The Changing Mission and Nature of Partnerships in Public Universities

Reasons for public education are many; however, to crystalize and synthesize this, quite simply, public education is for the public good. The goal, or mission, of public education is to offer truth and enlightenment for students, including adult learners. Public education in the United States has undergone many changes over the course of the last 200 years, and now public education is under scrutiny and is facing a continual lack of funding from the states. It is due to these issues that public higher education is encouraging participatory corporate partnerships, or neo-partnerships, that will fund the university, but may expect a return on investment for private shareholders, or an expectation that curriculum will be contrived and controlled by the neo-partnerships. A theoretical framework of an academic mission and a business mission is explained, the impact of privatization within the K-12 model on public higher education, the comparison of traditional and neo-partnerships, the shift in public higher education towards privatization, a discussion of university boards, and the business model as the new frame for a public university. A public university will inevitably have to choose between a traditional academic mission that has served the nation for quite some time and the new business mission, which may have negative implications for students, academic freedom, tenure, and faculty-developed curriculum.

The Visualization of a Critical Element in K-20 Learning

This chapter addresses the necessity of a clearer understanding of the critical element of trust in all learning environments. Research on educational trust is limited, with research on trust from the learner’s perspective almost non-existent. Recent doctoral dissertation research provides a model of a trusting facilitator. This chapter presents result from that study, presenting results of a survey assessing the learners’ perspective of the facilitators’ trust and a new instrument to determine the presence of trust in the learning environment. The purpose in this chapter is to call attention to the elemental phenomenon of trust, to encourage individual reflection, to endorse trust from the learners’ perspective including continued research and implementation of trust into all educational environments.

Recent Advances in Intelligent Tutoring Systems

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) include interactive applications with some intelligence that supports the learning process. Some of ITS have had a very large impact on educational outcomes in field tests, and they have provided an important ground for artificial intelligence research. This chapter elaborates on recent advances in ITS and includes a case study presenting an ITS called EduTutor. This system was created for the Web-Based Aulanet Learning Management System (LMS). It focuses on subjects for the first cycle of studies of the Portuguese primary education system, between the first and the fourth year. It facilitates the perception of the learning process of each student, individually, in a virtual environment, as a study guide. Moreover, EduTutor has been designed and its architecture prepared for being easily integrated into higher levels of studies, different subjects, and several languages. Currently, it is used in the Aulanet LMS platform.

Teaching and Learning to Communicate

Effective presentation skills and communication competence are important developmental qualities for teachers’ professional success and K-12 students’ learning. Yet identifying the definitive qualities and methods to practice and evaluate those skills has had minimal emphasis in current education programs. In addition to traditional abilities such as making clear presentations, speaking well, and articulating an argument, K-20 learners are faced with an explosion of options for accessing, organizing, and presenting information using technology. This study documents methods for college-level instruction and assessment of presentation skills, which serve as evidence of preservice teachers' readiness to demonstrate effective communication skills for K-12 student learning. The report summarized in this chapter tracks two years of creating and evaluating methods for promoting professional presentation and communication skills, and includes rubrics focused on the development and evaluation of those skills.

Using Logic Models for Program Planning in K20 Education

A well-designed logic model shows inter-connections within components of outreach programs, community projects, grant proposals, and even the design of a graduate internship. The logic model is a systematic display of inputs, outputs, outcomes, and impact on a community. One may define community as any group of people with a common vision, purpose, or problem. Relationships among people are the focal point for a community and the logic model can be used as a tool for fostering open communication within the community. The logic model is typically one of three approaches in design: 1) theoretical, 2) outcomes-based, or 3) activities approach. Use of a logic model ensures accountability for stakeholders, a tool for generating a common vision, and a method for reporting far-reaching impact as a result of activities identified for the model.

Teaching as Literacy

This chapter is a qualitative meta-analysis that discusses the growing trend of teacher attrition in Title I schools. Recent literature on teacher attrition was reviewed and analyzed in combination with literacy theories. This study describes teaching as a form of literacy that the teacher must learn and is based primarily on Gee’s (1989) ideas of discourse acquisition, Freire’s (1993) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and Delpit’s (1995) The Politics of Teaching a Literate Discourse. The researchers explain, through the lens of literacy theories, how viewing teaching as a form of literacy can help us to understand the problem of attrition. Analyzing the problems faced by these teachers through these theories can provide individuals in the field of education with the means for understanding the challenges that often prevent well-meaning and talented teachers from becoming successful in the high-poverty setting. This study has the potential to bring to light the problem of teacher attrition in Title I schools throughout the nation and promote improvements in teacher education to better prepare upcoming teachers for the challenges that they will face in the Title I school.

Assessing the Quality of Education for All

Assessment of education has been identified as an important component of educational systems in South America and the Caribbean. Promoted and guided by UNESCO’s Education for All global initiative, a vast network of international organizations, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations to assess the quality of education in a significant number of countries in the region. This chapter attempts to answer why education should be evaluated, and how the quality of education is assessed in Latin American and the Caribbean. An overview of educational assessment processes, resources, networks, and issues within this reason are examined. Additionally, it proposes a value-based community partnership model for education.

K-20 Education and Globalization

The stance taken in this chapter is that globalization has become pervasive in every country, and K-20 education can no longer be separated from its influence. The challenge for all educators is to acknowledge both positive and negative influences of globalization on K-20 education, attempt to neutralise the negative influences and optimise any of the benefits of globalization for improved student learning. Looking to the future, globally inspired developments in information and communication technology will increase the likelihood of the influence of globalization on K-20 education becoming even more profound.

Teachers as Researchers and Instructional Leaders

Professional development is a necessity for teachers in the K-20 system. To achieve effective teaching, teachers must be engaged in learning. On the job training and professional development provide learning opportunities for professional teachers in K-20 education. To achieve the most authentic professional development, students should be part of the learning process as they are part of the instructional equation. In order to promote lifelong learning of adults, teacher training needs to arise from problems and interests found in their practice. In this chapter, the author discusses Japanese Lesson Study (JLS) as a method for teacher professional development in the area of English Language Arts with emphasis on Situated Learning Theory as a necessary emphasis for teacher learning in K-20 classrooms. Connections are made to the National Common Core Standards as teachers compete globally to prepare students for success.

GlobalEdu

The application of ubiquitous technologies in the improvement of education strategies is called Ubiquitous Learning. The essence of Ubiquitous Learning is to realize which information can be presented throughout the learners’ daily tasks, in different forms and places, and to link this data with the learners’ educational process. Ubiquitous Learning can be used to support and stimulate K-20 education. It is independent of age, and it does not use any teacher-centered method. Ubiquitous learning stimulates the lifelong education through a strategy of self-directed learning. This scenario is attractive, but is not easily implemented. The authors have worked in a model to support it, called GlobalEdu. This chapter describes the model and its integration with two ubiquitous middleware projects: ISAM and LOCAL. They created a system prototype and applied it in two practical scenarios. In those cases, the system is positively evaluated, and the initial results attest to the system’s usefulness.