Even though the importance of technical and vocational education is acknowledged in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the university sector has dominated the discourse on the role of postsecondary educational institutions in sustainability. This comparative study widens the scope by highlighting…

This research investigates how foreign language learners learn vocabulary in an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. The participants are eleven foreign students from an advanced ESL Reading class in Edmonds Community College in Lynnwood, WA. A questionnaire was used as an instrument to inquire about the students' vocabulary learning…

Purpose: Community and technical college student employability is a pressing concern in the United States and China. Policy makers focus on developing students' human capital in the form of credentials and cognitive skills. However, the focus on completion overlooks the role that noncognitive skills and contextual factors may play in student…

This chapter provides an overview of community colleges in mainland China, addressing briefly the recent history of community college development, defining these institutions, detailing various models with examples, and discussing challenges faced by these institutions and recommendations for future development.

Although China has witnessed the rapid growth of public administration (PA) education during recent decades, few studies have focused on the practical issues of lower-level tertiary PA education, namely, PA programs in vocational colleges. The methods that vocational PA programs can apply to improve educational quality are a theoretical gap since…

For the forty-fourth time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online and onsite during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with…

A model describing the development of curriculum and coursework for dual certification programs in two-year postsecondary vocational education institutions throughout China is described. Dual certification programs allow students to obtain an academic diploma and a national vocational qualification certificate concurrently. Chinese educators and…

Canada has become one of the most popular destinations for international students at the higher education level. A number of complex factors and trends, both in Canada and globally, have contributed to the emergence of Canada as a destination for international higher education. However, more research is still needed to better understand the…

This qualitative comparative case study examines the workforce training programs offered in a US community college and the vocational and technical programs offered in a comparable Chinese postsecondary institution. The study sought to identify transferable qualities and characteristics that could contribute to improving the workforce training…

Chinese vocational colleges are being compromised because the central government is moving more of its educational resources to the top-tier universities. Although vocational college enrollments have slowed in the increasingly high-tech eastern provinces, colleges in the western part of the country are poised for increased enrollments to address…

Community colleges in the United States are increasingly seen as a model by developing countries looking to train a skilled work force, even as the institutions wrestle with what it means to educate globally competent students, said speakers at the American Association of Community Colleges' annual meeting here this month. China in particular is…

In a global society and economy, education and training is essential to a nation's competitiveness and to the standard of living of its people. The need to open the doors of higher or further education beyond the relatively limited enrollments in elite and selective universities has spawned a movement to develop or expand institutions that are…

Five trends are emerging that will not only change the role of human capital in the United States but will also challenge the legacy system of workforce development, skills and competency-focused institutions, and assuredly, community colleges. Workforce investment boards, for example, are currently geographically constrained in environments that…

For the thirty-third year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. This is Volume #2 of the 33rd "Annual Proceedings of Selected Papers on the Practice of Educational Communications and Technology." This volume includes…