely respected. Children have the opportunities to express themselves and they learn through senses play as the learning process. Children are encouraged to interact with other children and allow them to explore the world through material items and relationships. The environments are physical aiming to cultivate creativity across children.(Gandini, 2005).Another Getty Institute research project, initiated in collaboration with the College Board, and conducted by Bresler focused on the integration of music, visual art, dance, and drama into academic subjects in five high schools. The schools, located in South Texas, New Mexico, Washington, Maryland, and Boston, Massachusetts, were chosen for their strong support for the arts integration by principals and teachers and for their diverse student population. Curricular contents, assignments, and evaluation measures encouraged students' higher level thinking and creativity. The arts/aesthetic curricula changed the roles for both teachers and students. For teachers, curriculum design became an act of creation rather than just implementation. (Gandini, 2005). Teachers moved away from reliance on textbooks toward the active identification of overarching themes and broad issues. For students, their emergent ownership of the integrated work was connected with issues of identity, voice, and pride in their ideas and creation. Students' communication of their work to an interested audience of teachers and peers provided an additional aesthetic element and incentive to excel (Bresler, 2004). However educators and the children now take so much pride in their environment and are happy to learn through the interests and play of the children.
References
Bresler, L. (Ed.). (2004). Knowing bodies, moving minds: Towards embodied teaching and learning. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Kluwer.
Gandini, L., (2005). In the spirit of the studio: Learning from the atelier of Reggio Emilia. New York: Teachers College Press.  more