(2014). Qualitative Case Study on the Progress of Contract Management Leadership Development Program Graduates Obtaining Leadership Positions. ProQuest LLC, D.B.A. Dissertation, University of Phoenix. The 21st century business environment is challenged with a scarcity of skilled professionals and the shortage is forecasted to increase over the next 5 years. The United States defense acquisition community recognized personnel deficiencies and plans to hire approximately 20,000 acquisition professionals by 2015. To help address the defense acquisition workforce challenges, several leadership development programs have been instituted to accelerate a pipeline of technically skilled and leadership capable contracting professionals. The purpose of the qualitative single descriptive case study was to explore the progress of National Contract Management Association (NCMA)-Contract Management Leadership Development Program graduates in acquiring management positions to understand the impact the program had on closing leadership gaps in the contract management field. Data analysis performed on participant interviews highlighted that the majority of participants did not start with a career… [Direct]
(2010). Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations. Science and Children, v48 n1 p46-49 Sep. In an activity sequence that took place over several days, the class learned about sound and how people hear sounds. Following each activity, students engaged in whole-group sharing sessions and individual journal-writing sessions that were designed to help them see the patterns that emerged from their explorations. The activities were carefully chosen to illustrate these patterns using the Experiences-Patterns-Explanations (EPE) model of science. In this article, the author describes how EPE can be used to help students connect explanations to patterns in experiences. (Contains 3 figures.)… [Direct]
(2013). The Effects of a Professional Learning Community on Teachers and Student Achievement in a High School Serving Predominately Latino Students. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Fielding Graduate University. The research study was an evaluation of a professional learning community (PLC) and its effect on teachers and student achievement in a high school serving predominately Latino students. The study was a mixed research study that consisted of both quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data included school-wide and Latino student Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) scores. The qualitative data sources were derived from faculty interviews and open-ended questions on the survey. The data were collected from 34 out of 50 (68%) faculty surveys and 29 out of 50 faculty rubrics (58%). Developing, implementing, and evaluating PLCs in a high school that served predominately Latino students led to increased API scores and increased AYP scores in math. AYP scores did not increase for English/Language Arts. Over half of the faculty (76%) reported PLCs as effective in developing standards based assessments, and 67.7% reported collaboration among… [Direct]
(2013). Tackling Youth Unemployment through TVET. Report of the UNESCO-UNEVOC Online Conference 25 June to 9 July 2013. UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training From 25 June to 9 July 2013, over 300 participants from 80 countries gathered on the UNEVOC e-Forum to discuss how TVET can address growing numbers of youth unemployment. TVET experts, policy makers, researchers, practitioners and most importantly young students and graduates joined the discussion.The discussion was organized around the following sub-themes: key barriers that young people face in finding work; what TVET institutions can do to ease the school-to-work transition; labour market information and skills forecasting; entrepreneurship education; widening access: engaging disadvantaged and marginalized groups; upgrading TVET's image: challenges and opportunities; and monitoring and evaluation of youth-focused TVET. The discussion was moderated by Dr Gita Subrahmanyam, Research Associate with the London School of Economics Public Policy Group and a Senior Consultant at the African Development Bank, and co-moderated by Katerina Ananiadou, Programme Specialist at UNESCO-UNEVOC… [PDF]
(2010). The Open Future: Openness as Catalyst for an Educational Reformation. EDUCAUSE Review, v45 n4 p14-16, 18, 20 Jul-Aug. The word \open\ is receiving a lot of attention in education circles. For over a decade, \open\ has been used as an adjective to modify a variety of nouns that describe teaching and learning materials. For example, open content, open educational resources, open courseware, and open textbooks are all part of the current higher education discourse. In this context, the adjective \open\ indicates that these textbooks and other teaching and learning resources are provided for free under a copyright license that grants a user permission to engage in the \4R\ activities: (1) reuse; (2) revise; (3) remix; and (4) redistribute. Although the modified nouns (content, resources, courseware, textbooks) differ from one another, the actions that operationalize the concept of openness are the same. They are acts of generosity, sharing, and giving. The author argues that institutions and individuals seem to have forgotten these core values of education. He discusses the role of openness and how… [Direct]
(2016). Puzzling Plans and Budgets: Making Sense of California's Second Year Local Control and Accountability Plans. Education Trust-West On July 1, 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown signed California's landmark Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) into law. In addition to providing districts with greater control over how to spend funds, LCFF marked a tremendous opportunity for educational equity. The new funding law gave districts additional resources, called supplemental and concentration grants, to provide more services for English learners, foster youth, and low-income students. This brief follows up on the transparency issues raised in the 2014 report, "Building a More Equitable and Participatory School System in California: The Local Control Funding Formula's First Year." That report identified two key concerns about the transparency of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), the planning and budgeting tool that LCFF mandated for school districts to communicate their strategies for improving student outcomes and performance. Findings show that, in their second year, LCAPs continue to lack budget… [PDF]
(2014). When Two Worlds Don't Collide: Can Social Curation Address the Marginalisation of Open Educational Practices and Resources from Outside Academia?. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, v2014 n2 Article 3. A canyonesque gulf has long existed between open academia and many external subject communities. Since 2011, we have been developing and piloting the public open scholar role (Coughlan and Perryman 2012)–involving open academics discovering, sharing and discussing open educational resources (OER) with online communities outside formal education in order to help bridge this gulf. In 2013 we took the public open scholar into Facebook (Perryman and Coughlan, 2013) to reach an international audience of autism-focussed Facebook groups in India, Africa and Malaysia, with a combined membership of over 5000 people. Performing the public open scholar role within Facebook led to our learning from group members about new resources produced by subject communities outside formal education, for example by voluntary sector organisations, government and professional bodies. These resources are surprisingly numerous and compare favourably with those from universities. Seeking to source more such… [PDF]
(2011). Practices of Productive Adult Book Clubs. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, v55 n2 p121-131 Oct. Abstract: This article examines two adult book club members' responses to literary texts over a 23-month period to identify practices that contribute to productive book club participation. Members were interviewed regarding their book selection procedures, preparation for and perceptions of the discussions, and what they valued about the discussions. Discussions were analyzed in terms of book club members drawing on their knowledge and expertise to interpret texts, developing topics based on the number of different turns per topic, and adopting \point-driven\ versus \story-driven\ stances. Three basic factors are identified as contributors to productive book club participation: (1) the use of codified, vetted selection procedures; (2) collaborative sharing of knowledge and expertise to provide insights into books in ways that transcend members' individual responses; and (3) the development of discussion topics through building on members' interpretations…. [Direct]
(2013). Government Funding on Access to Secondary Education in Kenya: Challenges and Prospects. Educational Research and Reviews, v8 n18 p1650-1655 Sep. One of the major challenges facing secondary education sub-sector in Kenya over the years is low transition rate from primary to secondary level of education. This has contributed to low enrolment at secondary schools with a wide gap existing between primary and secondary enrolment. With the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003, the gap would have widened further if efforts were not made to enhance access to secondary education. Low enrolment had been occasioned by introduction of the cost sharing policy in 1988. The government of Kenya, through sessional paper No.1 of 2005, made a commitment to increase transition from primary to secondary school from 49 to 70% by the year 2010. This would be made possible by the government supplementing parents' efforts in meeting education costs at secondary level. The government supported the poor and needy students through bursaries. Further, tuition free secondary education policy was implemented in 2008 with the government's… [Direct]
(2018). Fertile Ground: The Movement to Build More Effective Assignments. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, v50 n6 p13-19. Designing the tasks that students are required to complete in their courses has always been an essential part of what faculty do as teachers, and many faculty members work hard to shape and reshape those tasks in ways that bring out the best in students. But such work has mostly been done behind the scenes. A growing number of programs, campuses, disciplinary societies, and national initiatives are now creating opportunities for faculty to collaborate to make their assignments more effective. Many of these gatherings are shaped by findings from a national research project documenting the power of "transparent" assignments to advance student success (Winkelmes, et al., 2016), and many employ the VALUE rubrics developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (McConnell & Rhodes, 2017). The use of these rubrics is now supported by the newly established VALUE Institute (see Sullivan & McConnell, 2018). Some campuses and groups are creating local online… [Direct]
(2010). Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers. Young Children, v65 n2 p14-19 Mar. For very young children, music has power and meaning that go beyond words. First, and most important, sharing music with young children is simply one more way to give love and receive love. Music and music experiences also support the formation of important brain connections that are being established over the first three years of life. This article explores the many ways that music promotes growth in the various developmental domains and how infant/toddler professionals can use music experiences to support children's early learning. [\Beyond Twinkle, Twinkle: Using Music with Infants and Toddlers\ was written with Claire Lerner.]… [Direct]
(2017). The Dark Night: A Model of Spiritual Formation for Emerging Young Adults in College. ProQuest LLC, D.Min. Dissertation, The Catholic University of America. An increasing number of baptized emerging adults consider themselves spiritual (spiritual seekers) and religiously un-affiliated. In 2003 the Pontifical Council for Culture, aware of the reality of the human spiritual quest, stated that helping people in their spiritual search by offering proven techniques and experiences of real prayer could open a dialogue with them which would reveal the riches of the Christian tradition. Several statistics presented by research centers and the Church's response to the spiritual quest and thirst of young people have led me to write this treatise and develop a project of spiritual formation based on St. John of the Cross's spirituality of the dark night for emerging young adults in college. The basic methodology that guides the project is spiritual accompaniment and discernment. Over a period of six weeks I meet with a small group of students, once per week for about 45 minutes, to give brief presentations on specific topics of the dark night of… [Direct]
(2012). Youth Court: An Alternative Response to School Bullying. International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, v7 n3 Oct. Bullying and school violence are critical issues facing 21st century educational leaders. U.S. public schools have been scrambling to develop and implement anti-bullying programs with varying degrees of success. Bullying leads to disruption of learning, and its lasting effects of anxiety, depression, anger, and actual brain damage follow victims into adulthood. This paper explores two communication theories (Social Learning and Cultivation) to consider how the over-exposure to violent media messages may contribute to aggressive behavior. Furthermore, the proposal considers research that suggests a response to school bullying needs to be based on a model of communication that describes a process of dialogue, information sharing, mutual understanding, and collective action (Figueroa, Kincaid, Lewis, & Rani, 2002). In response to this research, this proposal will explore the Time Dollar Youth Court (TDYC) model as an alternative to traditional anti-bullying programs. TDYC is part of… [PDF]
(2012). Stretching to Survive: District Autonomy in an Age of Dwindling Resources. Journal of Research in Rural Education, v27 n3. This case study focuses on a four-district collaborative that shared services for more than 15 years in an effort to retain rural schools and thereby to preserve community identity. With population losses in the four districts and suburbanization in the largest, the collaborative made extensive use of distance education in addition to itinerant teachers and shared administrators. Data concerning dynamics in the collaborative came from interviews with administrators, teachers, students, and parents. Qualitative data analysis surfaced two themes relating to shared services: tenacity in the face of decline, and strategies with limited sustainability. Findings also pointed to a disjuncture between the way administrators and parents, on the one hand and teachers and students, on the other viewed the success of shared services and the probable future of the collaborative. A review of changes in the written plans of the collaborative over a several-year period revealed that sharing of… [PDF]
(2013). Using a Blog to Facilitate Extensive Reading: An Exploratory Study. IAFOR Journal of Education, v1 n1 p149-170 Spr. Research shows that extensive reading (ER) has many benefits for language acquisition. The challenge today is making ER appealing to the digital generation. For a possible solution, it is pertinent to look to the social media embraced by today's youths. This study was conducted to explore the use of the blog as a space for sharing peer-selected reading material to enhance reading motivation among English Language learners. The research questions that guided this study are whether the blog is a viable tool to facilitate ER, and how students perceive the use of this Web 2.0 tool for ER. The sample comprised two groups of students in a private university in Malaysia: 12 undergraduate students in a remedial language class and 18 students enrolled in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) course. A blog was set up for each group of participants to post reading materials of their choice for blog members to read over a period of 8 weeks. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the… [PDF]