Analyzes the Adey Report on National Standards and Guidelines for Initial Teacher Education regarding its potential contribution to Australia's teacher education reform, identifying the logic of its arguments and the context in which it places itself, discussing how it constructs graduates, exploring its goal of preparing a profession, and…

Addresses the importance of repertoire selection, stating that high quality music provides students with a foundation in the music classroom. Introduces this issue's special focus on the selection of repertoire. Offers information from broad guidelines to suggestions for specific music ensembles. (CMK)

Until recently, the meaning and origin of the Canadian university degree was well understood by Canadians and around the world. Degrees were only offered by universities and the use of the label university was controlled by legislation in each of the ten provinces and three territories. Institutional membership in the Association of Universities…

This profile describes the key features of the examination and assessment systems of Romania. It provides a snapshot taken at the end of more than a decade of major political, social and economic changes, when it is widely accepted that Romania has made significant advances in its educational reforms and that important innovations are now becoming…

At the beginning of each year, teachers have the daunting task of deciding which concepts and skills to teach their students. Many teachers feel the pressure to teach "the whole book". This pressure comes in multiple forms. There is ever-increasing pressure to perform well on state, national, and international exams. An added pressure is the…

Even though ASL isn't as easy to learn as it may seem at first, more and more students are enrolling in ASL courses at both the secondary and university levels and choosing ASL as a primary area of study. For this reason the demand for ASL teachers is increasing, and the need for ASL teacher-preparation programs (ASL TPPs) has increased.…

Insects can be useful for investigations because they are numerous, relatively easy to find, and fascinating to students. Most elementary students have limited understandings of what exactly becomes of insects during the winter, often guessing that insects must "go to sleep" or "they just die." In this winter activity, students learn about insect…

This article reports results showing that the Independence, Missori school district failed to meet almost every one of its improvement goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. The state accreditation system stresses improvement over past scores, while the federal law demands specified amounts of annual progress toward the ultimate goal of 100…

When the standards movement began more than 15 years ago, most educators welcomed the prospect of having clearly articulated student learning goals. The publication of the first set of standards by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1989 was greeted with unprecedented optimism. Standards offered educators a direction for reform…

In this document we discuss 19 university league tables and ranking systems from around the world. Sixteen of these are "national" league tables collected from ten countries (Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States); three are "international" or…

As interest in green building grows, much discussion has focused on aligning a project with the principles of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification: (1) cost savings through energy and water conservation; (2) improved worker productivity; (3) health, insurance and risk-management benefits; and (4) enhanced building…

This report provides an overview and analysis of the Clinton Administration's school reform proposal, Goals 2000: Educate America Act, submitted to the 103d Congress on April 22, 1993. The proposal, which seeks to create a national structure for supporting school reform, addresses three primary topics: (1) education goals, standards, and…

Social issues provide real life and motivational questions which are successful in engaging the minds of many people (especially students). When dealing with social issues, students see the importance of so-called basic concepts and skills in dealing with them. For most persons, real mind engagement rarely occurs in educational settings. One…

This paper outlines the underlying principles that have guided the development of an observational orientation to assessing children's learning. The development of an observation orientation was achieved through a process of a number of action-type research projects within a range of early years settings in the United Kingdom. The paper outlines a…

The Currie Report (1964) pointed out that "So far as any one strand in the "seamless web" of education can be picked out as of more fundamental importance than another it is the training of teachers/probably no other activity of the Administration is quite so important as this." Klassen (1982) has also rated teacher education…