A crucial component of the New Education reform movement, nature study was introduced to elementary schools throughout the English-speaking world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Despite the undoubted enthusiasm with which educators regarded nature study, and the ambitious aims envisioned for teaching it, little scholarly attention has been paid to the subject and the legacy that nature study bequeathed to later curricular developments. Educational Reform and Environmental Concern explores the theories that supported nature study, as well as its definitions, aims, how it was introduced to curricula and its practice in the classroom, by focusing upon educational reform in the Australian state of New South Wales. This book explores nature study within the context of broader educational reform movements in a period characterised by a transnational exchange of ideas. It is the only book on nature study available to date that focuses on the history of the movement outside the USA, providing a much-needed alternative perspective. Kass considers nature study as it adapted and changed throughout the twentieth century, addressing the extent to which the nature study idea represented, responded to and even influenced concern about the natural environment. Educational Reform and Environmental Concern will appeal to researchers, academics and postgraduate students engaged in the study of educational and environmental history. Researchers with an interest in a transnational or imperial approach to the history of education will also benefit from the wealth of comparative material that Kass presents.
Design education in architecture and allied disciplines is the cornerstone of design professions that contribute to shaping the built environment of the future. In this book, design education is dealt with as a paradigm whose evolutionary processes, underpinning theories, contents, methods, tools, are questioned and critically examined. It features a comprehensive discussion on design education with a focus on the design studio as the backbone of that education and the main forum for creative exploration and interaction, and for knowledge acquisition, assimilation, and reproduction. Through international and regional surveys, the striking qualities of design pedagogy, contemporary professional challenges and the associated sociocultural and environmental needs are identified. Building on twenty-five years of research and explorations into design pedagogy in architecture and urban design, this book authoritatively offers a critical analysis of a continuously evolving profession, its associated societal processes and the way in which design education reacts to their demands. Matters that pertain to traditional pedagogy, its characteristics and the reactions developed against it in the form of pioneering alternative studio teaching practices. Advances in design approaches and methods are debated including critical inquiry, empirical making, process-based learning, and Community Design, Design-Build, and Live Project Studios. Innovative teaching practices in lecture-based and introductory design courses are identified and characterized including inquiry-based, active and experiential learning. These investigations are all interwoven to elucidate a comprehensive understanding of contemporary design education in architecture and allied disciplines. A wide spectrum of teaching approaches and methods is utilized to reveal a theory of a ’trans-critical’ pedagogy that is conceptualized to shape a futuristic thinking about design teaching. Lessons learned from techniques
This volume investigates crucial ways in which nature has been apprehended, understood and valued in different cultures and over time. It is grounded in current global concerns about growing threats to the natural environment. Through a critical appraisal of specific examples, it ranges widely over historical and contemporary attitudes and behaviours. It presents a wide ranging analysis of selected ideas and attitudes in the evolution mainly of western civilisation, from the time of the cave artists to the present day. It argues for preservation and conservation of the natural resources and beauty of the earth in the face of religious supernatural arguments and the rise of consumer capitalism and consumerism.
The book presents recent empirical studies in the field of environmental education conducted in various European countries and Israel. The research projects were concerned with the general question of the basic competences required for fostering Sustainable Development.
Over the past decade there has been radical reform at all levels of China’s education system as it attempts to meet changing economic and social needs and aspirations. Changes have been made to pedagogy and teacher professional learning and also to the curriculum - both at the basic education level, from kindergarten to year 12, and at the higher education level. This book focuses on reform at the early childhood, primary and secondary levels, and is the companion book to China’s Higher Education Reform and Internationalisation, which covers reform at the higher education level. Education Reform in China outlines the systematic transformation that has occurred of school curriculum goals, structure and content, teaching and learning approaches, and assessment and administrative structures, including the increasing devolvement of control from the centre to provincial, district and school levels. As well as illustrating the changes that are occurring within classrooms, it demonstrates the continuity of cultural and educational ideas and values in the midst of these changes, showing that reform does not just involve the adoption of foreign ideas, but builds on and even resurrects traditional Chinese educational values. Importantly, it considers how exchanges of people and ideas can contribute to new ways of working between Western and Chinese educational systems.
The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform examines educational reform from a global perspective. Comprised of approximately 25 original and specially commissioned essays, which together interrogate educational reform from a critical global and transnational perspective, this volume explores a range of topics and themes that fully investigate global convergences in educational reform policies, ideologies, and practices. The Handbook probes the history, ideology, organization, and institutional foundations of global educational reform movements; actors, institutions, and agendas; and local, national, and global education reform trends. It further examines the “new managerialism” in global educational reform, including the standardization of national systems of educational governance, curriculum, teaching, and learning through the rise of new systems of privatization, accountability, audit, big-data, learning analytics, biometrics, and new technology-driven adaptive learning models. Finally, it takes on the subjective and intersubjective experiential dimensions of the new educational reforms and alternative paths for educational reform tied to the ethical imperative to reimagine education for human flourishing, justice, and equality. An authoritative, definitive volume and the first global take on a subject that is grabbing headlines as well as preoccupying policy makers, scholars, and teachers around the world Edited by distinguished leaders in the field Features contributions from an illustrious list of experts and scholars The Wiley Handbook of Global Educational Reform will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students of education throughout the world as well as the policy makers who can institute change.
For a free 30-day online trial to this title, visit www.sagepub.com/freetrial Educational reform, and to a lesser extent educational dissent, occupy a prominent place in the annals of U.S. education. Whether based on religious, cultural, social, philosophical, or pedagogical grounds, they are ever-present in our educational history. Although some reforms have been presented as a remedy for society's ills, most programs were aimed toward practical transformation of the existing system to ensure that each child will have a better opportunity to succeed in U.S. society. Educational reform is a topic rich with ideas, rife with controversy, and vital in its outcome for school patrons, educators, and the nation as a whole. With nearly 450 entries, these two volumes comprise the first reference work to bring together the strands of reform and reformers and dissent and dissenters in one place as a resource for parents, policymakers, scholars, teachers, and those studying to enter the teaching profession. Key Features Opens with a historical overview of educational reform and dissent and a timeline of key reforms, legislation, publications, and more Examines the reform or dissent related to education found in theories, concepts, ideas, writings, research, and practice Addresses how reformers and dissenters become significant culture-shaping people and change the way we conduct our lives Key Themes Accountability Biographies Concepts and Theories Curriculum and Instruction Diversity Finances and Economics Government Organizations?Advisory Organizations?Business and Foundations Organizations?Curriculum Organizations?Government Organizations?Professional Organizations?Think Tanks Public Policy Religion and Religious Education Reports School Types Special Needs Technology This authoritative work fills a void in the literature in the vast areas of educational reform and dissent, making it a must-have resource for any academic library. Availability in print and electronic formats provides students with convenient, easy access, wherever they may be.
The Japanese education system, while widely praised in western countries, is subject to heavy criticism within Japan. Education Reform in Japan analyses this criticism, and explains why proposed reforms have failed. The author shows how the Japanese policy-making process can become paralysed when there is disagreement, and argues that this `immobilism' can affect other areas of Japanese policy-making.
As the magazine of the Texas Exes, The Alcalde has united alumni and friends of The University of Texas at Austin for nearly 100 years. The Alcalde serves as an intellectual crossroads where UT's luminaries - artists, engineers, executives, musicians, attorneys, journalists, lawmakers, and professors among them - meet bimonthly to exchange ideas. Its pages also offer a place for Texas Exes to swap stories and share memories of Austin and their alma mater. The magazine's unique name is Spanish for "mayor" or "chief magistrate"; the nickname of the governor who signed UT into existence was "The Old Alcalde."
How have primary school teachers in Russia and South Africa experienced educational reforms and changes in these new democracies? How have their perceptions and experiences been expressed in their classroom practice? This book, based on research conducted in the early years of democracy in these countries, attempts to link the macro world of policy with the micro world of teachers and classrooms. The theme of teachers' responses to policy reform is explored through international literature on the policy-practice interface, and changes to education since the advent of democracy in the two national contexts are examined critically. Finally, using case study methodology, the study brings together individual teachers' perspectives, biographies and practice. The dilemmas they face in the process of change, and how they try to resolve these, reveals the complexity of the new educational agendas that have come with the transition to democracy.
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Emergency Management
