Sep 4th, 2010 | Education FAQs | No Comments
Diversity in Education
Diversity in education covers a large number of areas that deal in improving education and providing a greater number of opportunities to those who want to learn. While this is one way of looking at diversity, other descriptions would entail including all types of learners and including a wide number of subject areas and disciplines. The impact of this has led to a greater number of people from different backgrounds being able to seek an education.
Diversity in education is a subject that has been discussed and researched in detail. Prior to the idea of education diversity, it was believed that there many people being denied their right to an education. http://www.360career.com Also, those who had opportunities did not get to study the things they really wanted to. This led to much controversy, debate, etc. which has only been good for education as a whole. Different regions of the world have since then managed to include disciplines in education that can benefit their learners more.
Today, there is a wider variety of subjects available to learners that were never available before. Indeed, there has been much subject diversification under the belt of education diversity. Many years ago, there was just the limited range of academic subjects and courses that students of a fixed age bracket were compelled to study. Today, this has been transformed. There are courses now available to people regardless of the age bracket they may come under. There are also many more subjects to study. For example, performing arts is a broad category under which a number of arts can be studied. This broad category has been developed extensively over the last 30 years. Today, it is a specialized field of study that only serious musicians, actors, artists, etc. pursue.
Diversity in education also encompasses a variety of learning preferences. While there is a mainstream means of learning through formal school education, there are also methods that have been discovered. Many years ago, people shunned learners that could not fit into this formal learning system. As a result, there were many people who ended up wasting their lives without achieving an education. Many of these shunned individuals were later discovered to be ones that had different forms of intelligence. This included dyslexics for example, who proved that they were alternative thinkers.
Many learners who could not fit into the mainstream learning environment were deemed to be deviants or mentally impaired. However, the reality was quite different. While some mainstream thinkers thought these individuals could not learn other experts discovered that these people were not taught according to their perceptive skills. For example, some of them required more attention in order to get them to study. These very learners would eventually become speedy learners once they were propelled into a learning method that suited them.
It is true to say that many people who cannot fit into the mainstream learning system, require a greater amount of attention. Not many schools were willing to spend the extra time required. However, today, there are specialized education boards and institutions that deal with alternative learning abilities. Some of these organizations have discovered learners that only appear to be under average, but are actually super creative individuals. The sad truth is that many individuals with alternative learning abilities were brutally ignored in the past. The good news is that many or these individuals are being discovered today, and they are being allowed to develop themselves in a manner that suits them.
Diversity in education, as we have seen here, covers several areas, and these areas themselves encompass issues and topics that are of a great variety. Diversity in education itself is a healthy ongoing debate that is a must for future development in education. Without doubt, it can be said that education has developed a great deal thanks to debates in diversity. However, there may be a lot more to discover, and given that many large portions of the world population lack opportunities to get an education, efforts must be sustained. This is said with due consideration given to the fact that there are many alternative or unconventional learners in developed and developing countries that are still being ignored. Therefore, the debate must continue.
For more information about Diversity in Education visit:
http://www.360career.com/content/Diversity-in-Education.asp
Steve is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about his travel, theater and concert experiences. He can be reached at steve@ticketnest.com
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Education FAQs | No Comments
Obama says testing alone is not the solution for improving student performance. The countries financial investments should support better K12 teaching not testing. In his opinion we are attacking the education system which we should be trying to bolster. Obama says too much time is spent preparing students for No Child Left Behind testing. The results of these failed policies are putting a strangle hold on education. Student’s minds are no longer nourished by the knowledge that teachers impart. How can a teacher focus on course content when their schools very existence hinges on testing scores? Obama says we need to make a greater investment in changing education.
He also states that teachers should be paid higher salaries. The teaching profession has lost its glimmer because our country is not investing in K12 education. Obama’s opinion in this area shows that he is looking at the future. Within the next ten years a massive number of teachers will retire. It will be difficult to replace them if teachers cannot make a living wage. These potential teachers will go into other professions. Teachers want to work in a country where they do not have to struggle due to financial obligations after college.
Our country needs new leadership to effectively craft teacher and student friendly education policy. Obama is striking the right cord with many educators who are in higher education. He has taken his campaign to college campuses around the country. He is demonstrating how much he values the opportunity to be educated. Obama’s family could not afford to send him to the most expensive K12 schools but he still learned the value of education. He wants to open the doors for many students who feel that the doors of higher education will never open for them.
Obama is demonstrating the true qualities of a leader. His history of serving as a volunteer in his community has put him in touch with the education gap that is like the Grand Canyon in many of our nation’s inner cities. His thirst for change in the way that we educate our nation’s youth is a breath of fresh air. Obama has an opinion that United States citizens should unit around the value of improving access to good education.
The country needs to remain competitive in the global markets of the world. Obama says that if our current lack of investment in education continues we will not compete with the rest of the world. Based on a recent assessment the United States ranks twenty-ninth in math and science knowledge. The country is losing its place as a world leader. All of the other countries around the world are increasing their investment in education. The United States continues to flounder at implementing strategic education policy. The country needs a plan that positions our workers to be the most educated workforce in the world.
Based on the response of voters around the country they are looking for a leader who will stand up and speak out on education. Obama has the right stuff because he knows the boundaries that a limited education can cast on a child’s entire life. When a young person desires to learn is extinguished in the forth grade they will never recover. Obama has the attitude and motivation of a Presidential candidate that wants education to take its rightful place in our society. He proves that he is the right person to change the direction of education in this country.
For twenty-six years, Dr. Jones has delivered presentations on numerous topics including how to study, leadership, effective communication, and innovative management practices. He is the author of two books one is titled ?Seven Secrets of How to Study? and the second is the ?Parent?s Ultimate Education Guide.? The book provides an easy understanding of the seven pillars that are essential to learning effective study techniques. His URL is www.sevenbooks.net.
Sep 3rd, 2010 | Education FAQs | No Comments
Iran, as a historically, culturally, and scientifically ancient country has had a prosperous status in the human life and worlds education. To give an example, Iranian cosmopolitan scientists and educators such as Bozorgmehr, Ferdowsi, Birooni, Razi, Avicenna, Sadie, Khayyam, Nasir-oddin-Toosi, and many others are among the great educators and scientists who have played an important role in human life. When we compare this with other main ancient countries of China, India, Egypt, and Greek, it becomes clear that only Greek scientists and educators are comparable to Iranians in the amount of influence of their science and education on international and historical basis.
But, nowadays, in terms of innovations in culture, education, and other sciences, both philosophically and methodologically, Iranian scientists and educators research products are not remarkable. Todays Iranian human sciences are academically and socially struggling with some essential problems and challenges that block the process of qualitative growth and development of sciences and education in this ancient land which was once one of the most valuable cradles of knowledge and wisdom.
Research indicates that the qualitative development of higher education in our country is much lower than its quantitative growth. During the past 25 years (1981-2005), the Iranian academic community and its institutions have expanded dramatically (Yalpani, et. al, 2006). Currently, there are more than 50 state universities, and nearly 150 non-private technical undergraduate schools, which enroll about 750,000 students. There are also about 60 official research institutions throughout the country. In addition, since 1984, an extensive country wide private university system (mostly undergraduates) was started which enrolls another 750,000 full time students.
We may ask why the qualitative development and scientific products, especially in social sciences and humanities, are not worthy to mention. According to the data provided by the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology for the academic year 2003, the total numbers of master and doctoral students and available faculty were 68287, 12189, and 25723, respectively. Subtracting from the latter the 50 percent of instructors/tutors, who are not directly involved in any meaningful research activity, there still remain 12861 potentially researching faculty members.
The same source gives the total numbers of national scientific output for 2003 as 3326 counts. This means that each faculty member has produced in that year 0.23 indexed scientific publications. Should we include all those who with their daily work collect the needed scientific data, i.e., the graduate students, each year we end up with a publication per scientific worker ratio of only 0.034. This number is the resultant when we include all academic disciplines. When we now focus our attention to the Social Sciences and Humanities group, the situation seems to be significantly worse (op. cited). In a research conducted by the present author himself, it has been found out that there are only seven research-based scientific journals of education. in our country with maximum publication volume of 10 thousands for about one million teachers and about one hundred thousand educational experts. All these mean that we are confronting huge problems and challenges with regard to the educational research products and publications.
The question is why there is such a shortage in scientific review articles, especially in education, in our country. Our understanding is that there are different problems confronting scientists in Iran. These problems are tremendously larger and much more complicated for researches in social sciences and humanities than natural and pure experimental sciences. Ideological problems are the most difficult ones in human sciences and education as well. The more brilliant the scientists of human sciences, the more frustrated they are from scientific institutions. Medium-range researchers seem to be much happier with the scientific institution to which they belong compared to the brighter scholars. These institutions seem not to play a positive role in the case of the best scientists. Shortage of facilities provided by institutions are one other major problem for research. Another is the tenuous cooperation among scientists.
In such a situation, the Quarterly Journal of Educational Innovations aims to focus on most significant preoccupations and questions concerning educational issues and then to answer them. The articles of this journal explain some problems and challenges of education and try to show the main roots and factors of the problems that the education system is encountered with. As well, it seeks to reach an understanding and offering of the specific and applied ways through which the educational sciences can be grown and developed. In this special issue of the Quarterly Journal of Educational Innovations, nineteen articles are presented in English language to follow its six years of publication in Persian language. We welcome the researchers and scientists of education and psychology to send their articles in English language to be considered and reviewed for publication. As a prospective aim, we are looking forward to publishing the journal in both English and Persian in parallel form to reach the international scientific society as well as the one inside Iran as we have done in the past time.
Source : journal of educational innovations winter2008 No:22