Qatar's K-12 Education Reform Has Achieved Success in Its Early Years

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy Larson
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Early Years ◽  
K 12

Qatar's K–12 Education Reform Has Achieved Success in Its Early Years

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Zellman ◽  
Gery Ryan ◽  
Rita Karam ◽  
Louay Constant ◽  
Hanine Salem ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Early Years ◽  
K 12

Aquatic Stewardship Education in Theory and Practice

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Citizen Science ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Science Inquiry ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Community Sustainability ◽  
Science Tests ◽  
K 12

<i>Abstract</i>.—Washington State has used education reform best practices to redesign stewardship education. The directors of state natural resource agencies, education associations, businesses, and nonprofits who created the Pacific Education Institute (PEI) provide the leadership. PEI represents a systematic effort to work in the formal education sector using environmental education (EE) standards that align with subject area standards and provide a framework for integrated learning. PEI undertakes education research based on those EE standards to understand student achievement and its relationship to environment- based experiential education. PEI has refined the description of science inquiry to include three types of field investigation with rigorous protocols that will be included in the state’s science tests beginning in 2007. Finally, PEI has fostered a citizen science initiative with NatureMapping to connect the research undertaken by students through field investigation to questions asked by scientists. In partnership, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife expects citizen science to contribute to the statewide biodiversity index now being designed. Integral to delivering these opportunities to K– 12 is the university teacher preparation faculty and their work to prepare preservice teachers with these opportunities. The result is school districts now foster stewardship education, contributing to community sustainability.

The Emerging Use of E-Learning Environments in K-12 Education

2011 ◽  
pp. 586-603
Author(s):  
Christopher O’Mahony
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Education ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Learning Strategy ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Virtual Learning Environments ◽  
Recent Emergence ◽  
The World ◽  
E Learning ◽  
K 12

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) and managed learning environments (MLEs) are emerging as popular and useful tools in a variety of educational contexts. Since the late 1990s a number of ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions have been produced. These have generally been targeted at the tertiary education sector. In the early years of the new millennium, we have seen increased interest in VLEs/MLEs in the primary and secondary education sectors. In this chapter, a brief overview of e-learning in the secondary and tertiary education sectors over the period from 1994 to 2004 is provided, leading to the more recent emergence of VLEs and MLEs. Three models of e-learning are explored. Examples of solutions from around the world are considered in light of these definitions. Through the case of one school’s journey towards an e-learning strategy, we look at the decisions and dilemmas facing schools and school authorities in developing their own VLE/MLE solutions.

Peace-Based Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-69
Author(s):  
H. B. Danesh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
Education Program ◽  
The United States ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
School Environments ◽  
The Core ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
United States Mexico ◽  
K 12

This article proposes that the universally acknowledged need for education reform requires both new conceptual and methodological approaches. At the core of this reform is transformation from conflict-based to peace-based educational concepts and practices aimed at creating school environments that promote academic and relational excellence, are safe and nurturing, and are free from bullying and violence. The article draws from the research done and lessons learned from more than sixteen ongoing years of implementation of Education for Peace (EFP)—a comprehensive peace-based education program—in more than one thousand schools, involving thousands of educators, and several hundred thousand students (K-12) in the highly conflicted and traumatized war-torn country of Bosnia and Herzegovina and more recently in schools in the United States, Mexico, Bermuda, and elsewhere.

scholarly journals Standardizing Climate Education in New York State

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ingrid J. Paredes ◽  
Steven Farrell ◽  
Omar Gowayed
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
New York State ◽  
State Legislature ◽  
High School Science ◽  
Model Curriculum ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
York State ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Climate Crisis

In July 2019, the New York State legislature signed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act into law. The ambitious act sets targets to establish climate resiliency statewide through initiatives including reducing gas emissions, improving infrastructure, and providing job training. In response, several state senators have called for education reform to accordingly prepare the next generation for the climate crisis. We evaluate three climate education bills (S7341, S6837, and S6877) currently in committee in New York State. S7341, sponsored by Senator Andrew Gounardes and known as the Model Curriculum bill, proposes an environmental education curriculum for K-12 students. S6877, sponsored by Senator Rachel May and called the Regents Climate Amendment, makes recommendations to the Board of Regents on climate science in high school science classes. S6837, a Climate Education Grants Program sponsored by Senator Todd Kaminsky, provides support for teacher training and local climate resiliency projects. We examined these bills with respect to their effectiveness, administrative burden, and efficiency in the delivery of a climate education. We found the Model Curriculum bill to be the most effective way to educate and prepare students for the climate crisis. However, New York State must support educators with proper training and funding to provide quality climate education. We therefore recommend that the New York Senate pass the Model Curriculum bill and the Climate Education Grants Program.

scholarly journals Questioning The Fidelity Of The Next Generation Science Standards For Astronomy And Space Sciences Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Stephanie J. Slater ◽  
Timothy F. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Science Education ◽  
Education Reform ◽  
The United States ◽  
Next Generation Science Standards ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Unexpected Finding ◽  
Next Generation ◽  
Science Standards ◽  
K 12 ◽  
Space Sciences

<p class="AbstractSummary">Although the <em>Next Generation Science Standards</em> (<em>NGSS</em>) are not federally mandated national standards or performance expectations for K-12 schools in the United States, they stand poised to become a de facto national science and education policy, as state governments, publishers of curriculum materials, and assessment providers across the country consider adopting them. In order to facilitate national buy-in and adoptions, <em>Achieve, Inc</em>., the non-profit corporation awarded the contract for writing the <em>NGSS</em>, has repeatedly asserted the development of the Standards to be a state-driven and transparent process, in which the scientific content is taken "verbatim", from the 2011 NRC report, <em>Frameworks for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas</em>. This paper reports on an independently conducted fidelity check within the content domain of astronomy and the space sciences, conducted to determine the extent to which the <em>NGSS </em>science content is guided by the <em>Frameworks</em>, and the extent to which any changes have altered the scientific intent of that document. The side-by-side, two-document comparative analysis indicates that the science of the <em>NGSS</em> is significantly different from the <em>Frameworks</em>. Further, the alterations in the science represent a lack of fidelity, in that they have altered the parameters of the science and the instructional exposure (e.g., timing and emphasis). As a result the <em>NGSS</em> are now poised to interfere with widely desired science education reform and improvement. This unexpected finding affords scientists, educators, and professional societies with an opportunity, if not a professional obligation, to engage in positively impacting the quality of science education by conducting independent fidelity checks across other disciplines. This could provide a much needed formal support and guidance to schools, teachers, curriculum developers, and assessment providers.</p>

Guest Column—On “Learning to Read”

PMLA ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 130 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyne Ender ◽  
Deidre Shauna Lynch
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Common Core ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
Good Readers ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Teaching Objectives ◽  
The Common ◽  
K 12

The theories and methodologies feature of this issue of PMLA contains a cluster of essays devoted to the subject of reading. At a time when many states in the United States are in the throes of a major public-education reform designed to prepare better-educated, more literate citizens for tomorrow's world, we collected these essays in the belief that scholars belonging to the MLA might be interested in reflecting on this effort in the light of their research. Hence our title, “Learning to Read,” and our appeal to our contributors to consider what they, with their scholarly expertise and pedagogical experience, might contribute to the charged debates about the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSSI)— debates that remind us of the high stakes involved in training good readers. We hope that PMLA readers will agree with us that the question of how the architects of the Common Core have defined the uses and measures of literacy education affects much of the MLA membership—professors, adjuncts, and graduate instructors alike.For some years now, test results have indicated that American schoolchildren read more poorly than many of their peers abroad (Heitin). A distinctive feature of the Common Core (the shorthand title for an extraordinary effort to align educational requirements and standards nationwide) lies in its effort to devise a graduated progression in the standards for the English language arts (ELA) that is anchored in the skills of close reading. Given that the changes in teaching objectives defined and prescribed by the standards might transform the way children in America learn to make sense of the written word, it is only natural that our professional body would respond. The decisive, and some might say aggressive, manner in which the architects of the Common Core have recast the fundamentals of the ELA has provoked strong reactions, not only among K-12 teachers but also in higher education. Concerns were voiced early on in sessions at MLA conventions starting in 2013, and those conversations have continued on MLA Commons (e.g., Ferguson).

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